List of premiers of British Columbia

Christy Clark is the current Premier of British Columbia

The Premier of British Columbia is the First Minister for the Canadian province of British Columbia. The province was a British crown colony governed by the Governors of British Columbia before joining Canadian Confederation in 1871. Since then, it has had a unicameral Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the premier is the leader of the party that controls the most seats in the legislative assembly. The premier is British Columbia's head of government, and the Queen of Canada is its head of state and is represented by the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. The premier picks a cabinet from the elected members to form the Executive Council of British Columbia and presides over that body.

Members are first elected to the legislature during general elections. General elections must be conducted every four years from the date of the last election. An election may also take place if the governing party loses the confidence of the legislature by the defeat of a supply bill or tabling of a no-confidence motion.

Before 1903, British Columbia did not use a party system; instead, Premiers of British Columbia had no official party affiliation and were chosen by elected members of the legislative assembly from among themselves. Candidates ran as "Government", "Opposition", "Independent", or in formulations such as "Opposition independent", indicating their respective positions to the incumbent regime.

British Columbia has had 34 individuals serve as premier since joining Confederation, of which 14 individuals had no party affiliation, three were Conservatives, eight were Liberals, four were Socreds, and five were New Democrats. The first premier was John Foster McCreight, who was inaugurated in 1871. Joseph Martin spent the shortest time in office, at 106 days. At over twenty years, W. A. C. Bennett spent the longest time in office, and is the only premier to serve in more than four parliaments. The incumbent premier is Christy Clark, who was sworn in on March 14, 2011.

Premiers of British Columbia

  No party affiliation   British Columbia Conservative Party   British Columbia Liberal Party   British Columbia Social Credit Party   British Columbia New Democratic Party

