The 1923 Ontario general election was the 16th general election held in the province of

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It was held on June 25, 1923, to elect the 111 Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs"). The Ontario Conservative Party, led by George Howard Ferguson, was elected to power with a

majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

in the Legislature (although taking less than half the votes cast). This election ended the rule of the

United Farmers of Ontario The United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) was an agrarian and populist provincial political party in Ontario, Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers movement of the early part of the 20th century. History Foundation and r ...

- Labour coalition government of Ernest C. Drury.

Campaign

Voter turnout

The election saw a voter turnout of just 54.7%, the lowest voter turnout in Ontario history until the 2007 election. The low election turn-out was in part caused by the worst wind, rain and lightning storm in years inundating the western part of the province. The electrical storm and hurricane began shortly after the polls closed, resulting in massive disruption of telegraph and telephone communications, which hampered the reporting of results.

Results

The 1923 election was plagued by low turn-out, and all the parties took fewer voters than they had in 1919. The UFO actually took a larger proportion of the vote than it had in 1919 but took just a fraction of the seats it had taken in 1919 due to much of the anti-UFO vote concentrating behind Conservative Party candidates. The UFO had held power by virtue of a coalition with Labour and three other MLAs. Together they had received 34 percent of the votes cast in 1919. The Conservatives after the 1923 election took majority government based on taking 34 percent of the vote by that one party alone. The

Ontario Liberal Party The Ontario Liberal Party (OLP; , PLO) is a political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by Bonnie Crombie since December 2023. The party espouses the principles of liberalism, with their rival the Progressive Co ...

, led by Wellington Hay, lost close to half its caucus in the Conservative landslide. Labour (the Independent Labour Party) too lost most of its MLAs in this turn-around election. The Conservative party was the most popular, taking 34 percent of the vote. Its candidate was the leading one in a large proportion of the districts, giving it a large majority of seats in the legislature (more than its due proportionally) under the

First past the post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

system in use at the time. In the election, the UFO again did not run candidates where a Labour candidate was running - and also not in 20 other districts as well. The UFO received the third-most number of votes overall but only ran in about two-thirds of the districts so its vote count likely does not measure its actual support. Together Labour and the UFO ran in 93 seats so the two did not cover all the districts in the province. The UFO did not receive as many votes as it had in 1919 but still got fairly good numbers considering it did not run candidates in a third of the districts. As the 1923 election was plagued by low turn-out, the UFO received a higher percentage of votes cast than it had received in 1919. Prior to the election, the UFO government had introduced bills to re-distribute the ridings, and to introduce

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

and the

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

, but withdrew them after vehement opposition from the Conservative MLAs, and it was found that even some government members were ambivalent. Under

, the UFO received about a third of the seats that it was due proportionally overall. Looking at the 71 districts where the UFO ran candidates, it received about half the votes there so was due 35 of those seats but received only eight. In many districts, Conservative candidates took rural seats away from incumbent UFO MLAs by taking just a few hundred more votes than them in each district. In Prince Edward, Conservative candidate Horace Stanley Colliver took just 17 more votes than his closest contender to win the seat.Canadian Parliamentary Guide 1925 Ferguson was the only party leader to hold his seat in the election. Drury, Hay and Rollo all lost their seats to their Conservative opponents. , - ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 , Political party ! rowspan=2 , Party leader ! colspan=5 , MPPs ! colspan=3 , Votes , - ! Candidates !

1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...

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Howard Ferguson George Howard Ferguson (June 18, 1870 – February 21, 1946) was the ninth premier of Ontario, from 1923 to 1930. He was a Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1905 to ...

