Canadian federal election, 1949

Canadian federal election, 1949
	← outgoing members
262 seats in the 21st Canadian Parliament ; 132 seats needed for a majority
Prime Minister before election; Louis St. Laurent ; Liberal	Prime Minister-designate; Louis St. Laurent ; Liberal

Last updated March 17, 2019

The Canadian federal election of 1949 was held on June 27 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 21st Parliament of Canada. It was the first election in Canada in almost thirty years in which the Liberal Party of Canada was not led by William Lyon Mackenzie King. King had retired in 1948, and was replaced as Liberal leader and Prime Minister by Louis St. Laurent. It was also the first federal election with Newfoundland voting, having joined Canada in March of that year, and the first election since 1904 in which the parts of the Northwest Territories were granted representation. The Liberal Party was re-elected with its fourth consecutive government, winning just under 50% of the vote. This victory was the largest majority in Canadian history to that point and remains, by any measure, the largest-ever majority won by the Liberal Party. As of 2017, it remains the third largest majority government in Canadian history.

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons currently meets in a temporary Commons chamber in the West Block of the parliament buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, while the Centre Block, which houses the traditional Commons chamber, undergoes a ten-year renovation.

The 21st Canadian Parliament was in session from September 15, 1949, until June 13, 1953. The membership was set by the 1949 federal election on June 27, 1949, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1953 election.

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

Social democracy is a political, social and economic ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal democratic polity and a capitalist economy. The protocols and norms used to accomplish this involve a commitment to representative and participatory democracy, measures for income redistribution and regulation of the economy in the general interest and welfare state provisions. Social democracy thus aims to create the conditions for capitalism to lead to greater democratic, egalitarian and solidaristic outcomes. Due to longstanding governance by social democratic parties and their influence on socioeconomic policy development in the Nordic countries, in policy circles social democracy has become associated with the Nordic model in the latter part of the 20th century.

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) was a social-democratic and democratic socialist political party in Canada. The CCF was founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, agrarian, co-operative, and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction. In 1944, the CCF formed the first social-democratic government in North America when it was elected to form the provincial government in Saskatchewan. In 1961, the CCF was succeeded by the New Democratic Party (NDP). The full, but little used, name of the party was Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Farmer-Labour-Socialist).

The Social Credit Party of Canada, colloquially known as the Socreds, was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. It was the federal wing of the Canadian social credit movement.

The Canadian parliament after the 1949 election Chambre des Communes 1949.png — The Canadian parliament after the 1949 election

Voter turn-out: 73.8%

National results

↓
191	41	13	10	7
Liberal	PC	CCF	SC	O

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1945	Elected	% Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Louis St. Laurent	258	117	191	+63.2%	2,874,813	49.15%	+9.37pp
	Progressive Conservative	George Drew	249	65	41	-21.5%	1,734,261	29.65%	+2.03pp
	Co-operative Commonwealth	M.J. Coldwell	180	28	13	-53.6%	784,770	13.42%	-2.13pp
	Social Credit	Solon Low	28	13	10	-23.1%	135,217	2.31%	-1.74pp
	Independent		28	6	4	-33.3%	119,827	2.05%	-2.84pp
	Independent Liberal		15	8	1	-87.5%	30,407	0.52%	-1.27pp
	Liberal-Labour		2	-	1		11,730	0.20%	+0.19pp
	Liberal–Progressive		1	1	1	-	9,192	0.16%	+0.04pp
	Union of Electors	Réal Caouette	56	-	-	-	86,087	1.47%	+1.46pp
	Labor–Progressive	Tim Buck	17	1	-	-100%	32,623	0.56%	-1.58pp
	Independent PC		6	1	-	-100%	8,195	0.14%	-0.14pp
	Farmer-Labour		1	-	-	-	6,161	0.11%	-0.07pp
	National Unity	Adrien Arcand	1	*	-	*	5,590	0.10%	*
	Nationalist		1	*	-	*	4,994	0.09%	*
	Independent Social Credit		2	*	-	*	4,598	0.08%	*
	Labour		2	-	-	-	415	0.01%	x
	Socialist Labour		1	*	-	*	271	x	*
Total			851	245	262	+7.8%	5,849,151	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

* The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote

Liberal			49.15%
PC			29.65%
CCF			13.42%
Social Credit			2.31%
Others			5.47%

Seat totals

Liberal			72.90%
PC			15.65%
CCF			4.96%
Social Credit			3.82%
Others			2.67%

Results by province

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	Terr	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	11	5	14	11	55	68	8	10	3	5	1	191
	Liberal	Popular Vote:	36.7	33.8	43.4	45.1	45.1	60.4	53.8	52.7	49.2	71.9	49.0	49.1
	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	3	2	1	1	25	2	2	2	1	2	-	41
	Progressive Conservative	Vote:	27.9	16.8	14.4	22.0	37.4	24.5	39.4	37.5	48.4	27.9		29.7
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Seats:	3	-	5	3	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	13
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Vote:	31.5	10.0	40.9	25.9	15.2	1.1	4.2	9.9	2.4	0.2	17.0	13.4
	Social Credit	Seats:	-	10	-		-							10
	Social Credit	Vote:	0.5	37.4	0.9		0.2							2.3
	Independent	Seats:	1			-	-	3	-					4
	Independent	Vote:	2.6			2.1	0.1	6.1	0.2				34.0	2.1
	Independent Liberal	Seats:					1	-	-					1
	Independent Liberal	Vote:					0.3	1.3	1.4					0.5
	Liberal-Labour	Seats:					1	-						1
	Liberal-Labour	Vote:					0.6	xx						0.2
	Liberal-Progressive	Seats:				1								1
	Liberal-Progressive	Vote:				2.9								0.2
Total Seats			18	17	20	16	83	73	10	13	4	7	1	262
Parties that won no seats:
	Union of Electors	Vote:					0.1	5.1	1.0					1.5
	Labor–Progressive	Vote:	0.8	0.7	0.4	2.0	0.7	0.3						0.6
	Independent PC	Vote:					xx	0.5						0.1
	Farmer-Labour	Vote:					0.3							0.1
	National Unity	Vote:						0.4						0.1
	Nationalist	Vote:						0.3						0.1
	Independent Social Credit	Vote:		1.4										0.1
	Labour	Vote:					xx	xx						xx
	Socialist Labour	Vote:					xx							xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

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