1943 Ontario general election
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90 seats in the 21st Legislative Assembly of Ontario 46 seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1943 Ontario general election was held on August 4, 1943, to elect the 90 Members of the 21st Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of the Province of Ontario.[1]
The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by George Drew, defeated the Ontario Liberal Party government. The Liberal government had disintegrated over the previous two years because of a conflict between Mitchell Hepburn, the Ontario caucus and the federal Liberal Party of Canada.
Hepburn resigned and was eventually succeeded by Harry Nixon in early 1943. The change in leadership was not enough to save the government. The election held later that year resulted in the Conservative Party, recently renamed the "Progressive Conservative Party", winning a minority government. This began forty-two uninterrupted years of government by the Tories who combined moderate progressive policies with pragmatism and caution.
The Liberals fell to third place behind a new force, the socialist Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), led by Ted Jolliffe, went from obscurity to form the Official Opposition, winning 32% of the vote and 34 seats in the legislature, just four short of Drew's Tories. The Liberals and their Liberal-Progressive allies fell from 66 seats to a mere 15.
Two members of the banned Communist Party of Ontario running as "Labour" candidates won seats in the Legislature for the first time in this election: A.A. MacLeod in the Toronto riding of Bellwoods, and J.B. Salsberg in the Toronto riding of St. Andrews. Several days following the election the Labor-Progressive Party was officially formed and Salsberg and MacLeod agreed to sit in the legislature as the party's representatives.
Results[]
Political party | Party leader | MPPs | Votes | |||||||
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Candidates | 1937 | Dissol. | 1943 | ± | # | % | ± (pp) | |||
Progressive Conservative | George Drew | 90 | 23 | 23 | 38 | 15 | 469,672 | 35.75% | 3.69 | |
Co-operative Commonwealth | Ted Jolliffe | 86 | – | – | 34 | 34 | 415,441 | 31.62% | 26.30 | |
Liberal | Harry Nixon | 89 | 63 | 65 | 15 | 48 | 397,014 | 30.22% | 19.27 | |
Labor–Progressive | 2 | – | – | 2 | 2 | 11,888 | 0.90% | 0.29 | ||
Independent Liberal | 3 | 1 | – | 1 | 8,252 | 0.63% | 0.69 | |||
Liberal–Progressive | 1 | 2 | 2 | – | 2 | 4,042 | 0.31% | 0.77 | ||
United Farmers | Farquhar Oliver | – | 1 | – | – | 1 | Did not campaign | |||
Labour | 3 | – | – | – | 2,364 | 0.18% | 0.17 | |||
Independent | 3 | – | – | – | 2,593 | 0.20% | 0.06 | |||
Independent-CCF | 1 | – | – | – | 1,513 | 0.12% | New | |||
Socialist-Labour | 2 | – | – | – | 591 | 0.05% | 0.09 | |||
Soldier | 2 | – | – | – | 569 | 0.04% | New | |||
Communist | – | – | – | – | Did not campaign | |||||
Farmer–Labour | – | – | – | – | Did not campaign | |||||
Independent Conservative | – | – | – | – | Did not campaign | |||||
Social Credit | – | – | – | – | Did not campaign | |||||
Vacant | ||||||||||
Total | 282 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 1,313,939 | 100.00% | ||||
Blank and invalid ballots | 10,745 | |||||||||
Registered voters / turnout | 2,255,301 | 58.74% | 12.22 |
Party | Seats | Votes | Change (pp) | ||
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█ Progressive Conservative | 38 / 90 |
35.75% |
-3.69 | ||
█ Co-operative Commonwealth | 34 / 90 |
31.62% |
26.30 | ||
█ Liberal | 15 / 90 |
30.22% |
-19.27 | ||
█ Other | 3 / 90 |
2.41% |
-3.34 |
Seats that changed hands[]
Party | 1937 | Gain from (loss to) | 1943 | ||||||||||||||
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PC | CCF | Lib | Lbr-P | I-Lib | L-Pro | UFO | |||||||||||
Progressive Conservative | 23 | (5) | 19 | 1 | 38 | ||||||||||||
Co-operative Commonwealth | – | 5 | 28 | 1 | 34 | ||||||||||||
Liberal | 63 | (19) | (28) | (2) | (1) | 1 | 1 | 15 | |||||||||
Labor–Progressive | – | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
Independent-Liberal[a 1] | 1 | (1) | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Liberal–Progressive[a 2] | 2 | (1) | (1) | – | |||||||||||||
United Farmers[a 3] | 1 | (1) | – | ||||||||||||||
Total | 90 | 5 | (20) | – | (34) | 50 | (2) | – | (2) | 1 | (1) | 1 | – | 1 | – | 90 |
- ^ Morrison Mann MacBride (Brantford) had died in office in 1938. Mitchell Hepburn (Elgin) was re-elected as an Independent-Liberal in 1943
- ^ Roland Patterson (Grey North) was re-elected as a Liberal, while Douglas Campbell (Kent East) retired from the legislature.
- ^ Farquhar Oliver (Grey South) was re-elected as a Liberal.
There were 58 seats that changed allegiance in the election.
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References[]
- ^ "1943 General Election". Elections Ontario. Elections Ontario. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
See also[]
- Politics of Ontario
- List of Ontario political parties
- Premier of Ontario
- Leader of the Opposition (Ontario)
- 1943 elections in Canada
- General elections in Ontario
- August 1943 events
- November 1943 events