1953 Canadian federal election

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1953 Canadian federal election
Canadian Red Ensign (1921-1957).svg
  1949 August 10, 1953 1957  

265 seats in the House of Commons
133 seats needed for a majority
Turnout67.5% [1] (Decrease2.svg 6.3 pp)
 First partySecond party
  Louis St. Laurent portrait.jpg GeorgeDrew (cropped).jpg
Leader Louis St. Laurent George A. Drew
Party Liberal Progressive Conservative
Leader since August 7, 1948 October 2, 1948
Leader's seat Quebec East Carleton
Last election191 seats, 49.15%41 seats, 29.65%
Seats won16951
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 22Increase2.svg 10
Popular vote2,731,6331,749,579
Percentage48.43%31.02%
SwingDecrease2.svg 0.72 pp Increase2.svg 1.37 pp

 Third partyFourth party
  Major James Coldwell (cropped).jpg Solon Earl Low (cropped2).jpg
Leader Major James Coldwell Solon Earl Low
Party Co-operative Commonwealth Social Credit
Leader since March 22, 1942 April 6, 1944
Leader's seat Rosetown—Biggar Peace River
Last election13 seats, 13.42%10 seats, 2.31%
Seats won2315
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 10Increase2.svg 5
Popular vote636,310304,553
Percentage11.28%5.40%
SwingDecrease2.svg 2.14 pp Increase2.svg 3.09 pp

1953 Canadian General Election.svg
Canada 1953 Federal Election.svg

Chambre des Communes 1953.png
The Canadian parliament after the 1953 election

Prime Minister before election

Louis St. Laurent
Liberal

Prime Minister after election

Louis St. Laurent
Liberal

The 1953 Canadian federal election was held on August 10, 1953, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 22nd Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent led his Liberal Party of Canada to its second consecutive majority government, although the party lost seats to the other parties.

Contents

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by former Premier of Ontario, George Drew, formed the official opposition, but for the last time until 1993, the party was unable to win the popular vote in any of Canada's provinces or territories.

This was the last election until 1988 in which any party won back-to-back majorities, and the last until 1997 in which the Liberals would accomplish this feat. This election is the last time that the Liberals would win more seats in Alberta than the largest right-of-centre party in Canada, and the last time they would win more seats than the Tories in Alberta until 1993.

Overview

Liberal Party

Throughout the years since the previous federal election, St. Laurent had been an active and popular Prime Minister, increasing the country's autonomy from the United Kingdom, overseeing the construction of the Trans-Canada Highway, and introducing various welfare programmes. With the Liberals remaining well ahead in the polls, St. Laurent decided there was little to be gained by waiting out his whole mandate, and called an early federal election a year before his mandate was due to expire.

As with the previous election, the campaign was largely based around St. Laurent's personal image, and was light on any actual policies beyond a continuation of what his government had already been doing. While they would lose support in relatively equal measure to all the other three major parties, the majority that they had won four years earlier still held up, and delivered St. Laurent his second majority government.

Progressive Conservatives

While party leader George A. Drew had largely escaped blame for the poor showing at the previous election, the years ahead saw much debate about the party's future direction. Many believed that Ontario, where Drew remained personally very popular and his successor as Premier, Leslie Frost had maintained the party's heavy dominance of the provincial legislature, was key to any prospect of the Progressive Conservatives forming another government. Others within the party pointed out that even if they won every single seat in Ontario, it would leave them 48 seats short of a majority, and that they would need to make up the numbers elsewhere. Western Canada seemed the only realistic prospect of building a political base elsewhere in the country due to the Liberals' heavy domination of Quebec and (to a lesser degree) Atlantic Canada, but the party establishment largely dismissed this prospect, seeing the west as CCF and Socred territory. All the while, the party generally polled better than it had done in the 1945-1949 parliament, but there rarely looked to be any prospect of them forming the next government.

Ultimately, the election result would do little to settle these factional disputes, as the party made something of a recovery in Ontario, and won two extra seats apiece in Quebec and Manitoba, but saw a further drop in their popular vote share west of Manitoba.

Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation

For this election, the CCF scaled back the scope of their campaign. Having tried to win seats throughout the country in the previous two elections, this time the party's goal was to re-establish its political base in Western Canada and retake the seats that it had lost to the Liberals. The party therefore abandoned any pretence of trying to make a breakthrough in Ontario, nominating very few candidates east of Manitoba, and almost none in Quebec.

