1890 Ontario general election

1890 Ontario general election
← 1886 June 5, 1890 1894 →
91 seats in the 7th Legislative Assembly of Ontario
46 seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Oliver Mowat William Ralph Meredith
Party Liberal Conservative
Leader since 1872 1879
Leader's seat Oxford North London
Last election 57 32
Seats won 53 34
Seat change Decrease4 Increase2
Premier before election

Oliver Mowat
Liberal

Premier after election

Oliver Mowat
Liberal

The 1890 Ontario general election was the seventh general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on June 5, 1890, to elect the 91 members of the 7th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs").[1]

The Assembly had been increased from 90 members after the passage of an Act in 1889 creating Nipissing as a riding.[2]

The election was a victory for the Ontario Liberal Party, led by Oliver Mowat.[3] The party won a sixth consecutive term in government, despite losing a small number of seats in the Legislature.

The Ontario Conservative Party, led by William Ralph Meredith won two additional seats.

This election was held partially using the Limited voting system where each Toronto voter had two votes for the three MPPs in the district. This produced mixed representation in that district and thus a degree of minority representation.[4]

A key issue in the election was the segregation of schools for Catholic and Protestant students, with the Liberal Party supporting the segregation and the Conservatives opposing it.[3]

An 1887 Act had renamed the riding of Cornwall and Stormont as Stormont.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference EOData was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ An Act to give Representation in the Legislative Assembly to the District of Nipissing, S.O. 1889, c. 2
  3. ^ a b Dunning, Wm. A. (1890). "Record of Political Events". Political Science Quarterly. 5 (4): 741. doi:10.2307/2139551. JSTOR 2139551.
  4. ^ 1921 Special House of Commons Committee on pro-rep. report, p. 12
  5. ^ An Act to give early effect to certain amendments of the Law recommended by the Statute Commissioners, S.O. 1887, c. 8 , Schedule