Ontario general election, 1919

Last updated
Ontario general election, 1919
Flag of Ontario.svg
  1914 October 20, 1919 1923  

111 seats in the 15th Legislative Assembly of Ontario
56 seats were needed for a majority

  First party Second party
 UFOLIB
Leader none Hartley Dewart
Party United Farmers Liberal
Leader since - June 26, 1919
Leader's seat - Toronto Southwest
Last electionpre-creation 24
Seats won 44 27
Seat changeIncrease2.svg44Increase2.svg3
Percentage 21.7% 26.9%
SwingIncrease2.svg21.7%Decrease2.svg11.7%

  Third party Fourth party
  William Hearst.jpg LAB
Leader William Hearst Walter Rollo
Party Conservative Labour
Leader since 1914 -
Leader's seat Sault Ste. Marie (lost re-election) Hamilton West
Last election 84 1
Seats won 25 11
Seat changeDecrease2.svg59Increase2.svg10
Percentage 34.9% 11.6%
SwingDecrease2.svg20.4%Increase2.svg10.3%

Premier before election

William Hearst
Conservative

Premier-designate

Ernest C. Drury
United Farmers

The Ontario general election, 1919 was the 15th general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on October 20, 1919, to elect the 111 Members of the 15th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs").

Ontario Province of Canada

Ontario is one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada and is located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province accounting for 38.3 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province in total area. Ontario is fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto, which is also Ontario's provincial capital.

The Ontario Conservative Party, led by Sir William Hearst, was soundly defeated in a bid for a fifth consecutive term in office by the newly formed United Farmers of Ontario.

William Howard Hearst Canadian politician

Sir William Howard Hearst, was the seventh Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario from 1914 to 1919.

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.

This election put an end to 14 years of continuous Ontario Conservative Party rule, much of it under James Whitney. Whitney had died in 1914.

James Whitney Canadian politician in Ontario

Sir James Pliny Whitney, KCMG was a Canadian politician in the province of Ontario. Whitney was a lawyer in eastern Ontario, Conservative member for Dundas from 1888 to 1914, and the sixth Premier of Ontario from 1905 to 1914.

The UFO ran in the election without a party leader and with only one incumbent MLA, Beniah Bowman, who had entered the legislature the previous year by winning a by-election in Manitoulan. When they emerged from the vote with the largest bloc of seats, they joined the eleven Labour MLAs to form a coalition and approached Ernest C. Drury to lead the new government as Premier of Ontario. Drury had not been a candidate in the election and had to run in a by-election to enter the legislature following his appointment to the office of Premier. Liberal-UFO MLA David James Taylor of Grey North and "Soldier" MLA Joseph McNamara of Riverdale and Labour-UFO MLA Karl Homuth of Waterloo South were also members of the governing caucus giving Drury's coalition 58 seats in total.

Beniah Bowman was an Ontario farmer and political figure. He represented Manitoulin in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from October 24, 1918 to October 18, 1926 and Algoma East in the House of Commons of Canada from 1926 to 1930 as a United Farmers member.

A coalition government is the best way cabinet of a parliamentary government in which multiple political parties cooperate, reducing the dominance of any one party within that "coalition". The usual reason for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament. A coalition government might also be created in a time of national difficulty or crisis to give a government the high degree of perceived political legitimacy or collective identity it desires while also playing a role in diminishing internal political strife. In such times, parties have formed all-party coalitions. If a coalition collapses, a confidence vote is held or a motion of no confidence is taken.

Premier is a title for the head of government in some countries, states and sub-national governments. A second in command to a premier is designated as a vice-premier or deputy premier.

The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Hartley Dewart, was able to maintain and increase its caucus by a small number. It was the Conservative Party that lost the most ground to the UFO and Labour.

The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and have separate, though overlapping, memberships.

Herbert Hartley Dewart was an Ontario lawyer and politician.

Results

  Party Leader 1914 Elected% changePopular vote
%change
United Farmers  * 44*21.7% *
  Liberal Hartley Dewart 2427+12.5%26.9% -11.7
  Conservative William Hearst 84 25-70.2%34.9% -20.4%
     Labour Walter Rollo 1 11 +1000%11.6% +10.3%
  Liberal-United Farmers  * 1 *  
 Labour-United Farmers  *1 *  
Soldier  * 1 *  
 Liberal Independent  1 1 -  
  Liberal-Temperance  1--  
Total Seats111111- 100% 

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

See also

The Province of Ontario is governed by a unicameral legislature, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, which operates in the Westminster system of government. The political party that wins the largest number of seats in the legislature normally forms the government, and the party's leader becomes premier of the province, i.e., the head of the government. Ontario's primary political parties are the centre-right Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC), the centre-left to left Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP), the centre-left Ontario Liberal Party and the left-wing Green Party of Ontario.

Premier of Ontario first minister of the government of Ontario

The Premier of Ontario is the first minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario and the province’s head of government. The position was formerly styled "Prime Minister of Ontario" until the ministry of Bill Davis formally changed the title to premier.

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There have been various groups in Canada that have nominated candidates under the label Labour Party or Independent Labour Party or other variations from the 1870s until the 1960s. These were usually local or provincial groups using the Labour Party or Independent Labour Party name, backed by local Labour Councils or individual trade unions. There was an attempt to create a national Canadian Labour Party in the late 1910s and in the 1920s, but these were partly successful. The Communist Party of Canada, formed in 1921/22, fulfilled some of labour's political yearnings from coast to coast, and then the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation - Worker Farmer Socialist" was formed in 1932. With organic ties to the organized labour movement, this was a labour party by definition.

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