In the end, despite suffering the largest popular vote share loss of the major parties, the CCF's strategy paid off, largely reversing the losses they had suffered in the previous election. They earned a firm majority of seats in their political base of Saskatchewan, and also performed well in British Columbia, coming a close second to the Liberals in the province's seat total. Their final total of 23 seats nationally was 5 fewer than they had earned in 1945, but still the second-best showing since the party's formation.

Social Credit Party

While little changed in the Social Credit Party's political base of Alberta, with them winning the same total of 10 seats that they had at the previous federal election, this election marked an important breakthrough for the Socreds, who were able to capitalise on the newly-formed Social Credit provincial government of W. A. C. Bennett in British Columbia, and win seats in the province for the first time. They won a total of five seats, while coming a very close third (within half a percentage point) behind the CCF in the province's popular vote. For the first time, the Socreds held more seats than the Progressive Conservatives in two provinces.

During the campaign, leader Solon Earl Low was largely able to side-step any questions of whether his party would be willing to prop up a potential minority Progressive Conservative government, as there was little doubt that the Liberals would win another majority. However, the Socreds' breakthrough into a new province and the PCs' seeming disinterest in the west soon resulted in much debate about Social Credit's potential role in a federal government (or at least supporting one on matters of confidence) in the years ahead.

National results

See also Results of the 1953 Canadian federal election

1953 Canadian parliament.svg
PartyParty leader# of
candidates
SeatsPopular vote
1949 Elected% Change#% pp Change
  Liberal Louis St. Laurent 262191169-11.5%2,731,63348.43%-0.72
  Progressive Conservative George Drew 2484151+24.4%1,749,57931.02%+1.37
  Co-operative Commonwealth M.J. Coldwell 1701323+76.9%636,31011.28%-2.14
Social Credit Solon Low 711015+50%304,5535.40%+3.09
 Independent1443-25.0%58,4581.04%-1.01
 Independent Liberal1912+100%68,5061.21%+0.69
  Liberal-Labour 1 111-11,3800.20%-
Liberal–Progressive  111-8,9580.16%-
Labor–Progressive Tim Buck 100---59,6221.06%+0.50
 Nationalist Adrien Arcand 1*-*7,4960.13%*
 Independent Progressive Conservative3---1,6360.03%-0.11
  Christian Liberal  1*-*1,5050.03%*
 Independent Social Credit1---4220.01%-0.07
 Locataire (candidat) 1*-*4170.01%*
  Anti-Communist  1*-*3330.01%*
  Socialist Labour  1---130xx
Total897262265+1.1%5,640,938100% 
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867 Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine

Notes:

* - not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

1 The Liberal-Labour MP sat with the Liberal caucus.

Vote and seat summaries


Popular vote
Liberal
48.43%
PC
31.02%
CCF
11.28%
Social Credit
5.40%
Others
3.87%
Seat totals
Liberal
64.15%
PC
19.24%
CCF
8.67%
Social Credit
5.66%
Others
2.26%

Results by province

Party name BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE NL NW YK Total
  Liberal Seats:845750667103711169
 Vote (%):30.935.137.337.046.061.052.753.051.167.249.478.748.4
  Progressive Conservative Seats:32133343110--51
 Vote (%):14.114.511.727.040.329.441.940.148.028.138.521.331.0
  Co-operative Commonwealth Seats:7-1131--1--  23
 Vote (%):26.66.944.223.611.11.53.06.70.80.6  11.3
  Social Credit Seats:411--- -     15
 Vote (%):26.140.75.36.30.3 0.4     5.4
 IndependentSeats: - --3   -- 3
 Vote (%): 0.1 0.20.33.0   4.012.4 1.0
 Independent LiberalSeats:   --2-     2
 Vote (%):   4.00.33.71.9     1.2
  Liberal–Labour Seats:    1       1
 Vote (%):    0.6       0.2
  Liberal-Progressive Seats:   1        1
 Vote (%):   3.3        0.2
Total Seats 22171714857510124711265
Parties that won no seats:
Labor–Progressive Vote (%):2.22.71.12.31.00.7 0.2    1.1
 NationalistVote (%):     0.5      0.1
 Independent PCVote (%):     0.1      xx
  Christian Liberal Vote (%):    0.1       xx
Independent Social CreditVote (%): 0.1          xx
 Locataire (candidat)Vote (%):     xx      xx
  Anti-Communist Vote (%):     xx      xx
  Socialist Labour Vote (%):    xx       xx

See also

References

  1. "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Elections Canada. Retrieved March 10, 2019.

Further reading