1945 Manitoba general election

This article does not cite any sources. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (June 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

1945 Manitoba general election

← 1941 October 15, 1945 1949 →
57 seats of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba 29 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Stuart Garson Errick Willis Seymour Farmer Party Liberal–Progressive Progressive Conservative Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since January 14, 1943 June 9, 1936 1936 Leader's seat Fairford Turtle Mountain Winnipeg Last election 27 12 3 Seats won 25 13 9 Seat change 2 1 6 Popular vote 70,475 34,819 73,988 Percentage 32.2% 15.9% 33.8% Swing 3.5pp 0.1pp 16.5pp
Premier before election Stuart Garson Liberal–Progressive Premier after election Stuart Garson Liberal–Progressive

The 1945 Manitoba general election was held on October 15, 1945 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. The election was a landslide majority government for the incumbent coalition government led by the Liberal-Progressive Party.

The 1945 provincial election was extremely different from the previous election, which was held in 1941. In the 1941 election, the province's four legal political parties were united in a coalition government—and while coalition partners ran against one another in some constituencies, the final outcome was never in doubt.

By 1945, the coalition had been reduced to three parties. The dominant party was the Liberal-Progressive Party, whose leader was Premier Stuart Garson. The Progressive Conservative Party of Errick Willis (formerly called the Conservative Party) was the junior partner in government, while the small Social Credit League and some independents also supported the coalition.

The social-democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) left the coalition in 1943, and experienced a surge in popularity over the next two years. This party was the primary opposition to the coalition government in 1945. When Tommy Douglas's CCF won a landslide election victory in 1944 in neighbouring Saskatchewan, many believed that the Manitoba party had a chance of forming government.

The communist Labour Progressive Party also ran in the election, against the coalition. The Communist Party of Canada had been banned in 1941 so sitting MLA Bill Kardash and candidates of that ilk ran under the label "Labour Progressive Party" starting in 1943.

A revived Socialist Party of Canada also fielded one candidate in Winnipeg.

The CCF experienced numerous difficulties during the campaign. Two of its incumbent members, Dwight Johnson and Beresford Richards, were accused of holding communist sympathies, and broke from the party to seek re-election as "Independent CCF" candidates. Party members were divided on the positions held by Johnson and Richards, and the CCF entered the campaign in a divided state. The party also suffered a series of unexpected technical problems: some candidates were unable to campaign because of late nomination filing, insufficient signatures on their nomination forms, and related reasons.

The result of the election was a landslide majority government for the coalition. Twenty-five Liberal-Progressives and thirteen Progressive Conservatives were elected, along with two Social Crediters and three independent coalitionists. This gave the coalition forty-three of fifty-seven seats. Most of the coalition's members were from rural constituencies.

The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation won four of ten seats in Winnipeg, but could not duplicate this success in the rest of the province. The party won only nine seats in total, up from three in the previous election. Richards, who was re-elected as an Independent CCF candidate, later rejoined the caucus as a tenth member. The CCF actually received more votes than any other party, but this meant little in practical terms: the combined coalition vote was well above the CCF total, and some coalition seats were won by acclamation.

Labour Progressive Party leader Bill Kardash also won a Winnipeg seat, as did independent leftist Lewis Stubbs.

Results[]

Elections to the 22nd Manitoba Legislature (1945)

Political party		Party leader	Group	MLAs				Votes
				Candidates	1941	1945	±	#	%	± (pp)
	Liberal–Progressive	Stuart Garson	Coalition	33	27	25	2	70,475	32.2%	3.5%
	Progressive Conservative	Errick Willis		18	12	13	1	34,819	15.9%	0.1%
	Social Credit	n/a		2	3	2	1	2,953	1.3%	0.4%
	Independent	n/a		7	5	3	2	6,384	2.9%	8.6%
	Independent Liberal	n/a		1	–	–	–	824	0.4%	–
	Independent Liberal-Progressive	n/a		3	–	–	–	3,248	1.5%	New
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Seymour Farmer	Opposition	39	3	9	6	73,988	33.8%	16.5%
	Progressive Conservative			–	3	–	3	–	–	4.4%
	Labor–Progressive	Bill Kardash		13	1	1	–	10,566	4.8%	1.8%
	Social Credit	n/a		2	–	–	–	1,548	0.7%	4.9%
	Independent	n/a		3	1	1	–	9,420	4.3%	0.2%
	Sound Money Economics	n/a		–	–	–	–	–	–	0.5%
	Independent Co-operative Commonwealth	n/a		2	–	1	1	4,394	2.0%	New
	Socialist	James Milne		1	–	–	–	222	0.1%	New
Total				124	55	55		218,841	100.00%
Turnout									55.1%	4.6%

