The election is notable for producing a "false-winner" outcome, rewarding a party that got second in the popular vote with a majority government.

New Democratic Party leader and provincial premier Mike Harcourt had resigned as the result of a fundraising scandal involving one of the members of his caucus.

After Wilson was defeated by Campbell in the convention to choose a new leader, he and Tyabji left the Liberal Party to establish the Progressive Democratic Alliance.

It elected Grace McCarthy as its leader in 1993, but she was unable to make a bid to get into the legislature until 1994, when she lost a by-election in the longtime Socred stronghold of Matsqui.

Soon afterward, four of its remaining six members defected to Reform BC, leaving Social Credit without official status in the legislature.