1927 Manitoba general election

1927 Manitoba general election

← 1922 June 28, 1927 1932 →
55 seats of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba 27 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader John Bracken Fawcett Taylor Party Progressive Conservative Leader since August 8, 1922 April, 1922 Leader's seat The Pas Portage la Prairie Last election 28 7 Seats won 29 15 Seat change 1 8 Popular vote 52,805 44,320 Percentage 32.4% 27.2% Swing 0.4pp 11.7pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Hugh Robson John Queen Party Liberal Independent Labour Leader since 1927 1923 Leader's seat Winnipeg Winnipeg Last election 8 6 Seats won 7 3 Seat change 1 3 Popular vote 33,852 17,133 Percentage 20.7% 10.5% Swing 2.5pp 0.6pp
Premier before election John Bracken Progressive Premier after election John Bracken Progressive

The 1927 Manitoba general election was held on 28 June 1927 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. The result was a second consecutive victory for Manitoba farmers, following its 1922 win.

This was the first election in Manitoba history to elect MLAs through casting of ranked ballots in all districts. Ten MLAs were elected in Winnipeg through Single transferable vote, as they had done since 1920. The other districts now began to elect MLAs through Instant-runoff voting.

The Progressive Party of Manitoba, led by Premier John Bracken, won a second consecutive majority government in 1927. Progressive candidates won twenty-nine seats out of fifty-five to win their second majority government. During the campaign, the Progressives stressed that they were not a party in the traditional sense and promised "A business (not a party) government". Many Progressive candidates simply described themselves as Bracken supporters. The Progressive Party was supported by the powerful United Farmers of Manitoba organization.

The Conservatives won fifteen seats under the leadership of Fawcett Taylor, an improvement from seven in the election of 1922. This election re-established the Conservatives as the leading opposition party in Manitoba, and made the party a credible challenger for government in the next election.

The Manitoba Liberal Party was unable to regain the support it had lost to the Progressive Party in the previous election. The Liberals won seven seats under the new leadership of Hugh Robson, down one from their 1922 total. After the election, many senior Liberals began to work for an electoral alliance with the Progressives. Robson, who opposed this plan, was persuaded to resign as leader in 1930. The alliance was formalized in 1932.

The Independent Labour Party fell to three seats, down from six in the previous election. All three members, including party leader John Queen, were elected in the city of Winnipeg. Candidates of four separate parties - Liberal, Conservative, ILP and Progressive - plus an Independent - were elected to fill that city's ten seats. Winnipeg seats were filled using a form of proportional representation, Single transferable voting.

Jacob Penner ran in Winnipeg as a Communist candidate, but was not successful. He lasted 19 rounds of transfers but picked up very few votes so was eliminated.

Independent candidate John Edmison was re-elected in Brandon.

The proportion of the vote received by the Progressive Party (based on first-preference votes) was enough to assure a functioning government, but it was one of lowest in Canadian history.^[1]

The Legislature experienced a significant turnover of members, with 23 seats electing new MLAs. Twelve incumbents (one in Winnipeg, and 11 more in other ridings) went down in defeat, six failed to be renominated, and five chose not to stand for reelection.^[2]

Under the instant-runoff voting used to elect 45 MLAs, the leader in the first count of the district's votes was the one elected in all but three districts,so the final results in the districts outside Winnipeg were almost the same as under First-past-the-post voting .

Of the 45 single-member ridings, two MLAs were returned by acclamation. Twenty-one were decided solely on first-preference votes, with no vote transfers conducted. The remainder (22) went to runoff counts. There were only three "turn-overs" where the first count leader did not win due to vote transfers - in Minnedosa, Morden & Rhineland and Springfield. The Progressive candidate was leading on the first count in all three districts but after vote transfers, Conservatives won two of them and Liberals won one.

Seventeen seats in the single-member districts went to parties different from the previous election. Eleven rural incumbents running for re-election under their old party label were defeated. Three other incumbents changed their party label and were re-elected. Three open seats flipped to another party.