Canadian federal election, 1949

Canadian federal election, 1949

June 27, 1949

262 seats in the 21st Canadian Parliament 132 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party   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 election 117 65 Seats won 191 41 Seat change +74 -24 Popular vote 2,874,813 1,734,261 Percentage 49.15% 29.65% Swing +9.37pp +2.03pp   Third party Fourth party   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 election 28 13 Seats won 13 10 Seat change -15 -3 Popular vote 784,770 135,217 Percentage 13.42% 2.31% Swing -2.13pp -1.74%pp

Prime Minister before election Louis St. Laurent Liberal Prime Minister-designate Louis St. Laurent Liberal

The Canadian federal election of 1949 was held on June 27 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons 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. The Liberal Party was re-elected with its fourth consecutive majority government, winning just under 50% of the vote. This victory was the third largest majority government in Canadian History.

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by former Premier of Ontario George Drew, gained little ground in this election.

Smaller parties, such as the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and Social Credit, a party that advocated monetary reform, lost support to the Liberals, and to a lesser extent, the Conservatives.

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
				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
		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
		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
		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
		Vote:	0.5	37.4	0.9		0.2							2.3
	Independent	Seats:	1			-	-	3	-					4
		Vote:	2.6			2.1	0.1	6.1	0.2				34.0	2.1
	Independent Liberal	Seats:					1	-	-					1
		Vote:					0.3	1.3	1.4					0.5
	Liberal-Labour	Seats:					1	-						1
		Vote:					0.6	xx						0.2
	Liberal-Progressive	Seats:				1								1
		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

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 21st Canadian Parliament

References