1919 Ontario general election

1919 Ontario general election

← 1914 October 20, 1919 1923 →

111 seats in the 15th Legislative Assembly of Ontario
56 seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Ernest C. Drury Hartley Dewart
Party United Farmers Liberal
Leader since October 1919[a] June 26, 1919
Leader's seat - Toronto Southwest
Last election pre-creation 24
Seats won 44 27
Seat change Increase44 Increase3
Percentage 21.0% 25.5%
Swing Increase21.0pp Decrease12.4pp

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader William Hearst Walter Rollo
Party Conservative Labour
Leader since 1914 -
Leader's seat Sault Ste. Marie (lost re-election) Hamilton West
Last election 84 1
Seats won 25 11
Seat change Decrease59 Increase10
Percentage 34.1% 9.1%
Swing Decrease19.8pp Increase7.8pp

Premier before election

William Hearst
Conservative

Premier after election

Ernest C. Drury
United Farmers

The 1919 Ontario general election, held on October 20, 1919, elected 111 Members of the 15th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs"). The United Farmers of Ontario captured the most seats but only a minority of the legislature. They joined with 11 Labour MPPs and three others to form a coalition government, ending the 14-year rule of Ontario's Conservatives.[1] This is one of the few examples of coalition government in Canadian history.

Premier William Howard Hearst had aimed to win a fifth consecutive term for the Conservatives, but instead the party became the first in Ontario history to fall from first to third place.[2] As newspaperman John Willison later remarked, "There could not have been a worse time for a general election."[2]


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  1. ^ "1919 General Election". Elections Ontario. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Bradburn, Jamie (May 3, 2018). "The year the UFOs came to power in Ontario". tvo.org.