Andrew Charles Elliott

A barrister of Lincoln's Inn, London, Elliott held several judicial and administrative posts in colonial British Columbia, was a member of the Legislative Council (1865-66) and in 1875 was elected to the provincial legislature, replacing William Smithe as leader of the Opposition. On the defeat of G.E. Walkem's government (1876), he became premier, but he was no match for Walkem, who attacked his attempts at conciliation in the Pacific railway dispute with Ottawa. Heavy tax increases and the end of Victoria's hopes of being the transcontinental terminus caused Elliott to lose his seat in the electoral defeat of his government in 1878.