Leader of the Opposition (British Columbia)

The Leader of the Opposition (French: Chef de l'Opposition) in British Columbia is the MLA in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia who leads the political party recognized as the Official Opposition. This status generally goes to the leader of the second largest party in the Legislative Assembly.

#	Leader[1]	Party	Took Office	Left Office
1.	James Alexander MacDonald	Liberal	1903	1909
2.	Harlan Carey Brewster[2]	Liberal	1911	1912
–	Harlan Carey Brewster	Liberal	1916	1916
3.	William John Bowser	Conservative	1916	1924
–	Robert Henry Pooley unofficial[3]	Conservative	1924	1928
4.	Thomas Dufferin Pattullo	Liberal	1929	1933
5.	Robert Connell	CCF	1933	1936
...	Robert Connell[4]	Social Reconstructive	1936	1937
6.	Frank Porter Patterson	Conservative	1937	1938
7.	Royal Lethington Maitland	Conservative	1938	1941
8.	Harold Winch	CCF	1941	1952
9.	Herbert Anscomb[5]	Progressive Conservative	1952	1952
–	Harold Winch	CCF	1952	1953
10.	Arnold Webster	CCF	1953	1956
11.	Robert Strachan[6]	CCF	1956	1961
–	Robert Strachan	NDP	1961	1969
12.	Thomas Berger	NDP	1969	1969
13.	Dave Barrett	NDP	1969	1972
14.	W.A.C. Bennett	Social Credit	1972	1973
15.	William R. Bennett	Social Credit	1973	1975
16.	William Stewart King	NDP	1975	1976
–	Dave Barrett[7]	NDP	1976	1984
17.	Robert Skelly	NDP	1984	1987
18.	Michael Harcourt	NDP	1987	1991
19.	Gordon Wilson	Liberal	1991	1993
20.	Fred Gingell	Liberal	1993	1994
21.	Gordon Campbell	Liberal	1994	2001
22.	Joy MacPhail[8]	NDP	2001	2005
23.	Carole James	NDP	2005	2011
24.	Dawn Black	NDP	2011	2011
25.	Adrian Dix	NDP	2011	2014
26.	John Horgan	NDP	2014	present

References

1. Legislative Library of British Columbia, Party Leaders in British Columbia 1900-, 2000, updated 2005
2. Lost his seat in the 1912 general election that wiped out the Liberals. No Opposition leader until Brewster won a by-election in 1916.
3. Pooley was the Conservative Party's House Leader due to the defeat of William John Bowser. In 1926 Simon Fraser Tolmie was elected Conservative leader but he did not seek a seat in the legislature until the 1928 provincial election which his party won
4. Connell was exeplled from the CCF in 1936 for opposing party policy. He and three other CCF MLAs formed the "Social Reconstructive" party. With a total of 4 MLAs compared to 3 remaining in the CCF, Connell's new party was the second largest in the legislature allowing him to retain the title of Leader of the Official Opposition
5. Anscomb's Conservatives had been part of a coalition government with the Liberals until late 1951 when the Liberals decided to terminate the arrangement and Premier John Hart dropped his Conservative ministers from Cabinet. The Tories moved to the opposition benches and displaced the CCF to form the Official Opposition from February 1952 until the June 1952 provincial election
6. The CCF became the NDP in 1961 as a result of the creation of the federal New Democratic Party
7. Barrett lost his seat in the December 1975 general election and re-entered the legislature through a June 1976 by-election. William Stewart King acted as Leader of the Opposition in the house in the interim. Barrett continued as leader of the party during this period
8. Although Premier Campbell refused to recognize the NDP as an official party since it lacked the number of seats required for official party status, the Speaker recognized MacPhail as Opposition Leader and ensured the NDP received the resources and funding due to it as an opposition.