Burnaby—Seymour

Burnaby—Seymour

British Columbia electoral district
Defunct federal electoral district
Legislature	House of Commons
District created	1966
District abolished	1976
First contested	1968
Last contested	1974

Burnaby—Seymour was a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1968 to 1979.

This riding was created in 1966 from parts of Burnaby—Coquitlam, Burnaby—Richmond and Coast—Capilano ridings. The riding originally consisted of the eastern part of North Vancouver plus areas of Burnaby north of the Grandview Highway and Edmonds Avenue, west of Sperling and north of Pandora Street. That is, North Vancouver east of Lynn Creek plus the Burnaby Heights, Capitol Hill, Brentwood and Deer Lake neighbourhoods of Burnaby.

The riding's first election, in 1968, is notable for being a showdown between the former leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party, Ray Perrault, and federal New Democratic Party leader Tommy Douglas. Given that the North Shore portions of the riding were largely affluent and upper middle class in character and normally a Liberal bastion, Douglas' strong showing is not so surprising given the working-class and labour background of much of even the better-off parts of the riding in Burnaby.

When this riding was redistributed in 1976, the resulting Burnaby riding consistently returned NDP candidates - this was Svend Robinson's longtime seat. North Vancouver—Burnaby returned a Progressive Conservative member (Chuck Cook) since its creation until it was abolished in 1987, as did its successor riding, the seat of North Vancouver until Reform Party member Ted White took over the seat on Cook's retirement.

In provincial politics, the equivalent area of North Vancouver was among the last holdouts of the provincial Liberal Party prior to it losing its support base to the Social Credit Party in the early 1980s. Jim Nielsen, who first unsuccessfully ran for the Progressive Conservative Party in Burnaby—Seymour in 1974 was subsequently elected in the 1975 provincial election as the MLA for Richmond. He was appointed as a cabinet minister and remained the MLA for Richmond until his resignation from provincial politics in 1986.

Members of Parliament

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
Riding created from Burnaby—Coquitlam, Burnaby—Richmond and Coast—Capilano
28th	1968–1972		Ray Perrault	Liberal
29th	1972–1974		Nels Nelson	New Democratic
30th	1974–1979		Marke Raines	Liberal
Riding dissolved into Burnaby and North Vancouver—Burnaby

Election results

Canadian federal election, 1974
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Marke Raines	18,063	36.58	-0.61
	Progressive Conservative	Jim Nielsen	17,574	35.59	+12.60
	New Democratic	Nels Nelson	13,472	27.28	-10.51
	Communist	Eric Waugh	167	0.34	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Jack Maley	60	0.12	–
	No affiliation	André Doucet	42	0.09	–
Total valid votes			49,378	100.0
	Liberal gain from New Democratic		Swing		-6.60

Canadian federal election, 1972
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	New Democratic	Nels Nelson	18,274	37.79	-7.10
	Liberal	Ray Perrault	17,985	37.19	-8.04
	Progressive Conservative	John Ratel	11,119	22.99	+14.88
	Social Credit	John B. MacDonald	694	2.91	+1.14
	Independent	Bob Thompson	133	0.28	–
	No affiliation	Eric Waugh	120	0.25	–
	No affiliation	Lorette Glasheen	36	0.07	–
Total valid votes			48,361	100.0
	New Democratic gain from Liberal		Swing		+0.47

Canadian federal election, 1968
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Ray Perrault	17,891	45.23
	New Democratic	Tommy C. Douglas	17,753	44.89
	Progressive Conservative	Charles MacLean	3,206	8.11
	Social Credit	Ron Price	702	1.77
Total valid votes			39,552	100.0
This riding was created from parts of Burnaby—Coquitlam, Burnaby—Richmond and Coast—Capilano, which elected two New Democrats and a Liberal (Coast—Capilano). Tommy Douglas was the incumbent from Burnaby—Coquitlam.

Successor ridings

The riding was abolished in 1976. Successor ridings were:

• Burnaby
• North Vancouver—Burnaby

See also

• List of Canadian federal electoral districts
• Past Canadian electoral districts

External links

• Riding history from the Library of Parliament