The 1945 Ontario general election was held on June 4, 1945, to elect the 90 members of the 22nd Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of 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 ...

Background

The Legislature was dissolved on March 24, 1945, upon the government's failure to defeat a non-confidence motion. The election call was delayed in order to implement new legislation relating to the collection of votes from servicemen and women overseas, but the date was later fixed for June 11. When the 1945 Canadian federal election was set for the same date, the Ontario date was accelerated by one week to June 4, in order to separate the two campaigns. The Drew government called the election in an attempt to get a

majority government A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. Such a government can consist of one party that holds a majority on its own, or be a coalition government of multi ...

. By exploiting increasing Cold War tensions, the PC Party was able to defeat Jolliffe's CCF by stoking fears about communism. Jolliffe replied by giving a radio speech (written by Lister Sinclair) that accused Drew of running a political

gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

in Ontario, alleging that a secret department of the

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the State police, provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. The OPP patrols Provincial highways in Ontario, provincial highways and waterways; protects Government of Ontario, provincial government buil ...

was acting as a political police spying on the opposition and the media. This accusation led to a backlash, and loss of support for the CCF, including the loss of Jolliffe's own seat of York South. This probably helped Drew win his majority, although in the 1970s, archival evidence was discovered proving the charge.

Campaign

Of the 90 ridings, only 8 had two-way races; 47 were three-way contests, and the Labor-Progressives forced 30 four way races:

Outcome

The

Ontario Progressive Conservative Party The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC; ), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party, or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada. During its uninterrupted governance from 1 ...

, led by George Drew, won a second consecutive term in office, winning a solid majority of seats in the legislature—66, up from 38 in the previous election. 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 former premier Mitchell Hepburn, was returned to the role of

official opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

with 11 seats, plus 3 Liberal-Labour seats that it won, out of 6 contested, in coalition with the

Labor-Progressive Party The Labor-Progressive Party (LPP; ) was the legal Front organization, front of the Communist Party of Canada and its provincial wings from 1943 to 1959. It was established amid World War II after a number of prominent Communist Party members w ...

(which was, in fact, the Communist Party), in an effort to marginalize the CCF. The three new Liberal-Labour MPPs were James Newman of Rainy River, Joseph Meinzinger of

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 ...

and Alexander Parent of Essex North. The

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; , FCC) was a federal democratic socialism, democratic socialistThe following sources describe the CCF as a democratic socialist political party: * * * * * * and social democracy, social-democ ...

(CCF), led by Ted Jolliffe, was reduced from 34 seats to 8. Two seats were won by the Labor-Progressive Party on its own with the re-election of A.A. MacLeod and J.B. Salsberg. The LPP contested a total of 31 ridings under the leadership of Leslie Morris who was defeated in the Toronto riding of Bracondale.

Results

Party affiliation for Robert Shantz ( Waterloo South) corrected - he was a Liberal candidate: , - ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 , Political party ! rowspan=2 , Party leader ! colspan=5 , MPPs ! colspan=3 , Votes , - ! Candidates !

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 � ...

! Dissol. !1945 !± !# !% ! ± (pp) , style="text-align:left;", George Drew , 90 , , 38 , , 38 , , 66 , , 28 , , 781,345 , , 44.25 , , 8.50 , style="text-align:left;", Mitchell Hepburn , 80 , , 15 , , 15 , , 11 , , rowspan="2", 1 , , 479,253 , , 27.14 , , rowspan="2", 2.50 , style="text-align:left;", , 6 , , – , , – , , 3 , , 34,879 , , 1.98 , style="text-align:left;", Ted Jolliffe , 89 , , 34 , , 34 , , 8 , , 26 , , 395,708 , , 22.41 , , 9.21 A. A. MacLeod ( Bellwoods) and J. B. Salsberg (

St. Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

) were the only candidates nominated and elected under the Labour ticket in 1943, but switched to the new

on its formation shortly after the election. , style="text-align:left;", Leslie Morris , 31 , , 2 , , 2 , , 2 , , , , 46,418 , , 2.63 , , 1.73 Mitchell Hepburn ( Elgin) opted not to run as a Liberal candidate in 1943, and returned to the Liberals to once again become their leader. , style="text-align:left;", , 2 , , 1 , , 1 , , – , , 1 , , 6,359 , , 0.36 , , 0.41 compared with Independent Labour 1943 results , style="text-align:left;", , 4 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , 10,805 , , 0.61 , , 0.44 , style="text-align:left;", , 5 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , 6,995 , , 0.40 , , 0.21 George Barker ( York East) was an Independent-Soldier candidate, and John Beauchamp ( Ottawa East) ran under the Veterans' Reform ticket. , style="text-align:left;", , , 2 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , 1,875 , , 0.11 , , 0.07 , style="text-align:left;", , 4 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , 976 , , 0.06 , , – , style="text-align:left;", , 3 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , 852 , , 0.05 , , ''Returned'' , style="text-align:left;", , 1 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , 328 , , 0.02 , , 0.02 , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;", Total, , 317 , , 90 , , 90 , , 90 , , , , 1,765,793 , , 100.00% , , , - , colspan="8" style="text-align:left;", Blank and invalid ballots , align="right", 17,597 , style="background:#E9E9E9;" colspan="2", , -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan="8" style="text-align:left;", Registered voters / turnout , 2,469,960 , 72.20% , 13.84

Synopsis of results

: = open seat : = turnout is above provincial average : = winning candidate was in previous Legislature : = incumbent had switched allegiance : = incumbency arose from byelection gain : = previously incumbent in another riding : = other incumbents renominated : = not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature : = previously an MP in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

: = multiple candidates

Analysis

Seats that changed hands

There were 36 seats that changed allegiance in the election. ; PC to Liberal * Stormont ; Liberal to PC * Algoma—Manitoulin * Bruce * Grey North * Kent West * Lambton East * Muskoka—Ontario *

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

* Renfrew South ; CCF to PC * Bracondale *

Brantford Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully indep ...

* Hamilton Centre * Hamilton East * Hamilton—Wentworth * Lambton West *

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 ...

* Riverdale * St. David * Waterloo South *

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 ...

* Wellington South * Windsor—Sandwich * Windsor—Walkerville * Woodbine * York East *

York North York North was a federal riding in Ontario, Canada, that was in the House of Commons of Canada from Confederation in 1867 until 2004. The federal riding was eliminated in 2003 when it was redistributed between two new ridings of Newmarket� ...

* York South * York West ; CCF to Liberal * Cochrane North * Nipissing * Parry Sound ; CCF to Liberal-Labour * Essex North * Rainy River *

; Independent-Liberal to PC * Elgin

Notable group of candidates

Ten candidates who were not incumbents had served as MPPs prior to 1943:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ontario General Election, 1945 1945 elections in Canada

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat. Events World War II will be ...

1945 in Ontario June 1945 in Canada