1926 Ontario general election

1926 Ontario general election
	December 1, 1926
112 seats in the 17th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ; 57 seats were needed for a majority
Premier before election; G. Howard Ferguson; Conservative	Premier after election ; G. Howard Ferguson; Conservative

The 1926 Ontario general election was the 17th general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on December 1, 1926, to elect the 112 Members of the 17th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs").[1]

Background

The United Farmers of Ontario decided to withdraw from electoral politics after having been defeated in the 1923 election, and most of its MPPs redesignated themselves as Progressives with former UFO Attorney-General William Edgar Raney becoming party leader. Nevertheless, several MPPs, including Raney himself, continued to run as candidates endorsed by local UFO associations.

Leslie Oke and Beniah Bowman were opposed to Raney's leadership as he was not a farmer. They were also opposed to the creation of a new Progressive Party which would not focus exclusively on farmers' issues, so they chose to remain as UFO MPPs. Bowman later resigned from the legislature before the election.

The fracture of the UFO, together with a large number of resignations from MPPs who chose to run federally in the elections of 1925 and 1926, significantly changed the composition of the Assembly:

Changes in seats held (1923–1926)
Seat	Before				Change
Seat	Date	Member	Party	Reason	Date	Member	Party
Lennox	August 23, 1923	John Perry Vrooman	█ Liberal	Died in office	October 22, 1923	Charles Wesley Hambly	█ Conservative
Toronto Northwest - A	May 15, 1924	Thomas Crawford	█ Conservative	Accepted provincial appointment	July 7, 1924	William Henry Edwards	█ Conservative
Simcoe South	April 14, 1925	William Earl Rowe	█ Conservative	Resigned to run in 1925 federal election			█ Vacant
Kenora	April 14, 1925	Peter Heenan	█ Labour	Resigned to run in 1925 federal election			█ Vacant
Cochrane	April 14, 1925	Malcolm Lang	█ Liberal	Resigned to run in 1925 federal election			█ Vacant
Norfolk North	April 14, 1925	George David Sewell	█ Progressive	Resigned to run in 1925 federal election			█ Vacant
Grey Centre	April 14, 1925	Dougall Carmichael	█ Progressive	Resigned to run in 1925 federal election			█ Vacant
Kent East	April 14, 1925	Manning William Doherty	█ Progressive	Resigned seat to promote cooperative movement			█ Vacant
London	August 15, 1925	Adam Beck	█ Conservative	Died in office			█ Vacant
Middlesex East	April 8, 1926	John Willard Freeborn	█ Progressive	Resigned to run in 1926 federal election			█ Vacant
Manitoulin	April 8, 1926	Beniah Bowman	█ United Farmers	Resigned to run in 1926 federal election			█ Vacant
Kent West	October 11, 1926	Robert Livingstone Brackin	█ Liberal	Died in office			█ Vacant

Redistribution of seats

Toronto ridings, as constituted in 1914

Toronto ridings as reconstituted in 1926

A 1925 Act provided for the redistribution of the Legislative Assembly into 112 ridings for the election.[2]

The dual-member ridings in the City of Toronto, in effect since the 1914 election, were abolished and replaced by single-member seats:

Abolished ridings	New ridings
Toronto Northeast	Eglinton[a 1] St. David[a 2] St. George St. Patrick
Toronto Northwest	Bellwoods Brockton Dovercourt St. Andrew part to St. Patrick
Toronto Southeast	Split between St. David, St. George and Riverdale
Toronto Southwest	Bracondale Other parts to Brockton, Dovercourt, Bellwoods, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick
Riverdale	Greenwood Riverdale Woodbine

Also absorbed parts of York East and York West.
Originally named Sherbourne in the 1925 Act; subsequently renamed in the 1926 Act.

Beaches was drawn out from York East, and High Park from York West.

