The 1927 Manitoba general election was held on 28 June 1927 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. The result was a second consecutive victory for Manitoba farmers, following its 1922 win.
This was the first election in Manitoba history to elect MLAs through casting of ranked ballots in all districts. Ten candidates were elected in Winnipeg through Single transferable vote, as they had done since 1920. The other districts now began to elect MLAs through Instant-runoff voting.
The result was a second consecutive victory for the Progressive Party of Manitoba, which was supported by the United Farmers of Manitoba. The Progressives, led by PremierJohn Bracken, won twenty-nine seats out of fifty-five to win their second majority government. During the campaign, the Progressives stressed that they were not a party in the traditional sense and promised "A business (not a party) government". Many Progressive candidates simply described themselves as Bracken supporters.
The Conservatives won fifteen seats under the leadership of Fawcett Taylor, an improvement from seven in the election of 1922. This election re-established the Conservatives as the leading opposition party in Manitoba, and made the party a credible challenger for government in the next election.
The Manitoba Liberal Party was unable to regain the support it had lost to the Progressive Party in the previous election. The Liberals won seven seats under the new leadership of Hugh Robson, down one from their 1922 total. After the election, many senior Liberals began to work for an electoral alliance with the Progressives. Robson, who opposed this plan, was persuaded to resign as leader in 1930. The alliance was formalized in 1932.
The Independent Labour Party fell to three seats, down from six in the previous election. All three members, including party leader John Queen, were elected in the city of Winnipeg.
Independent candidate John Edmison was also re-elected in Brandon.
Jacob Penner ran in Winnipeg as a Communist candidate, but was not successful.
Quotas in the single-member districts are the simple majority (50 percent plus 1) of all valid votes or the votes still in play after exhausted votes had been removed.
The ballot-counting process in this constituency was extremely controversial. Bernier lead in votes in the first count but did not take the majority of votes needed to win the seat outright. Laurendeau was eliminated in the second count, and Hyman was eliminated in the third count. After Hyman's votes were transferred, Gagnon was declared the winner by a single vote. He had one more vote than Bernier. Bernier appealed the decision and was declared elected on recount. The final totals were: Bernier 2646, Gagnon 2618. More than 25 votes were shifted in the recount to make Bernier the winner.
Count 2 in the table refers to the 2nd and 3rd Count in the original vote count.
Second count: Haig surplus (498 votes) transferred (Evans declared elected)
Third count: Robson surplus (252 votes) transferred
Count 3 in the table refers to the 4th Count.
Fourth count: Evans surplus (225 votes) transferred
Count 4 in the table refers to the 5th Count.
Fifth count: James eliminated
Count 5 in the table refers to the 6th Count
Sixth count: MacLean eliminated
Count 6 in the table refers to the 7th Count
Seventh count: Sedziak eliminated
Count 7 in the table refers to the 8th Count
Eighth count: Cartwright eliminated
Count 8 in the table refers to the 9th Count
Ninth count: Gillespie eliminated
Count 9 in the table refers to the 10th Count
Tenth count: Moore eliminated
Count 10 in the table refers to the 11th Count
Eleventh count: Steinkopf eliminated
Count 11 in the table refers to the 12th Count
Twelfth count: Maybank eliminated (Queen declared elected)
Count 12 in the table refers to the 13th and 14th Counts.
Thirteenth count: Queen surplus (21 votes) transferred
Fourteenth count: Lindal eliminated
Count 13 in the table refers to the 15th Count.
Fifteenth count: Durward eliminated (1086 votes went to Farmer)(Farmer declared elected)
Count 14 in the table refers to the 16th and 17th Counts.
Sixteenth count: Farmer surplus (766 votes) transferred
Seventeenth count: Burritt eliminated (Major received 934 votes)[5] (Major declared elected)
Count 15 in the table refers to the 18th and 19th Counts.
Eighteenth count: Major surplus transferred
Nineteenth count: Cameron eliminated
Count 16 in the table refers to the 20th Count.
Twentieth count: Penner eliminated
Count 17 in the table refers to the 21st Count.
Twenty-first count (Hunt eliminated):
(x)John Thomas Haig (C) 4610
Hugh Robson (L) 4610
(x)William Sanford Evans (C) 4610
(x)John Queen (ILP) 4610
(x)Seymour Farmer (ILP) 4610
William Major (P) 4610
(x)Edith Rogers (L) 4764 (elected) (surplus not transferred as the number involved would not change order of other candidates)
(x)William Ivens (ILP) 4007
William Tobias (C) 3685
Edward Montgomery (P) [number not listed]
(x)J.K. Downes (Ind [Moderationist]) 3411
Count 18 in the table refers to the final stage after the 21st Count.
Downes eliminated. No transfer done as number of remaining candidates is same as number of remaining open seats.
Final standings of elected candidates:
(x)John Haig (C) 4610
Hugh Robson (L) 4610
(x)William Sanford Evans (C) 4610
(x)John Queen (ILP) 4610
(x)Seymour Farmer (ILP) 4610
William Major (P) 4610
(x)Edith Rogers (L) 4610 (or 4764)
(x)William Ivens (ILP) 4700 (more than quota but surplus not transferred because seats are filled)
William Tobias (C) 4114 (elected with partial quota)
Edward Montgomery (P) 3960 (elected with partial quota)
Sources[]
The first ballot results for Winnipeg and results for all other constituencies are taken from an official Manitoba government publication entitled "Manitoba elections, 1920–1941", cross-referenced with the 1928 Canadian Parliamentary Guide, and an appendix to the Manitoba government's report of the 2003 provincial election.
All ballot results for Winnipeg after the first count are taken from reports in the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper. It is possible that some errors appeared in the original publication.
Post-election changes[]
Birtle (John Pratt leaves the government side, early in the parliament).
Lansdowne (res. Tobias Norris, 1928), 10 November 1928:
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Elections in Manitoba