Canadian federal election, 1940

Canadian federal election, 1940

March 26, 1940

245 seats in the 19th Canadian Parliament 123 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   Leader W. L. Mackenzie King Robert Manion J. S. Woodsworth Party Liberal National Government Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since 1919 1938 1932 Leader's seat Prince Albert London candidate in Fort William (lost) Winnipeg North Centre Last election 173 39 7 Seats won 179 39 8 Seat change +6 - +1 Popular vote 2,365,979 1,348,260 388,103 Percentage 51.32% 29.24% 8.42% Swing +6.64pp -0.6pp -1.07pp   Fourth party Fifth party   ND Leader J. H. Blackmore William D. Herridge Party Social Credit^2 New Democracy^2 Leader since 1935 1939 Leader's seat Lethbridge Ran in Kindersley (lost) Last election 17 pre-creation Seats won 7 3 Seat change -10 +3 Popular vote 46,271 73,083 Percentage 1.00% 1.59% Swing -3.1pp +1.59pp

Prime Minister before election William Lyon Mackenzie King Liberal Prime Minister-designate William Lyon Mackenzie King Liberal

The Canadian federal election of 1940 was the 19th general election in Canadian history. It was held March 26, 1940, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 19th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party was re-elected to their second consecutive majority government.

The election was overshadowed by the Second World War, which caused many Canadians to rally around the government. In response to this, the Conservative Party of Robert Manion ran on a platform advocating the creation of an all-party national unity government and ran under the name "National Government" in this election. Though Manion was personally opposed to conscription, the Liberals faced intense pressure in Quebec on the question and promised not to institute the measure. This promise was to haunt the Liberals as they faced increasing pressure from the military and especially from English Canada to bring in the measure. To release him from his 1940 promise, King called a plebiscite in 1942 on the question. See also Conscription Crisis of 1944. It was the most successful election for the Liberal Party in its history, in which it captured 73% of seats in the House of Commons.

Social Credit ran jointly with the New Democracy movement of William Duncan Herridge.

Some candidates of the Conservative and Social Credit parties insisted on running under the traditional names, however.

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) gained its first seat east of Manitoba, with the election of Clarence Gillis from Cape Breton Island. This election was the last one for its ailing leader, J.S. Woodsworth.

The Canadian parliament after the 1940 election

Voter turn-out: 69.9%

National results

↓
179	39	8	7	3	9
Liberal	NG/C	CCF	SC	ND	O

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1935	Elected	% Change	#	%	pp Change
	Liberal	W. L. Mackenzie King	242	173	179	+2.3%	2,365,979	51.32%	+6.64
	National Government ^1	Robert Manion	199	*	36	-	1,348,260	29.24%	+0.57
	Conservative ^1		8	39	3		53,799	1.17%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	J. S. Woodsworth	93	7	8	+14.3%	388,103	8.42%	-1.07
	Social Credit^2	J.H. Blackmore	9	17	7	-41.17%	46,271	1.00%	-1.51
	New Democracy^2	W.D. Herridge	17	*	3		73,083	1.59%
	Liberal–Progressive		4	4	3	-25.0%	27,815	0.60%	-0.07
	Independent Liberal		32	1	2	+100%	147,216	3.19%	+1.96
	Independent		19	1	1	-	57,247	1.24%	+0.85
	Independent Conservative		5	1	1	-	10,431	0.23%	+0.21
	Unity		2	*	1	*	12,337	0.27%	*
	United Reform Movement		1	*	1	*	13,868	0.30%	*
	Independent National		2	*	-	*	12,710	0.28%	*
	Unknown		2	-	-	-	4,622	0.10%	+0.02
	Communist	Tim Buck	8	-	-	-	8,699	0.19%	-0.27
	Farmer-Labour		2	*	-	*	8,126	0.18%	*
	National Unity		1	*	-	*	7,534	0.16%	*
	NDP ^3		2	*	-	*	6,761	0.15%	*
	United Farmers of Ont.-Labour		1	-	-	-	4,761	0.10%	-0.06
	Labour		1	-	-	-	3,916	0.08%	-0.25
	United Progressive		1	*	-	*	2,727	0.06%	*
	National Liberal Progressive		1	*	-	*	2,434	0.05%	*
	National Labour		1	*	-	*	2,354	0.05%	*
	Anti-Conscriptionist		1	*	-	*	642	0.01%	*
	Canadian Labour		1	*	-	*	398	0.01%	*
	United Reform		1	*	-	*	269	0.01%	*
	Social Credit-National Unity		1	*	-	*	241	0.01%	*
Total			657	245	245	-0.8%	4,610,603	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

¹ "Change" and "% Change% figures compare total of "National Government" and "Conservative" to 1935 Conservative vote.

