1949 Canadian federal election

1949 Canadian federal election

June 27, 1949
262 seats in the House of Commons 132 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	73.8% (1.5pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Louis St. Laurent George A. Drew Major James Coldwell Party Liberal Progressive Conservative Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since August 7, 1948 October 2, 1948 March 22, 1942 Leader's seat Quebec East Carleton Rosetown—Biggar Last election 118 65 28 Seats won 191 41 13 Seat change 73 24 15 Popular vote 2,874,813 1,734,261 784,770 Percentage 49.15% 29.65% 13.42% Swing 9.37pp 2.03pp 2.13pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Solon Earl Low Tim Buck Party Social Credit Labor–Progressive Leader since April 6, 1944 1929 Leader's seat Peace River Ran in Trinity (lost) Last election 13 1 Seats won 10 0 Seat change 3 1 Popular vote 135,217 32,623 Percentage 2.31% 0.56% Swing 1.74%pp 1.58pp
The Canadian parliament after the 1949 election
Prime Minister before election Louis St. Laurent Liberal Prime Minister after election Louis St. Laurent Liberal

The 1949 Canadian federal election was held June 27, 1949 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 21st Parliament of Canada.

The Liberal Party of Canada was re-elected with its fourth consecutive government, winning 191 seats (73 percent of the seats in the House of Commons), with just under 50 percent of the popular vote.

It was the Liberals' first election in almost thirty years not under the leadership William Lyon Mackenzie King. King had retired in 1948, and was replaced as Liberal leader and Prime Minister by Louis St. Laurent.

It was the first federal election with Newfoundland voting, having joined Canada in March of that year. It was also the first election since 1904 in which part of the remaining parts of the Northwest Territories were granted representation, following the partitioning off of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The Liberal Party victory was the largest majority in Canadian history to that point. As of 2022, it remains the third largest majority government in Canadian history, and the largest in the party's history (the Progressive Conservative Party won larger seat majorities in 1958 and 1984).

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by former Premier of Ontario George Drew, gained little ground in this election. The party lost over a third of their seats.

Smaller parties, such as the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and Social Credit, a party that advocated monetary reform, lost support to the Liberals and, to a lesser extent, the Conservatives.

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1945	Elected	% Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Louis St. Laurent	258	117	191	+63.2%	2,874,813	49.15%	+9.37pp
	Progressive Conservative	George Drew	249	65	41	-21.5%	1,734,261	29.65%	+2.03pp
	Co-operative Commonwealth	M.J. Coldwell	180	28	13	-53.6%	784,770	13.42%	-2.13pp
	Social Credit	Solon Low	28	13	10	-23.1%	135,217	2.31%	-1.74pp
	Independent		28	6	4	-33.3%	119,827	2.05%	-2.84pp
	Independent Liberal		15	8	1	-87.5%	30,407	0.52%	-1.27pp
	Liberal-Labour		2	-	1		11,730	0.20%	+0.19pp
	Liberal–Progressive		1	1	1	-	9,192	0.16%	+0.04pp
	Union of Electors	Réal Caouette	56	-	-	-	86,087	1.47%	+1.46pp
	Labor–Progressive	Tim Buck	17	1	-	-100%	32,623	0.56%	-1.58pp
	Independent PC		6	1	-	-100%	8,195	0.14%	-0.14pp
	Farmer-Labour		1	-	-	-	6,161	0.11%	-0.07pp
	National Unity	Adrien Arcand	1	*	-	*	5,590	0.10%	*
	Nationalist		1	*	-	*	4,994	0.09%	*
	Independent Social Credit		2	*	-	*	4,598	0.08%	*
	Labour		2	-	-	-	415	0.01%	x
	Socialist Labour		1	*	-	*	271	x	*
Total			851	245	262	+7.8%	5,849,151	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867 Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine

Notes:

* The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Results by province

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	Terr	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	11	5	14	11	55	68	8	10	3	5	1	191
		Popular Vote:	36.7	33.8	43.4	45.1	45.1	60.4	53.8	52.7	49.2	71.9	49.0	49.1
	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	3	2	1	1	25	2	2	2	1	2	-	41
		Vote:	27.9	16.8	14.4	22.0	37.4	24.5	39.4	37.5	48.4	27.9		29.7
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Seats:	3	-	5	3	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	13
		Vote:	31.5	10.0	40.9	25.9	15.2	1.1	4.2	9.9	2.4	0.2	17.0	13.4
	Social Credit	Seats:	-	10	-		-							10
		Vote:	0.5	37.4	0.9		0.2							2.3
	Independent	Seats:	1			-	-	3	-					4
		Vote:	2.6			2.1	0.1	6.1	0.2				34.0	2.1
	Independent Liberal	Seats:					1	-	-					1
		Vote:					0.3	1.3	1.4					0.5
	Liberal-Labour	Seats:					1	-						1
		Vote:					0.6	xx						0.2
	Liberal-Progressive	Seats:				1								1
		Vote:				2.9								0.2
Total Seats			18	17	20	16	83	73	10	13	4	7	1	262
Parties that won no seats:
	Union of Electors	Vote:					0.1	5.1	1.0					1.5
	Labor–Progressive	Vote:	0.8	0.7	0.4	2.0	0.7	0.3						0.6
	Independent PC	Vote:					xx	0.5						0.1
	Farmer-Labour	Vote:					0.3							0.1
	National Unity	Vote:						0.4						0.1
	Nationalist	Vote:						0.3						0.1
	Independent Social Credit	Vote:		1.4										0.1
	Labour	Vote:					xx	xx						xx
	Socialist Labour	Vote:					xx							xx

• xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 21st Canadian Parliament

Further reading

• LeDuc, Lawrence; Pammett, Jon H.; McKenzie, Judith L.; Turcotte, André (2010). Dynasties and Interludes: Past and Present in Canadian Electoral Politics. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 978-1-55488-886-3.
• Beck, James Murray (1968). Pendulum of Power; Canada's Federal Elections. Scarborough: Prentice-Hall of Canada. ISBN 978-0-13-655670-1.