A total of 13 members were elected to the Second House of Assembly of Vancouver Island, which sat from March 1, 1860, to February 27, 1863. The members were elected over a number of weeks in January with each constituency holding its election on a different day.

The election did not have political parties but did feature two factions. One was made up of men connected with the Hudson's Bay Company and close to Governor James Douglas and the other of reformers led by the British Colonist editor Amor De Cosmos. The reform faction lost in most cases and Amor De Cosmos used his newspaper to claim the election was not run fairly. Of particular concern to De Cosmos was that the 'coloured' people voted primarily for the HBC candidates. The information on who is from which faction is from information in the British Colonist, which was not neutral.British Colonist, 10 January 1860

Constituencies Victoria Town – 2 to be elected British Colonist, 10 January 1860 George Hunter Cary, 137 Selim Franklin, 106 Amor De Cosmos, 91 Reformer

Victoria District – 3 to be electedhttp://www.britishcolonist.ca/tc/1860/01/14/18600114002.pdf William Fraser Tolmie, 44 HBC Henry Pering Pellew Crease, 39 HBC resigned October 18, 1861, replaced by Joseph William Trutch on November 26, 1861 Alfred Pendrell Waddington, 35 Reformer, resigned October 15, 1861, replaced by James Trimble James Yates, 14 Reformer C. A. Bayley, 14 Reformer

Esquimalt County – 2 to be electedhttp://www.britishcolonist.ca/tc/1860/01/12/18600112002.pdf John Sebastian Helmcken, 36 HBC James Cooper, 22 Reformer resigned July 27, 1860, replaced by Robert Burnaby Thomas James Skinner, 21 Ind

Esquimalt Town George Tomline Gordon, 27 Top of column 4 http://www.britishcolonist.ca/tc/1860/01/10/18600110002.pdf resigned and was replaced by Thomas Harris March 31, 1862. He resigned on September 9, 1862, and was replaced by William Cocker. James Cooper, 10 – also ran in Esquimalt County and was elected there.

Lake District George Foster Foster, 32 Captain Duncan, 7

Sooke District William John McDonald, Reformer elected by acclamation

SaanichColumn 1 http://www.britishcolonist.ca/tc/1860/01/14/18600114002.pdf John Coles, won by acclamation

Saltspring and Chemainus District Joseph Johnson Southgate, 11 John Copland, 4

Nanaimo District Augustus Rupert Green, (unknown if he faced an opponent) resigned February 6, 1861, replaced on November 4, 1861, by David Babington Ring

References