² New Democracy and Social Credit ran jointly under the New Democracy banner under the leadership of former Conservative William Duncan Herridge who had founded New Democracy in 1939 to promote his ideas monetary and economic reform, though several candidates continued to run under the old Social Credit name. The 3 New Democracy MPs elected were all Social Credit incumbents, including Social Credit parliamentary leader John Horne Blackmore while Herridge himself failed to win his seat. The party sat in the House of Commons under the New Democracy name until 1944 when its national convention voted to revert to the Social Credit name.

³Two candidates appear to have run under the "New Democratic Party" banner. It is unlikely that this was related in any way to the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation's adoption of this name in 1960. This may be a mis-reporting of party label - these candidates may have been "New Democracy" candidates.

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
Liberal			51.32%
National/Conservative			30.41%
CCF			8.42%
Social Credit			1.00%
Others			8.85%

Seat totals
Liberal			73.06%
National/Conservative			15.92%
CCF			3.27%
Social Credit			2.86%
Others			4.90%

Results by province

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	YK	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	10	7	12	13	56	62	5	10	4	-	179
		Popular Vote:	37.4	37.9	43.0	43.5	50.3	64.4	54.6	50.4	55.3	46.4	51.3
	National Government	Seats:	4	-	2	1	22	-	5	1	-	1	36
		Vote:	28.8	13.0	14.1	26.2	40.2	18.0	43.4	40.1	44.7	53.6	30.0
	Conservative	Seats:			-	-	3	-					3
		Vote:			0.2	1.7	2.2	1.1					1.2
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Seats:	1	-	5	1	-	-	-	1			8
		Vote:	28.4	13.0	27.5	19.6	3.8	0.7	0.4	6.0			8.6
	Social Credit	Seats:		7		-							7
		Vote:		16.5		0.6							1.0
	New Democracy	Seats:	-	3	-	-		-					3
		Vote:	0.1	18.0	3.3	0.4		0.9					1.6
	Liberal-Progressive	Seats:				2	1						3
		Vote:				4.7	0.8						0.6
	Independent Liberal	Seats:	-				-	2	-	-			2
		Vote:	xx				1.0	10.2	1.6	3.3			3.3
	Independent	Seats:	1	-	-	-	-	-		-			1
		Vote:	3.0	0.2	1.0	3.4	0.4	2.1		0.2			1.3
	United Reform Movement	Seats:			1								1
		Vote:			3.7								0.3
	Unity	Seats:			1								1
		Vote:			3.3								0.3
	Independent Conservative	Seats:						1					1
		Vote:						0.9					0.2
Total Seats			16	17	21	17	82	65	10	12	4	1	245
Parties that won no seats:
	Independent Nat. Gov.	Vote:	0.1					1.1					0.3
	Communist	Vote:	0.4	0.3	0.6	xx	0.2	0.1					0.2
	Farmer-Labour	Vote:					0.5						0.2
	National Unity	Vote:			2.0								0.2
	NDP (?)	Vote:	1.6				xx						0.2
	UFO-Labour	Vote:					0.3						0.1
	Unknown	Vote:			1.2		xx						0.1
	Labour	Vote:						0.3					0.1
	United Progressive	Vote:			1.0								0.1
	National Liberal Progressive	Vote:					0.2						0.1
	National Labour	Vote:						0.2					0.1
	Anti-Conscriptionist	Vote:						0.1					xx
	Canadian Labour	Vote:					xx						xx
	United Reform	Vote:			0.1								xx

• xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 19th Canadian Parliament

References