Popular vote (parties) CCF   33.81% Liberal-Progressive   32.20% PC   15.91% Labor–Progressive   4.83% Social Credit   2.06% Others   11.19%

Popular vote (blocs) Government   54.24% Opposition   45.76%

Seats summary (parties) Liberal-Progressive   45.45% PC   27.27% CCF   16.36% Social Credit   3.64% Labor–Progressive   1.82% Others   5.46%

Seats summary (blocs) Government   60.00% Opposition   40.00%

See also[]

• List of Manitoba political parties

Riding results[]

Note: The 1945 election was determined by preferential balloting in all constituencies. The constituency of Winnipeg elected ten members; all other constituencies elected one member. The results listed below are taken from reports in the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper and the Canadian Parliamentary Guide, and may differ from the final official results in some minor particulars. (In some instances, the Winnipeg Free Press results were not listed in full.)

Arthur:

• (x)John R. Pitt (LP) 1158
• (CCF) 448

Assiniboia:

Assiniboia

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Ernest Draffin	48.22	2,948	3,082
	Progressive Conservative	(x)David Best	45.44	2,778	2,902
	Labor–Progressive	William Cecil Ross	6.35	388
Electorate: 11,272   Valid: 6,114   Spoilt: 77   Quota: 3,058   Turnout: 6,191 (54.92%)

:

• (x)John Poole (PC) 1775
• A.J.M. Poole (CCF) 902

Birtle:

• (x)Francis Campbell Bell (LP) 1887
• (CCF) 792

Brandon City:

Brandon City

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Liberal–Progressive	Leslie McDorman	49.08	3,088	3,288
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Peter McDuffe	26.22	1,650	2,046
	Independent Co-operative Commonwealth	(x)Dwight Johnson	24.70	1,554
Electorate: 9,960   Valid: 6,292   Spoilt: 103   Quota: 3,147   Turnout: 6,395 (64.2%)

Carillon:

• (x)Edmond Prefontaine (LP) accl.

Cypress:

• (x)James Christie (LP) 1434
• (Ind/Coalition) 870

[Note: Parsons had previously defeated Christie for the coalition nomination, by one vote.]

Dauphin:

• (x)Robert Hawkins (LP) 2312
• (CCF) 1277

:

• James O. Argue (PC) accl.
• (CCF) withdrew

Dufferin:

• (x)Earl Collins (Ind/Coalition) accl.

Emerson:

• (x)John Solomon (LP) 2039
• (CCF) 1097
• (Ind/Coalition[?]) 753

Ethelbert:

• Michael Sawchuk (CCF) 2081
• (x)Nicholas A. Hryhorczuk (LP) 1743
• (LPP) 163

Fairford:

• (x)Stuart Garson (LP) 1254
• (CCF) 295

Fisher:

• (x)Nicholas Bachynsky (LP) 879
• L.W. Michalchuk (CCF) 758
• (LPP) 166

Gilbert Plains:

• (x)Stanley Fox (SC) 1375
• (CCF) 1179

Gimli:

• Steinn Thompson (LP) 2133
• (CCF) 1437
• (LPP) 246

Gladstone:

• (x)William Morton (LP) accl.

:

• Gilbert Grant (LP) 1741
• Leslie Robinson (CCF) 698
• James Breakey (LP) withdrew

Hamiota:

• (x)Norman Turnbull (SC) 1578
• (CCF) 380

Iberville:

Iberville

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Independent Progressive Conservative	John McDowell (Coalition)	48.01	1,390	1,452
	Liberal–Progressive	W.D. Lawrence	28.39	822	1,016
	Co-operative Commonwealth	H.P. Kendall	23.59	683
Electorate: 4,630   Valid: 2,895   Spoilt: 29   Quota: 1,448   Turnout: 2,924 (63.2%)

Kildonan and St. Andrews:

• (x)James McLenaghen (PC) 3518
• William Grundy (CCF) 2313
• William Gilbey (LPP) 426

[Note: appears to have lost the coalition nomination by one vote.]

Killarney:

Killarney

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Progressive Conservative	(x)Abram Harrison	41.08	1,045	1,165
	Liberal–Progressive		36.91	939	1,015
	Co-operative Commonwealth	William Cecil Ross	22.01	560
Electorate: 3,360   Valid: 2,544   Spoilt: 11   Quota: 1,273   Turnout: 2,555 (76.0%)

Lakeside:

• (x)Douglas Campbell (LP) accl.

