Editing Dave Barrett (section)

===Return to Opposition===
Barrett called a [[snap election]] in 1975, and was defeated by the Social Credit Party, then led by [[Bill Bennett]], son of the man Barrett had defeated in the previous election. Bennett's campaign focused on attacking the Barrett government's handling of provincial finances. Businesses and other free market supporters had united the opposition to the NDP under a revitalized Social Credit with both Liberal and Conservative (MLAs) crossing the floor to join the Socreds prior to the election.

In terms of raw numbers (but not percentage), the NDP increased its popular vote in the [[1975 British Columbia general election|1975 election]].  However, its vote outside of the Vancouver area plummeted, costing it 20 seats and its majority. Barrett was personally defeated in the Coquitlam seat he had held since its creation in a 1965 redistribution, losing to Socred challenger [[George Herman Kerster]] by only 18 votes. In June 1976, he was returned to the legislature in a by-election in Vancouver East, after sitting NDP MLA [[Robert Arthur Williams]] stepped aside. He remained an MLA for that riding until 1984, continuing to lead the NDP against Bennett's Socreds in the [[1979 British Columbia general election|1979]] and [[1983 British Columbia general election|1983 elections]].

On October 6, 1983, Barrett was forcibly removed from the Legislative Assembly chamber by the [[Serjeant-at-Arms]], during a raucous debate on the Social Credit government's [[austerity]] program, for failing to abide by the Speaker's ruling and was banned from the legislature for several months.<ref name=sunobit/> This was the first incident in the legislature's history where security staff had to intervene and remove a member from chamber.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/provincial-territorial-politics/provincial-territorial-politics-general/ndp-leader-booted-from-bc-legislature.html |title=1983: NDP leader booted from BC legislature |website=Archives.cbc.ca |date=October 6, 1983 |access-date=June 9, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509185702/http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/provincial-territorial-politics/provincial-territorial-politics-general/ndp-leader-booted-from-bc-legislature.html |archive-date=May 9, 2012 }}</ref>