1949 Canadian federal election

none September 2023 1949 Canadian federal election Canada 1921 parliamentary no no no Opinion polling for the 1949 Canadian federal election 1945 Canadian federal election 1945 1953 Canadian federal election 1953 262 seats in the House of Commons 132 73.8%Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index&lang=e Elections Canada 10 March 2019 ( 1.5 pp) June 27, 1949 21st Canadian Parliament 20th Canadian Parliament Louis St. Laurent portrait.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA Liberal nohash Louis St. Laurent August 7, 1948 CA Liberal name Quebec East 118 seats, 39.78% 191 73 2,874,813 49.15% 9.37 pp GeorgeDrew (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA PC nohash George A. Drew October 2, 1948 CA PC name Carleton 66 seats, 27.62% 41 25 1,734,261 29.65% 2.03 pp Major James Coldwell (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA CCF nohash Major James Coldwell March 22, 1942 CA CCF name Rosetown—Biggar 28 seats, 15.55% 13 15 784,770 13.42% 2.13 pp Solon Earl Low (cropped2).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA Social Credit nohash Solon Earl Low April 6, 1944 CA Social Credit name Peace River 13 seats, 4.05% 10 3 135,217 2.31% 1.74 pp Canada 1949 Federal Election.svg Prime Minister Prime Minister after election Louis St. Laurent CA Liberal name Louis St. Laurent CA Liberal name Chambre des Communes 1949.png The Canadian parliament after the 1949 election The 1949 Canadian federal election was held June 27, 1949, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 21st Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of Canada was re-elected with its fourth consecutive government, winning 191 seats (73 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons), with just under 50 per cent of the popular vote. It was the Liberals' first election in almost thirty years not under the leadership of William Lyon Mackenzie King. King had retired in 1948, and was replaced as Liberal leader and Prime Minister by Louis St. Laurent. It was the first federal election with Newfoundland voting, having joined Canada in March of that year. It was also the first election since 1904 in which part of the remaining parts of the Northwest Territories were granted representation, following the partitioning off of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Liberal Party victory won the largest majority in Canadian history to that point. 2025, it remains the third largest majority government in Canadian history, and the largest in the party's history (the Progressive Conservative Party won larger seat majorities in 1958 and 1984). 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. Overview Liberal Party Despite the humiliation of losing his own seat at the previous election, Mackenzie King remained a popular Prime Minister, working to bring about Canadian citizenship as a legal right (Canadians having been previously British subjects), and laying the groundwork for the eventual entry of Newfoundland into the confederation in March 1949. Failing health ultimately forced his resignation in 1948, and his Quebec lieutenant and Secretary for External Affairs, Louis St. Laurent handily won the race to succeed him, beating out fellow cabinet minister James Garfield Gardiner. The Liberals' polling numbers wavered slightly following St. Laurent's installation as Prime Minister, but they consistently remained well ahead of the Progressive Conservatives, and with the party's polling lead starting to increase again in early 1949, St. Laurent decided to capitalise and called a snap election. While the party had been governing without a stable majority since the previous election, they had generally been able to count on the support of the CCF to pass important legislation; St. Laurent's goal was to win a solid majority and remove his party's need to make concessions to the CCF on matters of confidence. St. Laurent became the first leader of a major Canadian party to extensively campaign in person since former Conservative leader R. B. Bennett in 1930, projecting an image of himself as a congenial family man. While the campaign was relatively light on actual policy and based mostly around St. Laurent's personality, the approach paid off and saw the Liberals win the biggest parliamentary majority in the country's history until that point (and what remains the Liberals' biggest majority), with the only province where they failed to win at least a plurality of the popular vote being Alberta, where support for Social Credit remained strong; even then, the five seats won in the province by the Liberals has not been matched at any federal election since this one. Progressive Conservatives The Progressive Conservative Party, led by former Premier of Ontario George Drew, lost over a third of their seats. Despite the party's mild recovery at the previous election, they proved a largely ineffective opposition and remained far behind the Liberals in polls throughout the 1945-1949 parliament, largely due