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1943 Ontario general election

← 1937 August 4, 1943 1945 →
90 seats in the 21st Legislative Assembly of Ontario 46 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader George Drew Ted Jolliffe Harry Nixon Party Progressive Conservative Co-operative Commonwealth Liberal Leader since December 9, 1938 April 3, 1942 April 30, 1943 Leader's seat High Park York South Brant Last election 23 0 63 Seats won 38 34 15 Seat change 15 34 48 Percentage 35.7% 31.7% 31.2% Swing 4.3pp 26.1pp 20.4pp
Premier before election Harry Nixon Liberal Premier after election George Drew Progressive Conservative

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.

Background

Because of the outbreak of war, the Legislative Assembly had passed Acts in 1942 and 1943 to defer the calling of a general election. The latter extension had received royal assent in April 1943, but Premier Harry Nixon came into office the following month and opted to call an earlier election on June 30, 1943 for August 4, 1943. Noting that the last extension had been vigorously opposed by the Progressive Conservative opposition, he said, "We know of no precedent in the British Empire where a parliament extended its own life against an opposition vote."

Campaign

Outcome

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.

The Legislature's first two female MPPs were elected in 1943:

First female MPPs (1943)

Party		MPP		Riding
	CCF		Rae Luckock	Bracondale
	CCF		Agnes Macphail	York East

Results

Elections to the 21st Parliament of Ontario (1943)

Political party		Party leader	MPPs					Votes
			Candidates	1937	Dissol.	1943	±	#	%	± (pp)
	Progressive Conservative	George Drew	90	23	19	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	62	59	15	51	399,185	30.38%	20.65
	Liberal–Progressive		–	3	2	–		–	–
	United Farmers		–	1	–	–		–	–
	Labour		2	–	–	2	2	11,888	0.90%	0.15
	Independent Liberal		4	1	–	1		10,123	0.77%	0.55
	Independent Labour		2	–	–	–		2,215	0.17%	0.16
	Independent		3	–	–	–		2,540	0.19%	0.06
	Independent-CCF		1	–	–	–		1,566	0.12%	New
	Socialist Labour		3	–	–	–		740	0.06%	0.08
	Soldier		2	–	–	–		569	0.04%	New
	Vacant				10
Total			282	90	90	90		1,313,939	100.00%
Blank and invalid ballots								10,746
Registered voters / turnout								2,269,895	58.36%	12.93

1. "1943 General Election (Summary)". elections.on.ca. Elections Ontario. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
2. Roland Patterson (Grey North), Thomas Aston Blakelock (Halton) and Douglas Munro Campbell (Kent East) ran as Liberal candidates in 1943.
3. Farquhar Oliver (Grey South) became a Liberal on February 24, 1941, upon joining the Cabinet.
4. A. A. MacLeod (Bellwoods) and J. B. Salsberg (St. Andrew) were elected under the Labour ticket, but switched to the new Labor-Progressive Party on its formation shortly after the election.
5. Morrison Mann MacBride (Brantford) died in June 1938. Mitchell Hepburn (Elgin) opted not to run as a Liberal candidate in 1943.

Synopsis of results

1. "1943 General Election (Summary)". elections.on.ca. Elections Ontario. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
2. Party affiliations verified with "Tabulation Of Vote For Constituencies; Other Election Gleanings". Ottawa Citizen. August 5, 1943. p. 15.
3. Turnouts verified with "Sessional Paper No. 40: Return from the records of the General Election to the Legislative Assembly in 1943". Sessional Papers, No. LXXVI - Part IV. Toronto: King's Printer. 1944. pp. 6–7.
4. including spoilt ballots
5. order is as given in EO reports

* - seat was vacant when election called

  = open seat

  = turnout is above provincial average

  = winning candidate was in previous Legislature

  = incumbent switched allegiance for the election

  = incumbency arose from byelection gain

  = previously incumbent in another riding

  = other incumbents renominated

  = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada

  = multiple candidates

Analysis

Seats that changed hands

1. Morrison Mann MacBride (Brantford) had died in office in 1938. Mitchell Hepburn (Elgin) was re-elected as an Independent-Liberal in 1943
2. Roland Patterson (Grey North) was re-elected as a Liberal, while Douglas Campbell (Kent East) retired from the legislature.
3. Farquhar Oliver (Grey South) was re-elected as a Liberal.

There were 58 seats that changed allegiance in the election.

References

1. "1943 General Election". Elections Ontario. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
2. The Legislative Assembly Extension Act, 1942, S.O. 1942, c. 24
3. The Legislative Assembly Extension Act, 1943, S.O. 1943, c. 12
4. "Premier Nixon Announces Date of Provincial Vote. Nominations to Be Held on July 28. Ontario Legislature Dissolved". Ottawa Citizen. July 1, 1943. p. 1.

See also

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

v t e Elections and referendums in Ontario
General elections	1867 1871 1875 1879 1883 1886 1890 1894 1898 1902 1905 1908 1911 1914 1919 1923 1926 1929 1934 1937 1943 1945 1948 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1977 1981 1985 1987 1990 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2014 2018 2022 next
By-elections	List of Ontario by-elections
Municipal elections	1976 1978 1980 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Referendums	1894 1902 1919 1921 1924 2007

• 1943 elections in Canada
• General elections in Ontario
• August 1943 events in Canada
• November 1943 events in Canada