There were other changes made to ridings elsewhere in the Province:

Brant and Brant South were reorganized into Brant County and Brantford
Bruce West was divided between Bruce North and Bruce South
Durham East and Durham West were combined to form Durham
Frontenac and Lennox became Frontenac—Lennox
Grey Centre wasa divided between Grey North and Grey South
Hamilton Centre was created from parts of Hamilton East and Hamilton West
Huron Centre was split between Huron North and Huron South
London was split into London North and London South
Middlesex East was split between Middlesex North and Middlesex West
Norfolk North and Norfolk South merged to form Norfolk
Northumberland East and Northumberland West became Northumberland
Ottawa West was divided to form Ottawa North and Ottawa South
Peterborough East and Peterborough West were reorganized to form Peterborough City and Peterborough County
Wellington East and Wellington West merged to form Wellington Northeast
Windsor was divided to form Windsor East and Windsor West
York South was carved out from York West

A further Act in 1926 merged Simcoe South and Simcoe West into Simcoe Southwest, and divided Cochrane into Cochrane North and Cochrane South.[3]

Summary

The Ontario Conservative Party, led by Howard Ferguson, was re-elected for a second term in government. The principal issue of the campaign was the government's proposal to repeal the Ontario Temperance Act, replacing prohibition with government control of liquor sales. The Liberal and Progressive parties both campaigned against repeal, and one of Ferguson's ministers, William Folger Nickle, resigned from the cabinet and ran for re-election against the government as a Prohibitionist candidate.

The Ontario Liberal Party, led by W.E.N. Sinclair, maintained its 14 seats, while the Progressives won 10. Four Liberal-Progressive candidates were also elected, along with several independents. Oke was the only UFO MPP who was re-elected as such, and he was joined by Thomas Farquhar from Manitoulin and Farquhar Oliver from Grey South. The latter won with the assistance of federal MP Agnes MacPhail. Karl Homuth of Waterloo South was the only Labour MPP returned.

Results

Elections to the 17th Parliament of Ontario (1926)
Political party		Party leader	MPPs					Votes
Political party		Party leader	Candidates	1923	Dissol.	1926	±	#	%	± (pp)
	Conservative	Howard Ferguson	112	75	74	72	3	634,635	55.36%	5.80
	Liberal	W.E.N. Sinclair	49	14	11	14		197,623	17.24%	4.12
	Progressive	William Raney	17	–	11	10	10	72,445	6.32%	Split from UFO
	Liberal–Progressive		9	–	–	4	4	45,733	3.99%	New
	United Farmers	Leslie Oke	3	17	1	3	14	15,417	1.34%	19.77
	Labour		3	4	3	1	3	14,794	1.29%	3.47
	Independent Liberal		7	–	1	4	4	21,002	1.83%	New
	Independent Conservative		6	–	–	2	2	19,198	1.67%	New
	Independent Progressive		1	–	–	1	1	5,861	0.51%	New
	Liberal-Prohibitionist		2	–	–	1	1	9,115	0.80%	New
	Independent		1	1	–	–	1	2,912	0.25%	1.37
	Prohibitionist		27	–	–	–		96,868	8.45%	New
	Liberal-Labour		2	–	–	–		4,633	0.40%	New
	Progressive-Liberal		1	–	–	–		3,941	0.34%	New
	Liberal-Labour-Prohibitionist		1	–	–	–		2,298	0.20%	New
	Vacant				10
Total			241	111	111	112		1,146,475	100.00%
Blank and invalid ballots								6,717
Registered voters / turnout								1,805,061	63.89%	6.15

Seats and popular vote by party
Party	Seats	Votes	Change (pp)
█ Conservative	72 / 112	55.36%	5.80	5.8
█ Liberal	14 / 112	17.24%	-4.12
█ Progressive	10 / 112	6.32%	6.32	6.32
█ Liberal–Progressive	4 / 112	3.99%	3.9	3.9
█ United Farmers	3 / 112	1.34%	-19.77
█ Labour	1 / 112	1.29%	-3.47
█ Other	8 / 112	6.01%	4.39	4.39
█ Prohibitionist	0 / 112	8.45%	8.45	8.45

Notes

References

"1926 General Election". Elections Ontario. Elections Ontario. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
The Representation Act, 1925, S.O. 1925, c. 7
The Representation Act, 1926, S.O. 1926, c. 2

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