to in-fighting between the western faction of previous leader John Bracken, and the party's eastern establishment who favoured the installation of Drew as leader. Drew's own reluctance to step away from his role as Premier of Ontario hampered efforts to remove Bracken, and it wasn't until Drew unexpectedly lost his seat in the Ontario legislature in the 1948 provincial election and announced his intention to move into federal politics that Bracken finally resigned. While Drew won the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives by a landslide over John Diefenbaker in October 1948, his ascension to the party leadership was overshadowed by St. Laurent's own rise to the Prime Minister's office (additionally, Drew was not an MP when he became party leader, causing him to lose a further two months on a by-election to the Carleton riding after both the CCF and Social Credit fielded candidates and actively campaigned against him, going against the then-usual convention of allowing Canadian party leaders to win by-elections without opposition), meaning that he struggled to make an impression in the media. Support for the party declined across the country in the election, but was felt most keenly in Drew's native Ontario, and to a lesser degree in British Columbia. The party thus failed to win even a plurality of the seat count or popular vote in even a single province or territory (although they did come a very close second in the popular vote in Prince Edward Island). Their national popular vote share actually increased by two percentage points, but most of the extra votes were in earned in Quebec, where they accomplished little due to the large majorities held by Liberal MPs. Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation After something of a breakthrough in the previous federal election, the CCF struggled to keep up its momentum. Their polling numbers peaked in late 1948 when they came close to moving into second place ahead of the Progressive Conservatives, thanks to party leader Major James Coldwell being able to portray an image of experience compared to the new Liberal and Progressive Conservative leaders, but this increase ebbed away after the turn of the year, once St. Laurent and Drew had been able to establish themselves as leaders of their respective parties. Despite hopes to exploit renewed western alienation that might be generated by the leaders of the two main parties respectively being from Quebec and Ontario, the CCF were largely unable to capitalise and ended up losing over half their parliamentary caucus. In particular, they were decimated in their political base of Saskatchewan, losing all but five of their seats to the Liberals despite coming a close second in the popular vote, and the relative popularity of Tommy Douglas' provincial CCF government. The only saving grace was that the CCF at least remained the main challengers to the Liberals in the west, coming away with 11 seats west of Ontario compared to 10 and 7 respectively for the Socreds and Progressive Conservatives. Social Credit Party For the fourth successive election, Social Credit would only succeed in electing MPs in Alberta, where they continued to control the legislative assembly under Premier Ernest Manning. While their vote and seat count also declined, they held up better than the CCF's did, in part because the resignation of Bracken as Conservative leader and the ensuing abandonment of his western populist policies caused some Progressive Conservative supporters to switch their support to the Socreds, stemming losses to the Liberals. The party thus lost three seats to the Liberals, but remained a comfortable first in the province, making them the only party other than the Liberals to win the most seats and/or votes in a province during this election. Opinion polling + Evolution of voting intentions at national level Polling firmLast day of survey Source LPC PC CCF SC BP Other Undecided ME Margin of Error SampleElection 1949June 27, 194949.1529.6513.422.31—5.47GallupJune 1949Survey gives Liberals margin over others June 18, 1949 The Calgary Gazette 22492915622GallupMay 1949Drew versus the pollsters June 20, 1949 The Leader-Post 6492916618GallupApril 1949Canada's election watched for socialistic trends June 4, 1949 The Schenectady Gazette 84232175422GallupJanuary 1949403318923GallupOctober 194839272176GallupAugust 1948Liberal support falls below '45 vote level October 16, 1948 The Calgary Gazette 241282065GallupJune 1948CCF gaining support at liberals' expense June 30, 1948 The Ottawa Citizen 141281966GallupFebruary 194843281577GallupJanuary 19484228166826GallupOctober 194743281667GallupJuly 1947Party strength in Canada stays virtually unchanged October 4, 1947 The Windsor Star 1642271669Bloc populaire dissolved (July 6, 1947)GallupMay 194743261669GallupFebruary 1947Few changes noted in political set-up March 1, 1947 The Calgary Herald 16412718743GallupDecember 1946412618654GallupSeptember 1946No Notable Shift in Party Support March 1, 1947 The Evening Citizen 