1914 Ontario general election
The 1914 Ontario general election was the 14th general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on June 29, 1914, to elect the 111 Members of the 14th Legislative Assembly of Ontario (MLAs).[1]
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111 seats in the 14th Legislative Assembly of Ontario 56 seats were needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Ontario Conservative Party, led by Sir James P. Whitney, won a fourth consecutive term in government. Whitney died three months after the election and was succeeded by William Howard Hearst. The Conservatives contested 109 of the 111 ridings, deciding not to have candidates stand in Glengarry (where the Liberal Hugh Munro was acclaimed) and Norfolk North (where the Liberal incumbent Thomas Robert Atkinson was up against a Liberal anti-Temperance candidate).[2] However, dissension within the Tory ranks resulted in a significant number of them campaigning as either independent or temperance candidates.[2]
The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Newton Rowell, formed the official opposition.
Independent Labour MLA Allan Studholme was re-elected in Hamilton East. He had held the seat since a 1906 by-election.
The campaign was seen to turn more significantly on the matter of Regulation 17 (which limited instruction in French-language Catholic separate schools), in comparison to temperance issues, and that worked against the Liberals,[3] who placed Prohibition of sales in bars and clubs as a main plank in their platform.[4]
Expansion of the Legislative Assembly
An Act passed prior to the election expanded the number of members from 106 to 111, and the number of ridings from 103 to 107.[5] The following changes were made:
- Windsor was spun off from Essex North
- Monck was merged with Lincoln, and St. Catharines was withdrawn
- Niagara Falls was withdrawn from Welland
- Cochrane was carved out from Timiskaming
- In Bruce County, the three ridings were reorganized:
- The Township of Kinloss was withdrawn from Bruce South
- Bruce North gained the Township of Elderslie, while those of Bruce and Saugeen were withdrawn
- As a consequence, Bruce Centre was reconstituted as Bruce West
- In Victoria County, Victoria East and Victoria West were reorganized into Victoria North and Victoria South
- In Toronto, the ridings of Toronto East, Toronto North, Toronto South and Toronto West were replaced:
- Toronto Northeast, Toronto Northwest, Toronto Southeast and Toronto Southwest were constituted as two-member constituencies
- Parkdale and Riverdale were created as single-member constituencies
The Patricia Portion acquired in 1912 was divided between Cochrane and Kenora.
Results
| Political party | Party leader | MPPs | Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | 1911 | Dissol. | 1914 | ± | # | % | ± (pp) | |||
| Conservative | James P. Whitney | 109 | 82 | 84 | 2 |
268,548 | 54.02% | 1.57 | ||
| Liberal | Newton Rowell | 90 | 22 | 24 | 2 |
186,168 | 37.45% | 1.06 | ||
| Labour | 4 | 1 | 1 |  |
6,535 | 1.31% | 1.12 | |||
| Independent-Liberal | 2 | – | – | 1 | 1 |
2,236 | 0.45% | New | ||
| Temperance | 9 | – | – | – | 13,064 | 2.63% | New | |||
| Liberal-Temperance | 1 | – | – | 1 | 1 |
2,733 | 0.55% | New | ||
| Conservative-Temperance | 2 | – | – | – | 2,222 | 0.45% | 0.02 | |||
| Prohibitionist | 1 | – | – | – | 1,302 | 0.26% | New | |||
| Liberal–Conservative | 1 | – | 1 |
Did not campaign | ||||||
| Independent | 5 | – | – | – | 4,837 | 0.97% | 0.07 | |||
| Socialist | 12 | – | – | – | 4,532 | 0.91% | 0.04 | |||
| Independent-Conservative | 4 | – | – | – | 4,270 | 0.86% | 0.11 | |||
| Liberal-Anti-Temperance | 1 | – | – | – | 691 | 0.14% | New | |||
| Vacant | ||||||||||
| Total | 240 | 106 | 106 | 111 | 497,138 | 100.00% | ||||
| Blank and invalid ballots | 7,304 | |||||||||
| Registered voters / turnout | 697,935 | 72.28% | 8.02 | |||||||
| Party | Seats | Votes | Change (pp) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 84 / 111 | 54.02% | -1.57 | |||
| Liberal | 24 / 111 | 37.45% | -1.06 | |||
| Temperance factions | 1 / 111 | 3.89% | 3.86 | |||
| Other | 2 / 111 | 4.64% | -1.23 | |||
Results summary by region
| Region | Candidates | Seats | Vote share (%) | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Con | Lib | Temp | Soc | Lab | Ind | Ind-Con | Ind-Lib | Lib-Anti-T | Con | Lib | Lab | Ind-Lib | L-Temp | Con | Lib | Temp | Lab | Ind | Soc | Ind-Con | Ind-Lib | |
| Central Ontario | 19 | 14 | 4 | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | 16 | 3 | – | – | – | 58.34 | 33.07 | 5.89 | – | 2.13 | 0.16 | 0.42 | – |
| Eastern Ontario | 16 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | – | 12 | 4 | – | 1 | – | 49.63 | 39.12 | 2.02 | 0.45 | 2.02 | 0.09 | 3.22 | 3.46 |