, 103 , 25 , 24 , 75 , 50 , 473,819 , 49.77% , 15.68 , style="text-align:left;", E.C. Drury , 71 , 44 , 44 , 17 , 27 , 199,393 , 20.94% , 0.03 , style="text-align:left;", Wellington Hay , 78 , 27 , 27 , 14 , 13 , 203,079 , 21.33% , 4.18 , style="text-align:left;", Walter Rollo , 23 , 11 , 11 , 4 , 7 , 45,213 , 4.75% , 4.34 , style="text-align:left;", , 12 , – , – , 1 , 1 , 15,426 , 1.62% , 2.45 , style="text-align:left;", , 2 , 1 , 1 , – , 1 , 5,041 , 0.53% , 0.08 , style="text-align:left;", , 3 , – , – , – , – , 10,122 , 1.06% , , style="text-align:left;", , – , 1 , 1 , – , 1 , colspan="3", ''Did not campaign'' , style="text-align:left;", , – , 1 , 1 , – , 1 , colspan="3", ''Did not campaign'' , style="text-align:left;", , – , 1 , 1 , – , 1 , colspan="3", ''Did not campaign'' , colspan="3", , 1 , colspan="5", , -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;", Total , 292 , 111 , 111 , 111 , , 952,093 , 100.00% , , - , colspan="8" style="text-align:left;", Blank and invalid ballots , align="right", 13,600 , style="background:#E9E9E9;" colspan="2", , -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan="8" style="text-align:left;", Registered voters / turnout , 1,655,312 , 58.34% , 27.19

Synopsis of results

: = turnout is above provincial average : = incumbent re-elected under the same party banner : = returned by

acclamation An acclamation is a form of election that does not use a ballot. It derives from the ancient Roman word ''acclamatio'', a kind of ritual greeting and expression of approval towards imperial officials in certain social contexts. Voting Voice vot ...

: = incumbency arose from byelection gain : = incumbent switched allegiance for 1923 nomination : = other incumbents renominated : = multiple candidates

Regional analysis

MLAs elected

Italicized names indicate members returned by

. Two-tone colour boxes indicate ridings that turned over from the 1919 election, e.g., Central Ontario
Eastern Ontario
Hamilton/Halton/Niagara
Midwestern Ontario
Northeastern Ontario
Northwest Ontario
Southwestern Ontario
Toronto
York/Peel/Ontario

Detailed analysis

Incumbents not running for reelection

Sixteen MLAs chose not to stand for re-election:

Seats that changed hands

There were 64 seats that changed allegiance in the election. UFO to Conservative * Carleton * Dufferin * Dundas * Durham East * Elgin East * Elgin West * Essex South * Grey South * Haldimand * Halton * Hastings East * Huron South * Lambton West * Lanark North * Lanark South * Middlesex North * Norfolk South * Northumberland East * Oxford South * Perth South * Peterborough East * Renfrew North * Simcoe Centre * Simcoe East * Simcoe South * Victoria North * Victoria South * Wellington West * Wentworth South UFO to Liberal * Essex North *

Glengarry The Glengarry bonnet is a traditional Scots cap made of thick-milled woollen material, decorated with a toorie on top, frequently a rosette cockade on the left side, and ribbons hanging behind. It is normally worn as part of Scottish military ...

Liberal to Conservative *

Brockville Brockville is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically Independent city, independent of the county. It is included with Leeds and ...

* Nipissing * Parry Sound * Perth North * Prince Edward * Stormont * Toronto Northwest - B * Toronto Southeast - A * Toronto Southeast - B * Toronto Southwest - A * Toronto Southwest - B *

Welland Welland is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. As of 2021, it had a population of 55,750. The city is in the centre of Niagara and located within a half-hour driving distance to Niagara Falls, Niagara-on ...

* Windsor Liberal to UFO * Bruce South * Lincoln * Oxford North Liberal to Independent * Prescott Labour to Conservative * Fort William * Hamilton East * Hamilton West * Huron Centre *

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...

* Peterborough West * Sault Ste. Marie *

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

Independent-Liberal to Conservative *

Waterloo North Waterloo North was a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1968. It was located in the provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It was created by the ...

Farmer-Labour to Labour * Waterloo South Farmer-Liberal to UFO * Grey North Soldier to Conservative * Riverdale Conservative to Liberal * Lennox * Ottawa West Conservative to Labour * Rainy River

Campaign

Voter turnout

Results

Synopsis of results

Regional analysis

MLAs elected

Detailed analysis

Incumbents not running for reelection

Seats that changed hands

Notable groups of candidates

See also

Notes

References

Further reading