Nanaimo City

Nanaimo City was a provincial electoral district in the city of Nanaimo, British Columbia in Canada from 1890 to 1912. It was one of two Nanaimo ridings at the time, created out of the older Nanaimo riding (1871 to 1928), with intermediary ridings The Islands and Nanaimo and the Islands. The name Nanaimo was restored as a riding name in the 1996 election.

For other current and historical federal and provincial Nanaimo-area ridings please see Nanaimo (electoral districts).

Demographics

Population, 1911
Population Change, 1891–1911	%
Area (km²)
Pop. Density (people per km²)

Geography

Other historical Nanaimo ridings

Nanaimo riding did not appear in the 1909 election, but Nanaimo City and The Islands were the Nanaimo-area ridings in the 1909 or 1912 election.

In 1933 there was a Cowichan-Newcastle riding, while in 1937 the riding of Newcastle (southern and upland of metropolitan Nanaimo and the Gulf Islands to the southeast) appeared in the 1916 election, as did a new riding called The Islands which lasted until the 1937 election. Part of that area is now represented by North Saanich and the Islands, which had previously been Saanich and the Islands.

Current Nanaimo-area ridings

Nanaimo 1996–present
Nanaimo-Parksville

Election results

Note: Winners of each election are in bold.

6th British Columbia election, 1890
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Labour ¹	Thomas Keith	Accl.	-.- %	unknown
Total valid votes			n/a	-.- %
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%
¹ The first labour candidates elected to the Legislature. Forster and Keith were both nominated by the Miners' and Mine Labourers' Protective Association (MMLPA) and campaigned on the "Workingmen's Platform" of the Workingmen's Campaign Committee.

7th British Columbia election, 1894
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Labour	Thomas Keith	411	48.81%		unknown
	Government	James McGregor	431	51.19%	–	unknown
Total valid votes			842	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

8th British Columbia election, 1898
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Government	Archibald McGregor	170	20.05%	–	unknown
	Opposition	Robert Edward McKechnie	678	79.95%	–	unknown
Total valid votes			848	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			55.37%

9th British Columbia election, 1900
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Labour ²	Ralph Smith	763	89.87%		unknown
	Government	James Stuart Yates	86	10.13%	–	unknown
Total valid votes			849	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%
² Nanaimo (Independent) Labour Party candidate supported by R.E. McKechnie, former Member and supporter of the Provincial Party. Also endorsed by Nanaimo Trades and Labour Council. The N(I)LP appears to have been only loosely organized although a detailed platform was drawn up.

10th British Columbia election, 1903
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Socialist	James Hurst Hawthornthwaite	486	43.98%	–	unknown
	Conservative	Edward Quennell	325	29.41%		unknown
	Nanaimo (Independent) Labour Party ³	Henry (Harry) Shepherd	294	26.61%		unknown
Total valid votes			1,105	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%
³ Nominated by the Nanaimo (Independent) Labour Party which had the support and participation of local Liberals (Loosmore, pp. 195–6). During the 1907 election he was referred to as having been a "Liberal-Labour candidate" in the 1903 election.

11th British Columbia election, 1907
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Socialist	James Hurst Hawthornthwaite	455	50.22%	–	unknown
	Conservative	Robert Stuart Brock O'Brian	161	17.77%		unknown
	Independent) Labour Party ⁴	Henry (Harry) Shepherd	290	32.01%		unknown
Total valid votes			906	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%
⁴ The nomination list printed in the newspapers identifies Shepherd as a Liberal. CPG labels both Shepherd and Thomas "Socialists" and Gosnell (who spells Shepherd as Sheppard, as do some other sources) has them as "L.-Soc.", which could be either Liberal or Labour-Socialist. One newspaper refers to Shepherd as a member of the "Nanaimo Liberal Party", another as a nominee of the "Independent Labour Party", "a peculiar combination of Liberal politicians" (Vancouver Province 29 December 1906, p. 1). Thomas is also reported as a nominee of the "Independent Labour Party" in Ladysmith. Shepherd ran as a Liberal in 1912, Thomas as a straight Independent in 1909.

12th British Columbia election, 1909
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Socialist	James Hurst Hawthornthwaite	786	62.88%	–	unknown
	Conservative	Albert Edward Planta	464	37.12%		unknown
Total valid votes			1,250	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

13th British Columbia election, 1912
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Social Democratic	John Thomas Wilmot Place	621	39.45%
	Conservative	Albert Edward Planta	578	36.72%	unknown
	Liberal	Henry (Harry) Shepherd	375	23.82%	unknown
Total valid votes			1,574	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

The name Nanaimo City was dropped after the 1912 election. In the 1916 election the Nanaimo name was used.

External links

Elections BC historical returns