William Andrew Cecil Bennett PC OC (September 6, 1900 – February 23, 1979) was a Canadian politician who served as the 25th premier of British Columbia from 1952 to 1972.

He decided to leave the tough Alberta economic conditions and moved with his family to the Okanagan Valley, in the interior of British Columbia, settling in Kelowna.

In 1932 Bennett, Giuseppe Guezzi, and Pasquale "Cap" Capozzi established a wine-making company to produce wine from the vast surplus of Okanagan apples that were going to waste during the Depression.

He ran for the South Okanagan nomination for the 1937 provincial election for the British Columbia Legislative Assembly, but was unsuccessful.

He resigned the seat in 1948 in order to run as Progressive Conservative candidate in the Yale federal by-election of that year, but did not win.

Regaining the Coalition nomination for the South Okanagan seat, Bennett was returned to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly in the 1949 provincial election.

Commencing with the 1952 provincial election, the province used an alternative vote system designed by the Conservative and Liberal parties to keep the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation out of power.

Bennett, one of only three Socred MLAs who had any previous experience in the legislature, was elected party leader and premier-designate on July 15, 1952.

[8] On August 1, Bennett was sworn in as Premier of British Columbia; he was repeatedly reelected and served for 20 years.

In order to get a stronger mandate, Bennett deliberately engineered the defeat of his initial minority government; he forced an election for June 1953 based on a school funding proposal.

The cabinets of the Bennett governments over 20 years had several memorable ministers, including the flamboyant "Flying Phil" Gaglardi.

[11] A fiscal conservative, Bennett served also as the Minister of Finance, keeping tight control over government spending.

BC Rail, formerly the Pacific Great Eastern Railway and owned by the province since 1918, had a series of major expansions to stimulate development.

[14] The federal government introduced universal, publicly funded medical and hospital insurance as part of what became known as Medicare.

In 1961 Canada and the United States signed the Columbia River Treaty to jointly manage this important resource.

While the signatories were the federal governments of Canada and the United States, Premier Bennett was reported to have played a major part in the negotiations.

Under treaty provisions, the U.S. paid British Columbia C$275 million (plus interest) for the downstream power generation rights over the following 30 years.

BC used the money to fund construction of dams on the Columbia River for power generation and flood control.

premier W. A. C. Bennett believed that Pierre Trudeau implemented bilingualism because he was a Quebec‐oriented politician who was mainly interested in promoting and protecting French Canada.

[17] During an off the cuff remark at an Ontario Liberal rally, Pierre Trudeau referred to Bennett as a "bigot who thinks there are too many French people in Ottawa."

Although there was no formal reorganization of jurisdictions, the concept of different regions, instead of provinces, has become part of how Canadians discuss the country.

During a 1977 interview with Peter Gzowski, Bennett claimed that most premiers were in agreement about the negative aspects of equalization payments.

NDP Premier Dave Barrett dropped the writ and sought re-election in the fall of 1975, the Socreds were returned to power with 35 seats in the 55-seat Legislature, and W. A. C.'s son Bill became the new Premier of British Columbia, inheriting his father's mantle of power as well as many of his father's cabinet members.