Lansdowne:

• (x)Matthew Sutherland (LP) 1759
• (CCF) 720

La Verendrye:

• (x)Sauveur Marcoux (LP) 1506
• Paul Prince (SC/Opposition) 913
• (IL/Coalition) 824

Manitou:

• (x)Hugh Morrison (PC) accl.
• (CCF) missed deadline

Minnedosa:

• (x)Earl Rutledge (PC) 2639
• (CCF) 1430

Morden-Rhineland:

• (x)Wallace Miller (PC) 2093
• J.R. Walkof (LP) 1860
• (CCF) 326

Morris:

• (x)John Dryden (LP) 1676
• (CCF) 714

Mountain:

• (x)Ivan Schultz (LP) 2300
• (CCF) 723

:

• (x)John Lawrie (PC) 1710
• (CCF) 870

Portage la Prairie:

• (x)Charles Greenlay (PC) 1878
• Margaret Mann (CCF) 746
• (LPP) 105

Roblin:

• Ronald Robertson (Independent/Coalition) 1247
• Leslie Thompson (CCF) 1092

Rockwood:

• W.J. Campbell (PC) 1879
• (x)Mungo Lewis (LP) 1582

Rupertsland:

• (x)Daniel Hamilton (LP) 438
• (Ind/Coalition) 230
• (Independent LP/Coalition) 175
• (LPP) 55
• (CCF) not enough signatures

Russell:

• (x)William Wilson (LP) 2250
• (CCF) 1768

St. Boniface:

St. Boniface

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Edwin Hansford	47.54	6,349	6,451	6,606
	Liberal–Progressive	Walter Tod	29.49	3,939	3,967	4,351
	Independent Liberal-Progressive	Laurier Regnier (Coalition)	12.80	1,710	1,726	1,812
	Independent	Angus McDonald (Opposition)	6.54	874	900
	Labor–Progressive	Jules Pinoo	3.62	483
Electorate: 24,052   Valid: 13,355   Spoilt: 209   Quota: 6,678   Turnout: 13,564 (56.39%)

St. Clements:

St. Clements

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Wilbert Doneleyko	44.44	3,472	3,615
	Liberal–Progressive	(x)Nicholas J. Stryk	42.23	3,299	3,395
	Labor–Progressive	Andrew Bileski	13.33	1,041
Electorate: 15,074   Valid: 7,812   Spoilt: 86   Quota: 3,907   Turnout: 7,898 (52.39%)

St. George:

• Christian Halldorson (LP) 1150
• Eric Stefanson Sr. (Opposition) 892
• (Ind/Opposition) 237
• (LPP) 56

Ste. Rose:

• (x)Dane MacCarthy (LP) 1907
• (CCF) 823

Springfield:

• George Olive (CCF) 3106
• Murdoch Mackay (LP) 1992
• M.J. Hoban (Independent LP/Coalition) 1392
• (LPP) 480

[Note: Olive and Mackay's numbers appear to be from the third count.]

Swan River:

• (x)George Renouf (PC) 2519
• (CCF) 1448

The Pas:

• (x)Beresford Richards (Ind CCF) 2840
• Robert Milton (PC) 2759

Turtle Mountain:

• (x)Errick Willis (PC) accl.
• Alex Cochrane (CCF) not enough signatures

Virden:

• (x)Robert Mooney (LP) 2030
• (CCF) 856

Winnipeg[]

Elected: 4 CCF (Farmer Stinson Gray Swailes); 3 Liberal-Progressive (McDiarmid Smith Scraba); 1 Ind. (Stubbs); 1 Labour-Progressive (Comm.) (Kardash); 1 Progressive-Conservative (Thorvaldson)

