1945 Manitoba general election

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.

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 Decrease2 Increase1 Increase6
Popular vote 70,475 34,819 73,988
Percentage 32.2% 15.9% 33.8%
Swing Decrease3.5pp Increase0.1pp Increase16.5pp

Premier before election

Stuart Garson
Liberal–Progressive

Premier after election

Stuart Garson
Liberal–Progressive

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.

Like previous elections, all the voters cast preferential votes. Ten MLAs were elected in city-wide Winnipeg district through Single transferable vote; all other MLAs were elected through Instant-runoff voting.

Results

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Manitoba general election (October 15, 1945)[1]
Party Leader First-preference votes Seats
Votes % FPv ± (pp) Cand. 1941 Elected Change
  Coalition candidates
 Liberal–Progressive Stuart Garson 70,475 32.2 3.5  34 27 25 2 
 Progressive Conservative Errick Willis 34,819 15.9 0.1  28 12 13 1 
 Independent 6,384 2.9 8.6  7 5 3 2 
 Independent Liberal-Progressive 3,248 1.5 1.5  3
 Independent-Liberal 824 0.4 0.4  1
 Social Credit 2,953 1.3 0.3  2 3 2 1 
  Anti-Coalition candidates
 Co-operative Commonwealth[a 1] Seymour Farmer 73,988 33.8 16.5  39 3 9 6 
 Social Credit 1,548 0.7 4.9  2
 Conservative 4.4  3 3 
 Independent 9,420 4.3 0.2  3 1 1  
 Labor–Progressive[a 2] 10,566 4.8 1.8  13 1 1  
 Independent-CCF 4,394 2.0 2.0  2 1 1 
 Socialist 222 0.1 0.1  1
 Sound Money Economics 0.5 
 Liberal 0.4 
Valid 218,841 100.0 135 55 55
Rejected[a 3] 1,906
Total votes cast 220,747
Registered voters/Turnout[a 4] 397,527 55.1
  1. ^ Exited the Coalition in 1943
  2. ^ Formerly the Communist Party
  3. ^ For rural ridings only. No tally was taken for Winnipeg.
  4. ^ Excludes constituencies where candidates returned by acclamation

Results by riding

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Bold names indicate members returned by acclamation. Italicized names indicate Anti-Coalition candidates returned. Incumbents are marked with *.

  1. ^ Elected in 1941 as an Anti-Coalition candidate
  2. ^ a b c Elected in byelection
  3. ^ Elected in 1941 as an Independent-Coalition candidate
  4. ^ Elected in byelection as a CCF candidate
  5. ^ Formerly MLA for Deloraine

Winnipeg

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Ten MLAs elected through Single transferable vote.

Winnipeg MLAs returned by party
Party Number
Co-operative Commonwealth 4
Liberal–Progressive 3
Independent 1
Labor–Progressive 1
Progressive Conservative 1
Total 10
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 (incumbent)Seymour Farmer 14.15 11,237
Liberal–Progressive (incumbent)J.S. McDiarmid 13.56 10,771 10,771
Independent (incumbent)Lewis Stubbs (Opposition) 10.46 8,309 8,309 8,309
Co-operative Commonwealth Lloyd Stinson 9.79 7,773 7,773 7,773 7,773
Liberal–Progressive (incumbent)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
Co-operative Commonwealth (incumbent)Morris Gray 5.13 4,075 5,743 5,787 5,915 6,026 6,111 6,165 6,664 7,462
Labor–Progressive (incumbent)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 (incumbent)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
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 (incumbent)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, candidates 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%

Post-election changes

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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:

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

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.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Twenty-Second General Election Held October 15, 1945 - Summary of Results" (PDF). electionsmanitoba.ca. Elections Manitoba. Retrieved January 16, 2023.