1412717510GallupMay 1946442616410GallupJanuary 1946452416410GallupNovember 194544261749Election 1945June 11, 1945 39.7827.6215.554.053.299.71 National results center|300px PartyParty leader# of candidatesSeatsPopular vote1945Elected% Change#%Change CA Liberal row Liberal Louis St. Laurent 258 117 191 +63.2% 2,874,813 49.15% +9.37pp CA PC row Progressive Conservative George Drew 249 65 41 -21.5% 1,734,261 29.65% +2.03pp CA CCF row Co-operative Commonwealth M.J. Coldwell 180 28 13 -53.6% 784,770 13.42% -2.13pp CA Social Credit row-name Solon Low 28 13 10 -23.1% 135,217 2.31% -1.74pp CA Independent row Independent 28 6 4 -33.3% 119,827 2.05% -2.84pp CA Ralliement créditiste row Union of ElectorsRéal Caouette 56 - - - 86,087 1.47% +1.46pp CA Labor-Progressive row-nameTim Buck 17 1 - -100% 32,623 0.56% -1.58pp CA Independent row Independent Liberal 15 8 1 -87.5% 30,407 0.52% -1.27pp CA Independent row Liberal-Labour  2 - 1   11,730 0.20% +0.19pp CA Liberal-Progressive row-name  1 1 1 - 9,192 0.16% +0.04pp CA Independent rowIndependent PC 6 1 - -100% 8,195 0.14% -0.14pp CA Independent row Farmer-Labour   1 - - - 6,161 0.11% -0.07pp CA Independent row National Unity Adrien Arcand 1 * -* 5,590 0.10% * CA Independent row Nationalist   1 * -* 4,994 0.09%* CA Independent rowIndependent Social Credit 2 * -* 4,598 0.08% * CA Labour row-name   2 - - - 415 0.01% x CA Independent row Socialist Labour   1* -* 271 x *Total 848 245 262+7.8% 5,849,151 100%  Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867 https://web.archive.org/web/20081204121507/http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/process/house/hfer/hfer.asp?Language=E 2008-12-04 Notes: * The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election. x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote Vote and seat summaries Ternary plots - shift of electoral support (1945-1949) 350 200 yes center Electoral districts identified by colours of winning parties File:Ternary CA1945.svg 1945 Ternary plot of 1945 results File:Ternary CA1949.svg 1949 Ternary plot of 1949 results Popular vote #ddd 600px 410px Liberal #F08080 49.15 PC CA PC 29.65 CCF CA CCF 13.42 Social Credit CA Social Credit 2.31 Labor-Progressive CA Labor-Progressive 0.56 Others #DCDCDC 4.91 Seat totals #ddd 600px 410px Liberal #F08080 72.90 PC CA PC 15.64 CCF CA CCF 4.96 Social Credit CA Social Credit 3.81 Others #DCDCDC 2.67 Results by province Party nameBCABSKMBONQCNBNSPENLTerrTotal CA Liberal rowLiberal Seats: 11 5 14 11 55 68 8 10 3 5 1 191 CA Liberal row 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 CA PC rowProgressive Conservative Seats: 3 2 1 1 25 2 2 2 1 2 - 41 CA PC row Vote: 27.9 16.8 14.4 22.0 37.4 24.5 39.4 37.5 48.4 27.9  29.7 CA CCF rowCo-operative Commonwealth Seats:3 - 5 3 1 -- 1 - - - 13 CA CCF row 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 CA Social Credit rowSocial Credit Seats:- 10 -   -            10 CA Social Credit row Vote: 0.5 37.4 0.9  0.2            2.3 CA Independent rowIndependent Seats:1     - -3 -         4 CA Independent row Vote: 2.6     2.1 0.1 6.1 0.2       34.0 2.1 CA Independent rowIndependent Liberal Seats:         1- -         1 CA Independent row Vote:         0.3 1.3 1.4         0.5 CA Independent rowLiberal-Labour Seats:         1-           1 CA Independent row Vote:       0.6 xx          0.2 CA Liberal-Progressive rowLiberal-Progressive Seats:      1              1 CA Liberal-Progressive row Vote:       2.9               0.2 Total Seats18 17 20 16 8373 10 13 47 1 262Parties that won no seats:CA Ralliement créditiste row Union of Electors Vote:         0.1 5.11.0         1.5 CA Labor-Progressive row-name Vote: 0.8 0.7 0.4 2.0 0.7 0.3           0.6 CA Independent row Independent PC Vote:        xx 0.5           0.1 CA Independent row Farmer-Labour Vote:         0.3             0.1 CA Independent row National Unity Vote:           0.4           0.1 CA Independent row Nationalist Vote:           0.3           0.1 CA Independent rowIndependent Social Credit Vote:  1.4                   0.1 CA Labour row-name Vote:       xx xx          xx CA Independent row Socialist Labour Vote:        xx            xx xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote See also Canada Politics List of Canadian federal general elections List of political parties in Canada 21st Canadian Parliament References Further reading LeDuc Lawrence Pammett Jon H. McKenzie Judith L. Turcotte André Dynasties and Interludes: Past and Present in Canadian Electoral Politics 2010 Dundurn Press Toronto 978-1-55488-886-3 https://archive.org/details/dynastiesinterlu0000unse registration Beck James Murray James Murray Beck Pendulum of Power; Canada's Federal Elections 1968 Prentice-Hall of Canada Scarborough 978-0-13-655670-1 https://archive.org/details/pendulumofpower0000unse registration Canada, Chief Electoral Officer Twenty-First General Election, 1949: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer 1949 Queen's Printer Ottawa 2027/mdp.39015024873526 free 1949 Federal Category:June 1949 in Canada