Talk:1900 British Columbia general election

Placement of split multi-member ridings

Went ahead with alphabetic order here, although tempted to move the Opposition (Conservative) Vancouver City members up to be on the same line/row as the Government members for the same riding; did this with Esquimalt in 1903 or 1907. Normally, also, the Opposition column would be separated into parties, then alphabetized. Parties were not official in 1900 and most of these designations were haphazard affairs, more assigned by newspapers than declared by candidates; they are not even slates, but "positions" relative to the political situation of the time. "Independent Opposition" or "Opposition Independent" would tend to mean the member conceives of himself as an Independent but he is not pro-Government (whereas that's what Independent Government would be, and those would be on the government side, as their vote goes with the government, or is supposed to. From this year onwards party division will be the standard; but for previous years it's a haphazard affairs, since the "party" assignments were only on the hustings, not even necessarily still the alignment at the opening of the elected House; and what had been "Opposition" has become the Government, and vice-versa. In some later years independents who voted with the government may be appropriately put on the left, however.Skookum1 04:22, 23 December 2005 (UTC)