Canadian federal election, 1953

Canadian federal election, 1953

August 10, 1953

265 seats in the 22nd Canadian Parliament 133 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 191 41 Seats won 169 51 Seat change -22 +10 Popular vote 2,731,633 1,749,579 Percentage 48.43% 31.02% Swing -0.72pp +1.37pp   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 13 10 Seats won 23 15 Seat change +10 +5 Popular vote 636,310 304,553 Percentage 11.28% 5.40% Swing -2.14pp +3.09pp

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

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

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by former Premier of Ontario, George Drew, formed the official opposition.

The Canadian parliament after the 1953 election

National results

↓
169	51	23	15	7
Liberal	PC	CCF	SC	O

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1949	Elected	% Change	#	%	pp Change
	Liberal	Louis St. Laurent	262	191	169	-11.5%	2,731,633	48.43%	-0.72
	Progressive Conservative	George Drew	248	41	51	+24.4%	1,749,579	31.02%	+1.37
	Co-operative Commonwealth	M.J. Coldwell	170	13	23	+76.9%	636,310	11.28%	-2.14
	Social Credit	Solon Low	71	10	15	+50%	304,553	5.40%	+3.09
	Independent		14	4	3	-25.0%	58,458	1.04%	-1.01
	Independent Liberal		19	1	2	+100%	68,506	1.21%	+0.69
	Liberal-Labour^1		1	1	1	-	11,380	0.20%	-
	Liberal–Progressive		1	1	1	-	8,958	0.16%	-
	Labor–Progressive	Tim Buck	100	-	-	-	59,622	1.06%	+0.50
	Nationalist	Adrien Arcand	1	*	-	*	7,496	0.13%	*
	Independent Progressive Conservative		3	-	-	-	1,636	0.03%	-0.11
	Christian Liberal		1	*	-	*	1,505	0.03%	*
	Independent Social Credit		1	-	-	-	422	0.01%	-0.07
	Locataire (candidat)		1	*	-	*	417	0.01%	*
	Anti-Communist		1	*	-	*	333	0.01%	*
	Socialist Labour		1	-	-	-	130	x	x
Total			897	262	265	+1.1%	5,640,938	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867

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			63.77%
PC			19.25%
CCF			8.68%
Social Credit			5.66%
Others			2.64%

Results by province

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NW	YK	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	8	4	5	7	50	66	7	10	3	7	1	1	169
		Vote (%):	30.9	35.1	37.3	37.0	46.0	61.0	52.7	53.0	51.1	67.2	49.4	78.7	48.4
	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	3	2	1	3	33	4	3	1	1	0	-	-	51
		Vote (%):	14.1	14.5	11.7	27.0	40.3	29.4	41.9	40.1	48.0	28.1	38.5	21.3	31.0
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Seats:	7	-	11	3	1	-	-	1	-	-			23
		Vote (%):	26.6	6.9	44.2	23.6	11.1	1.5	3.0	6.7	0.8	0.6			11.3
	Social Credit	Seats:	4	11	-	-	-		-						15
		Vote (%):	26.1	40.7	5.3	6.3	0.3		0.4						5.4
	Independent	Seats:		-		-	-	3				-	-		3
		Vote (%):		0.1		0.2	0.3	3.0				4.0	12.4		1.0
	Independent Liberal	Seats:				-	-	2	-						2
		Vote (%):				4.0	0.3	3.7	1.9						1.2
	Liberal–Labour	Seats:					1								1
		Vote (%):					0.6								0.2
	Liberal-Progressive	Seats:				1									1
		Vote (%):				3.3									0.2
Total Seats			22	17	17	14	85	75	10	12	4	7	1	1	265
Parties that won no seats:
	Labor–Progressive	Vote (%):	2.2	2.7	1.1	2.3	1.0	0.7		0.2					1.1
	Nationalist	Vote (%):						0.5							0.1
	Independent PC	Vote (%):						0.1							xx
	Christian Liberal	Vote (%):					0.1								xx
	Independent Social Credit	Vote (%):		0.1											xx
	Locataire (candidat)	Vote (%):						xx							xx
	Anti-Communist	Vote (%):						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
• 22nd Canadian Parliament

References