This is Part Two of a multipart series on the voting history of the North Island in the British Columbia General Election.

The first British Columbia General provincial election was in 1871, however, elections go even further.

From 1866 to 1871, British Columbia was still just a colony after the merger of the Colony of Vancouver Island (1849 to 1866) and the Colony of British Columbia (1858 to 1866). The latter was a further merger of New Caledonia, parts of the North-Western Territory, the Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands, the Stickeen Territories, and parts of Russian America. 

The Colony of Vancouver Island had an election in 1856 for its First House of Assembly. At the time of the election, no newspaper was active on the Island, so not much was known about the election. However, the island was represented by four districts: Victoria, Esquimalt, Sooke and Nanaimo. Victoria had three seats in the assembly, with Edward Edwards Langford (replaced by Joseph William McKay on Dec. 3, 1856), Joseph Despard Pemberton, and James Yates. Esquimalt's district was represented by John Sebastian Helmecken (Speaker) and Thomas James Skinner. John Muir was elected to represent Sooke (but resigned on May 5, 1857) and Dr. John Frederick Kennedy represented Nanaimo. 

The 1860 Colony of Vancouver Island election was much bigger, with 13 members elected to the Second House of Assembly. Political parties were yet to exist at this time, but two factions did exist, representing the Hudson's Bay Colony and a Reform faction. The outcome election did have some political intrigue, with the leader of the losing Reformer faction, Armor De Cosmos (born William Alexander Smith, he is also the founder of the Daily British Colonist, now known as the Victoria Times-Colonist) claiming the election was not run fairly.

Instead of just the four constituencies, there were now nine. Victoria was split into two, Victoria Town (two seats) and Victoria District (three seats). Esquimalt was also split into Esquimalt Town (one seat) and and Esquimalt County (two seats). The Lake, Sooke, Saanich, Saltspring and Chemainus, and Nanaimo districts had one seat each. 

William John McDonald (a reformer, Sooke) and John Coles (Saanich) won by acclamation. Nanaimo's Augustus Rupert Green may have run unopposed or won by acclamation. Regardless, he resigned in 1861 and was replaced by David Babington.  George Foster Foster beat Captain Duncan for the Lake District. Other winners were George Tomline Gordon (Esquimalt Town), Helmecken (part of the Hudson Bay Company faction - Equimalt County), James Cooper (Reformer - Equimalt County), William Fraser Tolmie (HBC), Henry Pering Pellew Crease (HBC), Alfred Pendrell Waddington (Reformer) in the Victoria District, and George Hunter Cary and Selim Franklin in Victoria Town.

The Third House of Assembly of Vancouver Island, elected in 1863, grew to 15 members. De Cosmos, this time won his seat. Foster (replaced by Joseph Johnson Southgate in 1864, who was in turn replaced by Edward Stamp in 1866), Tolmie and Helmen were also reelected. New faces included William Alexander George Young (Victoria City), Israel Wood Powell (Victoria), Joseph Charless Ridge (Victoria City - resigned and was replaced by Selim Franklin, who also resigned in 1864 and then replaced by Charles Bedford Young), Edward Henry Jackson, (Victoria District), James Trimble (Victoria District), Robert Burnaby (Esquimalt and Metchosin), James Duncan (Lake), Charles Street (Saanich, replaced by John James Cochrane in 1864), John Trevasso Pidwell (Saltspring Island and Chemaninus, replaced by George Edgar Dennes in October, 1863, but who then resigned in 1866 and replaced by... Pidwell), Charles Alfred Bayley (Nanaimo, replaced by Thomas Cunningham in 1866), and James Carswell (Sooke). 

After the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia merged in 1866, the First Legislative Council of British Columbia was elected. The nine members elected were represented by three Islanders; De Cosmos, Helmcken, and Pemberton.

The second Legislative Council election was in 1869. Helmeken retained his seat, while John C. Davie, Montague William Tyrwhitt Drake and David Babington Ring the three other Islands elected to office. Ring represented Nanaimo while the other two represented Victoria District and City.

British Columbia officially became a province of Canada on July 20, 1871, when it entered the confederation. The lieutenant governor of British Columbia (Sir Joseph William Trutch, a notorious racist who reduced the size of reserves by 91 per cent in 1867) appointed an interim cabinet and signed election writs for the first British Columbia general election, contested from October to December that year. For the election, 12 new ridings were created: Cariboo (three seats), Comox (one), Cowichan (two), Esquimalt (two), Kootenay (two), Lilooet (two), Nanaimo (one), New Westminster (two), New Westminster City (one), Victoria (two), Victoria City (four) and Yale (three). Every candidate ran as an independent. 

The Comox riding stretched to the Yukon border and had very few eligible voters (the majority of the population in the riding were First Nations people, who were not allowed to vote, along with Chinese people). Voting these days was also a little different. Voters would vote by show of hands on nomination day, or an open poll book. 

Only 24 people in the Comox riding voted in this election, with 16 people voting for John Ash. Robert Cameron Coleman was the other option. 

Ash again won in 1875, getting 36 votes while his opponent, Robb James only got 10. The issues of the day were Chinese immigration and railways, particularly a promised railway from the east coast of Vancouver Island to the southern tip of Victoria. The 1875 general election was also the first one to have a secret ballot.

Ash won again in 1878. His opponent, Reginald Terry Carwithen got 21 votes, while Ash received 10 more. The English-born politician was also a physician in England, before moving to Victoria in 1862. He started his political career in the Esquimalt District as a junior member of the Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island in 1865, due to his connections with Helmcken, who he worked with at Guy's Hospital in England and the Hudson Bay Company. Ash did not rerun for office in 1882.

The general election in 1882 still had no parties. The Comox riding was won by the Scottish-born postmaster for Comox, William Munro Dingwall. He had 80.72 per cent of the vote share, beating Andrew Byron Crawford and Thomas Robson. Only 83 votes were cast in the riding. 

Dingwall ran again in 1886. However, his 40 votes were not enough to beat Anthony Maitland Stenhouse's 45 votes. Stafford McKelvey only got 10, and James (who didn't run for election since losing in 1875) got 33. 

It was the first time the riding had more than 100 votes cast, with 128. 

Like Dingwall, Stenhouse was born in Scotland and settled in Comox in 1884. He however, resigned from his seat in 1887 to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and campaigned for Thomas Basil Humphreys, who replaced him. 

Only two candidates contested the riding in the 1890 general election. Joseph Hunter and Joseph McPhee. Hunter was the winner, and like his two predecessors, he was born in Scotland. Hunter won with 115 votes, beating McPhee's 73. 

Hunter won again in 1894, beating Percy Fremlin Scharschmidt. He was only the second person to win consecutive terms. 

Part Three will cover 1898 to 1928.