[5] Former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell started her political career in the BC Social Credit Party.

With the expectation that Conservative voters would list the Liberals as their second choice and vice versa, the two parties believed they'd garner enough votes between them to stay in power.

Meanwhile, the Social Credit League went into the election under the interim leadership of the Reverend Ernest George Hansell, Member of the federal Parliament for the Alberta riding of Macleod since 1935.

The Socreds persuaded an independent Labour Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) to support them, allowing them to form a minority government.

The 19 newly elected Social Credit MLAs chose former BC Conservative MLA W. A. C. Bennett, one of only three Socreds with previous experience in the legislature, to lead the new government over Philip Gaglardi.

The federal Conservatives were displeased that their provincial counterparts had sat out the previous two elections so as not to embarrass their Liberal partners.

[6] Nine months into the new term, Bennett deliberately lost a confidence vote in order to force a snap general election in 1953.

Although the party was ostensibly the British Columbia wing of the Canadian social credit movement, Bennett jettisoned the old ideology, remembering that the Alberta Socreds had tried and failed to implement it soon after winning their first term in government.

For instance, Gagliardi suggested that Bennett would stand down after the election, accusing him of being out of touch with "the young people of this province.

Nonetheless, it came as a shock when Social Credit was heavily defeated by the British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) under Dave Barrett,[8] falling to only 10 seats.

As a result, the party built up a small political engine that managed to win two more terms in 1979 and 1983 general elections, in spite of Bennett's controversial "Restraint" program.

This was nicknamed the "Baby Blue Machine", and consisted of political advisors primarily imported from the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.

All Socred governments attempted to curb the power of trade unions and also limited social welfare spending.

Also, Vander Zalm allowed his principal secretary, David Poole, to amass a substantial amount of power, despite his being unelected.

Johnston had been close to Vander Zalm for several years, leading many to believe her selection as leader had been a mistake.

Furthermore, many moderate Socred supporters defected to the British Columbia Liberal Party, continuing a trend that dated back to Vander Zalm's tenure.

The combined effect was to decimate the Socreds, who plunged from a strong majority government to third place with only seven seats–including only five surviving members from Johnston's cabinet.

McCarthy didn't get a chance to get into the legislature until February 1994, when she ran in a by-election for Matsqui, a longtime Socred stronghold.

After that, Abbotsford MLA Harry de Jong resigned (and briefly contemplated taking up the leadership of the Family Coalition Party).

Gillanders took part in the leaders' debate, but pulled out of the campaign just before the vote and urged all non-socialist parties to present a united front against the BC NDP.

At this point, the party was largely considered a dead force in BC politics, with most of its remaining members joining Reform or the Liberals.

The collapse of the British Columbia Socreds within only one term of losing power was especially remarkable considering their Alberta counterparts managed to maintain at least a nominal presence in the legislature for a decade after their defeat in 1971.