| Hamilton, Halton and Niagara | 9 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | – | – | – | – | 7 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 54.31 | 26.01 | 4.11 | 14.10 | – | 1.47 | – | – |
| Midwestern Ontario | 20 | 17 | 4 | 4 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 13 | 7 | – | – | 1 | 50.78 | 38.44 | 8.06 | – | – | 2.01 | – | – |
| Northeastern Ontario | 9 | 8 | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | – | – | – | 7 | 2 | – | – | – | 50.77 | 40.69 | 2.91 | – | 4.03 | 1.61 | – | – |
| Northwest Ontario | 4 | 3 | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 4 | – | – | – | – | 53.90 | 38.31 | – | – | 7.79 | – | – | – |
| Southwestern Ontario | 16 | 16 | – | – | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | 9 | 7 | – | – | – | 49.11 | 47.94 | – | 0.53 | – | – | 2.42 | – |
| Toronto | 10 | 8 | 2 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | 10 | – | – | – | – | 63.94 | 29.87 | 4.59 | – | – | 1.61 | – | – |
| York, Peel and Ontario | 6 | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6 | – | – | – | – | 54.00 | 46.00 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 109 | 90 | 13 | 12 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 84 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 54.50 | 37.45 | 3.97 | 1.31 | 0.97 | 0.91 | 0.86 | 0.45 |
Reorganization of ridings
The newly created ridings returned the following MLAs:
| 1911 | 1914 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riding | Party | Riding | Party | ||
| Essex North | █ Conservative | Essex North | █ Liberal | ||
| Windsor | █ Liberal | ||||
| Monck | █ Liberal | Lincoln | █ Liberal | ||
| Lincoln | █ Conservative | ||||
| Withdrawn from Lincoln | St. Catharines | █ Conservative | |||
| Welland | █ Conservative | Niagara Falls | █ Conservative | ||
| Welland | |||||
| Timiskaming | █ Conservative | Timiskaming | █ Conservative | ||
| Cochrane | █ Liberal | ||||
| Bruce Centre | █ Liberal | Bruce West | █ Liberal | ||
| Toronto ridings: | █ Conservative (8 MLAs) |
Parkdale | █ Conservative | ||
| Riverdale | █ Conservative | ||||
| Toronto Northeast | A | █ Conservative | |||
| B | █ Conservative | ||||
| Toronto Northwest | A | █ Conservative | |||
| B | █ Conservative | ||||
| Toronto Southeast | A | █ Conservative | |||
| B | █ Conservative | ||||
| Toronto Southwest | A | █ Conservative | |||
| B | █ Conservative | ||||
Seats that changed hands
| Party | 1911 | Gain from (loss to) | 1914 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Con | Lib | Lab | I-Lib | L-Tmp | L-Con | ||||||||||
| Conservative | 71 | 8 | (8) | (1) | 1 | 71 | |||||||||
| Liberal | 20 | 8 | (8) | (1) | 19 | ||||||||||
| Labour | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Independent-Liberal[a 1] | – | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Liberal-Temperance | – | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Liberal–Conservative[a 2] | 1 | (1) | – | ||||||||||||
| Total | 93 | 9 | (9) | 9 | (9) | – | – | – | (1) | – | (1) | 1 | – | 93 | |
- Gustave Évanturel (Prescott) was originally elected as a Liberal in 1911.
- James Arthur Mathieu (Rainy River) campaigned as a Conservative and won.
There were 20 seats that changed allegiance in the election:
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Acclamations
| Party | Riding | Candidate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Kenora | Harold Arthur Clement Machin | |
| Renfrew South | Thomas William McGarry | ||
| York West | Forbes Godfrey | ||
| Liberal | Glengarry | Hugh Munro | |
When nominations closed, three candidates were acclaimed.[2] A later withdrawal in Kenora enabled the acclamation of Harold Arthur Clement Machin.[6]
Forbes Godfrey (York West) was acclaimed because the Liberal candidate was held to have missed the deadline by one minute.[2] In Wellington East, the Liberals opted not to press a similar case against the Conservative candidate, whose nomination papers were filed 90 minutes after the deadline.[7]
See also
References
- "1914 General Election". Elections Ontario. Elections Ontario. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- "The Ontario Campaign is Hotly Contested". The Daily British Whig. Kingston. June 23, 1914. p. 8.
- "Sir James' Triumph". The Toronto World. June 30, 1914. p. 6.
- Hopkins 1915, p. 440.
- The Representation Act, S.O. 1914, c. 4
- "Pith of the News". The Daily British Whig. Kingston. June 24, 1914. p. 1.
- "Provincial Election: Only 3 Elected by Acclamation". Newmarket Era. June 26, 1914. p. 2.
Further reading
- Hopkins, J. Castell (1915). The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1914. Toronto: The Annual Review Publishing Company.
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