1908 Ontario general election

1908 Ontario general election

← 1905 June 8, 1908 1911 →
← outgoing members
106 seats in the 12th Legislative Assembly of Ontario 54 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader James P. Whitney Alexander Grant MacKay Party Conservative Liberal Leader since 1896 1907 Leader's seat Dundas Grey North Last election 69 28 Seats won 86 19 Seat change 17 9
Premier before election James P. Whitney Conservative Premier after election James P. Whitney Conservative

The 1908 Ontario general election was the 12th general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on June 8, 1908, to elect the 106 Members of the 12th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs").^[1]

The Ontario Conservative Party, led by Sir James P. Whitney, was elected for a second term in government, increasing its majority in the Legislature significantly.

The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Alexander Grant MacKay, continued to lose seats.

Allan Studholme became the province's first Labour MLA as the result of a 1906 Hamilton East by-election. He was re-elected in the 1908 general election and would remain in the legislature until his death in 1919.

The four Toronto districts each elected two members in this election. Each seat was contested separately, with each voter in the district allowed to vote for a candidate in each contest.

Expansion of the Legislative Assembly[]

The number of electoral districts was increased from 97 to 102, under an Act passed in 1902, returning a total of 106 MLAs.^[2] The following electoral changes were made:

• Fort William and Lake of the Woods was split into Fort William and Kenora
• Port Arthur and Rainy River was split into Port Arthur and Rainy River
• Nipissing East was divided into Nipissing and Timiskaming
• Nipissing West was divided into Sudbury and Sturgeon Falls
• Cardwell was renamed Simcoe South, after the transfer of Albion and Bolton to Peel
• The three ridings of Huron County were reorganized:

• Huron South gained from Huron West the remainder of the Township of Goderich not previously included in it, in exchange for Seaforth
• Huron East and Huron West were reorganized into and Huron Centre respectively

• Ottawa was divided into Ottawa East and Ottawa West
• Toronto East, Toronto North, Toronto South and Toronto West now returned two MLAs each, elected separately in seats labelled A and B in each district.

Results[]

Elections to the 12th Parliament of Ontario (1908)

Political party		Party leader	MPPs					Votes
			Candidates	1905	Dissol.	1908	±	#	%	± (pp)
	Conservative	James P. Whitney	106	69		86	17	248,194	55.10%	1.73
	Liberal	Alexander Grant MacKay	90	28		19	9	177,719	39.45%	5.16
	Labour		8	–		1	1	7,842	1.74%	New
	Independent-Liberal		2	1		–	1	1,470	0.33%	0.87
	Independent-Conservative		5	–	–	–		6,107	1.36%	1.34
	Independent		5	–	–	–		3,042	0.68%	0.66
	Socialist		14	–	–	–		2,891	0.64%	0.35
	Progressive		1	–	–	–		2,187	0.49%	New
	Liberal-Temperance		1	–	–	–		1,017	0.23%	New
	Prohibitionist			–	–	–		Did not campaign
	Temperance			–	–	–		Did not campaign
	Vacant
Total			232	98	98	106		450,469	100.00%
Blank and invalid ballots								6,765
Registered voters / turnout								681,564	72.68%	5.59

Division and reorganization of ridings[]

The newly created ridings returned the following MLAs:

Seats that changed hands[]

Of the unaltered seats, there were 24 that changed allegiance in the election:

See also[]

• Politics of Ontario
• List of Ontario political parties
• Premier of Ontario
• Leader of the Opposition (Ontario)

References[]

Further reading[]

• Hopkins, J. Castell (1909). The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1908. Toronto: The Annual Review Publishing Company.

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