1975 Ontario general election

1975 Ontario general election

← 1971 September 18, 1975 1977 →

125 seats in the 30th Legislative Assembly of Ontario
63 seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
  Robert Nixon-c1971
Leader Bill Davis Stephen Lewis Robert Nixon
Party Progressive Conservative New Democratic Liberal
Leader since February 12, 1971 October 4, 1970 January 6, 1967
Leader's seat Brampton Scarborough West Brant—Oxford—Norfolk
Last election 78 19 20
Seats won 51 38 36
Seat change Decrease27 Increase19 Increase16
Popular vote 1,192,592 956,904 1,125,615
Percentage 36.07% 28.94% 34.04%
Swing Decrease8.43pp Increase1.79pp Increase6.29pp


Premier before election

Bill Davis
Progressive Conservative

Premier after election

Bill Davis
Progressive Conservative

The 1975 Ontario general election was held on September 18, 1975, to elect the 125 members of the 30th Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of the Province of Ontario, Canada.

The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by Bill Davis and campaigning under the slogan, "Your Future. Your choice.", won a tenth consecutive term in office but lost its majority in the legislature for the first time since the 1945 election. The PC party lost 27 seats from its result in the previous election.

The social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party, led by Stephen Lewis with the slogan "Tomorrow starts today", doubled its representation in the legislature, and became the Official Opposition on the strength of a campaign which called for rent control in Ontario and highlighted horror stories of individuals victimized by bad landlords who imposed exorbitant rent increases. The campaign forced Davis' Tories to promise to implement rent controls shortly before the election.

The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Robert Nixon, won 16 additional seats, but lost the role of Official Opposition to the NDP. One member of its caucus was elected as a Liberal-Labour candidate.