British Columbia Liberal Party

The British Columbia Liberal Party (also referred to as the BC Liberals) is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected for government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election. It was returned to the legislature through the efforts of Gordon Wilson in a break-through in the 1991 election. At this time, the Social Credit Party collapsed, with the BC Liberals able to garner the centre vote traditionally split between left and right extremes in British Columbia politics. After Wilson lost a leadership challenge in the wake of a personal scandal in a bitter three-way race, the party was led by Gordon Campbell, who became Leader of the Opposition after Wilson's convention defeat. In the wake of the collapse of the British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) vote in the 2001 election, the Campbell-led BC Liberals won an overwhelming majority in 2001. In November 2010, after mounting public opposition to a new tax and the controversial ending of a political corruption trial, and with low popularity ratings, Campbell announced his resignation, and on February 26, 2011, Christy Clark was elected as the party's new leader.

Previously affiliated with the Liberal Party of Canada, the British Columbia Liberal Party has been independent of its federal counterpart since the late 1980s and subsequently displaced the British Columbia Social Credit Party as the province's de facto liberal-conservative coalition opposed to the social democratic, pro-union British Columbia New Democratic Party.