The 1875 British Columbia general election was held in 1875. Many of the politicians in the House had served with the Legislative Council or Assembly or the Executive Council, or had otherwise been stalwarts of the colonial era - some supporters of Confederation, others not. Some were ranchers or mining bosses from the Interior, others were colonial gentry from the Island and New Westminster, and others direct arrivals from Britain, Ireland or "Canada", which was still considered a different place not only in the minds of the politicians but in the language used in Hansard during this period. Statistics Votes 5,656 Candidates 55 Members 25 Vancouver Island 4,477 votes total in thirteen seats 344.38 voters per seat: Upper Island Comox: 83 votes (83 votes/seat) Cowichan: 143 votes (2 seats 71.5 votes/seat) Nanaimo: 770 (2 seats 385 votes/seat) "Greater Victoria" total incl. Esquimalt is 3,481 eight seats 435.13 per seat) Victoria: 389 votes (2 seats 194.5 votes/seat) Victoria City: 2,811 (4 seats 702.75 votes/seat) Esquimalt: 281 (2 seats 140.5 votes/seat) Mainland: Interior 1,748 votes (10 seats 174.8 votes/seat: Cariboo: 852 votes (3 seats 284 votes/seat) Kootenay: 63 votes (2 seats 31.5 votes/seat) Lillooet: 201 votes (2 seats 100.5 votes/seat Yale: 632 votes (3 seats 210.6 votes/seat) Lower Mainland 686 votes (3 seats 228.67 votes/seat: New Westminster: 589 votes (2 seats 294.5 votes/seat) New Westminster City: 97 votes (97 votes/seat) Note that these figures refer to votes actually cast, not the population per se nor the total of the potential voters' list. Political context Issues and debates The issues of Chinese immigration and the unbuilt railway defined the politics of the period, and were the main topic of debate in the campaign as well as in the House. As ever since in British Columbia politics, a tough stand against the Dominion Government (Ottawa) upon these issues, and over better terms for BC, was a prerequisite for success at the polls. Politicians and newspapermen (often the same thing in the early Legislature) were alarmed that British Columbia appeared not to have a say in the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and that Ottawa had no plans to assist in immigration to the new province in order to build the railway and otherwise populate the former colony. The issue of a promised railway along the east coast of Vancouver Island to its southern tip at Victoria was also of major political importance, especially