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Electoral mandates (Assembly)	Political party		Riding
1		John Foster McCreight (1827–1913)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Title created (caretaker government)⁠ 1871 election (1st Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Victoria City
2		Amor De Cosmos (1825–1897)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (1st Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Victoria
3 (1 of 2)		George Anthony Walkem (1834–1908)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (1st Leg.)⁠ 1875 election (2nd Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Cariboo
4		Andrew Charles Elliott (1829–1889)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (2nd Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Victoria City
5 (2 of 2)		George Anthony Walkem (1834–1908)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1878 election (3rd Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Cariboo
6		Robert Beaven (1836–1920)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1882 election (4th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Victoria City
7		William Smithe (1842–1887)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (4th Leg.)⁠ 1886 election (5th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Cowichan
			died in office
8		Alexander Edmund Batson Davie (1847–1889)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (5th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Lillooet
			died in office
9		John Robson (1824–1892)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (5th Leg.)⁠ 1890 election (6th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for New Westminster (until 1890) MLA for Cariboo (from 1890) ({{{riding2_term}}})
			In the 1890 election he also won the seat in the riding of Westminster, but turned it down. died in office
10		Theodore Davie (1852–1898)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (6th Leg.)⁠ 1894 election (7th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Cowichan-Alberni
11		John Herbert Turner (1834–1923)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (7th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Victoria City
12		Charles Augustus Semlin (1836–1927)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1898 election (8th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Yale-West
13		Joseph Martin (1852–1923)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (8th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Vancouver City
			Immediately lost a vote of non-confidence 28-1 upon being appointed, but formed a cabinet and governed for another three months anyway.
14		James Dunsmuir (1851–1920)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1900 election (9th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for South Nanaimo
15		Edward Gawler Prior (1853–1920)	30 May 2024	incumbent	(9th Leg.)		no party affiliation	MLA for Victoria City
16		Richard McBride (1870–1917)	30 May 2024	incumbent	(9th Leg.)⁠ 1903 election (10th Leg.)⁠ 1907 election (11th Leg.)⁠ 1909 election (12th Leg.)⁠ 1912 election (13th Leg.)		Conservative Party (Ldr. 1903)	MLA for Westminster-Dewdney (until 1903) MLA for Dewdney (1903-1907) ({{{riding2_term}}}) MLA for Victoria City (from 1907) ({{{riding3_term}}})
			In the 1907 election he also won the seat in the riding of Dewdney, but turned it down. In the 1909 election he also won the seat in the riding of Yale, but turned it down.
17		William John Bowser (1867–1933)	30 May 2024	incumbent	(13th Leg.)		Conservative Party (Ldr. 1915)	MLA for Vancouver City
18		Harlan Carey Brewster (1870–1918)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1916 election (14th Leg.)		Liberal Party (Ldr. 1912)	MLA for Victoria City
			In the 1916 election he also won the seat in the riding of Alberni, but turned it down. died in office
19		John Oliver (1856–1927)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (14th Leg.)⁠ 1920 election (15th Leg.)⁠ 1924 election (16th Leg.)		Liberal Party (Ldr. 1918)	MLA for Dewdney (until 1920) MLA for Victoria City (1920-1924) ({{{riding2_term}}}) MLA for Nelson (from 1924) ({{{riding3_term}}})
			In the 1920 election he also won the seat in the riding of Delta, but turned it down. died in office
20		John Duncan MacLean (1873–1948)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (16th Leg.)		Liberal Party (Ldr. 1927)	MLA for Yale
21		Simon Fraser Tolmie (1867–1937)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1928 election (17th Leg.)		Conservative Party (Ldr. 1926)	MLA for Saanich
22		Thomas Dufferin Pattullo (1873–1956)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1933 election (18th Leg.)⁠ 1937 election (19th Leg.)⁠ 1941 election (20th Leg.)		Liberal Party (Ldr. 1929)	MLA for Prince Rupert
23		John Hart (1879–1957)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (20th Leg.)⁠ 1945 election (21st Leg.)		Liberal Party (Coalition) (Ldr. 1941)	MLA for Victoria City
24		Boss Johnson (1890–1964)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (21st Leg.)⁠ 1949 election (22nd Leg.)		Liberal Party (Coalition) (Ldr. 1947)	MLA for New Westminster
25		W. A. C. Bennett (1900–1979)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1952 election (23rd Leg.)⁠ 1953 election (24th Leg.)⁠ 1956 election (25th Leg.)⁠ 1960 election (26th Leg.)⁠ 1963 election (27th Leg.)⁠ 1966 election (28th Leg.)⁠ 1969 election (29th Leg.)		Social Credit Party	MLA for South Okanagan
26		Dave Barrett (b. 1930)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1972 election (30th Leg.)		New Democratic Party (Ldr. 1970)	MLA for Coquitlam
27		Bill Bennett (b. 1932)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1975 election (31st Leg.)⁠ 1979 election (32nd Leg.)⁠ 1983 election (33rd Leg.)		Social Credit Party (Ldr. 1973)	MLA for South Okanagan (until 1979) MLA for Okanagan South (from 1979) ({{{riding2_term}}})
28		Bill Vander Zalm (b. 1934)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (33rd Leg.)⁠ 1986 election (34th Leg.)		Social Credit Party (Ldr. 1986)	MLA for Richmond
29		Rita Johnston (b. 1935)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (34th Leg.)		Social Credit Party (Ldr. 1991)	MLA for Surrey-Newton
30		Mike Harcourt (b. 1943)	30 May 2024	incumbent	1991 election (35th Leg.)		New Democratic Party (Ldr. 1987)	MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant
31		Glen Clark (b. 1957)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (35th Leg.)⁠ 1996 election (36th Leg.)		New Democratic Party (Ldr. 1996)	MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway
32		Dan Miller (b. 1944)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (36th Leg.)		New Democratic Party (Ldr. 1999 (interim))	MLA for North Coast
33		Ujjal Dosanjh (b. 1947)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (36th Leg.)		New Democratic Party (Ldr. 2000)	MLA for Vancouver-Kensington
34		Gordon Campbell (b. 1948)	30 May 2024	incumbent	2001 election (37th Leg.)⁠ 2005 election (38th Leg.)⁠ 2009 election (39th Leg.)		Liberal Party (Ldr. 1993)	MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey
35		Christy Clark (b. 1965)	30 May 2024	incumbent	Appointment (39th Leg.)⁠ 2013 election (40th Leg.)		Liberal Party (Ldr. 2011)	MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey (until 2013) MLA for Westside-Kelowna (from 2013) ({{{riding2_term}}})
Min. Minority government Co. Coalition government

Living former premiers

As of May 2015, nine former premiers are alive, the oldest being Dave Barrett (1972–1975, born 1930). The most recent former premier to die was W. A. C. Bennett (1952–1972), on February 23, 1979.

Name	Term	Date of birth
Dave Barrett	1972–1975	(1930-10-02) October 2, 1930
Bill Bennett	1975–1986	(1932-08-18) August 18, 1932
Bill Vander Zalm	1986–1991	(1934-05-29) May 29, 1934
Rita Johnston	1991	(1935-04-22) April 22, 1935
Mike Harcourt	1991–1996	(1943-01-06) January 6, 1943
Glen Clark	1996–1999	(1957-11-22) November 22, 1957
Dan Miller	1999–2000	(1944-12-24) December 24, 1944
Ujjal Dosanjh	2000–2001	(1947-09-09) September 9, 1947
Gordon Campbell	2001–2011	(1948-01-12) January 12, 1948

See also

• List of Leaders of the Opposition in British Columbia
• List of British Columbia premiers by time in office

References

General

• "Premiers of British Columbia, 1871- today". Province of British Columbia. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
• James H. Marsh, ed. (1999). "British Columbia". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-2099-6.

Specific