Winnipeg (ten members)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
	Co-operative Commonwealth	(x)Seymour Farmer	14.15	11,237	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222
	Liberal–Progressive	(x)J.S. McDiarmid	13.56	10,771	10,771	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222
	Independent	(x)Lewis Stubbs (Opposition)	10.46	8,309	8,309	8,309	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Lloyd Stinson	9.79	7,773	7,773	7,773	7,773	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222
	Liberal–Progressive	(x)Charles Rhodes Smith	6.18	4,909	4,946	6,059	6,174	6,181	6,313	6,889	6,973	6,995	7,010	7,957	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222
	Co-operative Commonwealth	(x)Morris Gray	5.13	4,075	5,743	5,787	5,915	6,026	6,111	6,165	6,664	7,462	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222	7,222
	Labor–Progressive	(x)Bill Kardash	5.05	4,014	4,067	4,076	4,133	4,138	4,183	4,212	4,237	6,141	6,319	6,388	6,394	6,512	6,832	6,892
	Progressive Conservative	(x)Gunnar Thorvaldson	4.96	3,941	3,966	4,592	4,671	4,677	4,830	5,099	5,128	5,145	5,148	5,818	6,013	6,067	6,162	7,256
	Liberal–Progressive	William Scraba	4.55	3,616	3,656	3,790	3,828	3,833	3,900	4,032	4,085	4,135	4,143	4,479	4,712	4,847	4,931	5,774
	Progressive Conservative	Mark Long	3.79	3,012	3,035	3,227	3,272	3,276	3,425	3,776	3,806	3,819	3,822	4,121	4,191	4,232	4,273
	Labor–Progressive	Joseph Zuken	3.70	2,939	2,963	2,974	3,010	3,014	3,049	3,092	3,103
	Progressive Conservative	Morley Lougheed	3.38	2,681	2,715	3,200	3,285	3,291	3,407	3,637	3,664	3,679	3,683	3,993	4,192	4,242	4,315	5,621
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Donovan Swailes	3.35	2,663	3,682	3,709	3,876	4,087	4,210	4,243	4,902	4,924	4,941	5,065	5,089	7,863	7,222	7,222
	Co-operative Commonwealth	George Stapleton	2.93	2,329	2,687	2,698	2,757	2,838	2,928	2,942	3,942	3,960	3,971	4,047	4,055
	Liberal–Progressive	(x)Paul Bardal	2.58	2,053	2,094	2,677	2,766	2,773	2,882	3,213	3,237	3,290	3,291
	Liberal–Progressive	M. Walsh	2.35	1,867	1,898	2,127	2,166	2,171	2,253
	Co-operative Commonwealth	A.N. Robertson	2.26	1,796	2,391	2,419	2,483	2,568	2,659	2,694
	Social Credit	T.H. Taylor	0.80	635	656	663	689	692
	Progressive Conservative	Roy Sully	0.75	592	623	665	706	716
	Socialist Party of Canada	James Milne	0.28	222	236	254	263	264
Electorate: 155,824   Valid: 79,433   Spoilt: n/a   Quota: 7,222   Turnout: 79,433 (50.98%)

Winnipeg (analysis of transferred votes, ranked in order of 1st preference votes) Party Candidate Maximum round Maximum votes Share in maximum round Maximum votes First round votesTransfer votes Co-operative Commonwealth Seymour Farmer 1 11,237 14.15% ​​ Liberal-Progressive J.S. McDiarmid 1 10,771 13.56% ​​ Independent Lewis Stubbs 1 8,309 10.46% ​​ Co-operative Commonwealth Lloyd Stinson 1 7,773 9.79% ​​ Liberal-Progressive Charles Rhodes Smith 11 7,957 10.20% ​​ Co-operative Commonwealth Morris Gray 9 7,462 9.51% ​​ Labor-Progressive Bill Kardash 15 6,892 9.06% ​​ Progressive Conservative Gunnar Thorvaldson 15 7,256 9.54% ​​ Liberal-Progressive William Scraba 15 5,774 7.59% ​​ Progressive Conservative Mark Long 14 4,273 5.54% ​​ Labor-Progressive Joseph Zuken 8 3,103 3.95% ​​ Progressive Conservative Morley Lougheed 15 5,621 7.39% ​​ Co-operative Commonwealth Donovan Swailes 13 7,863 10.20% ​​ Co-operative Commonwealth George Stapleton 12 4,055 5.20% ​​ Liberal-Progressive Paul Bardal 10 3,291 4.20% ​​ Liberal-Progressive M. Walsh 6 2,253 2.85% ​​ Co-operative Commonwealth A.N. Robertson 7 2,694 3.42% ​​ Social Credit T.H. Taylor 5 716 0.90% ​​ Progressive Conservative Roy Sully 5 692 0.87% ​​ Socialist Party of Canada James Milne 5 264 0.33% ​​ Exhausted votes 3,336 4.20% ​​

MLAs returned by party Party Number Co-operative Commonwealth 4 Liberal–Progressive 3 Independent 1 Labor–Progressive 1 Progressive Conservative 1 Total 10

Post-election changes[]

Beresford Richards (Ind CCF) was re-admitted to the CCF caucus in December 1945.

Special elections for members of the armed forces were held in January 1946, in light of the fact that many Manitoba citizens had served overseas in World War II and were unable to vote in the general election. Gordon Churchill was elected to represent the Canadian Army, Alex J. Stringer was elected for the Royal Canadian Navy and Ronald Turner was elected for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Stringer later became a Progressive Conservative, while Turner became a Liberal-Progressive. Churchill sat as an Independent.

Minnedosa (res. Earl Rutledge, July 13, 1948), November 2, 1948:

• Henry Rungay (LP) 3470
• Frith (CCF) 1362

Fairford (res. Stuart Garson, November 13, 1948), December 23, 1948:

• James Anderson (LP) elected
• (CCF)

Beresford Richards and Wilbert Doneleyko were expelled from the CCF in July 1949, and sat as independent members.

Iberville (res. John McDowell, 1949)

Winnipeg (res. Gunnar Thorvaldson, 1949)

Gordon Churchill, Army Representative, resigns in 1949.