1945 Ontario general election

Ontario general election, 1945

June 4, 1945
90 seats in the 22nd Legislative Assembly of Ontario 46 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader George Drew Mitchell Hepburn Party Progressive Conservative Liberal Leader since December 9, 1938 April 2, 1945 Leader's seat High Park Elgin (lost re-election) Last election 38 15 Seats won 66 14 Seat change 28 1 Percentage 44.3% 29.8% Swing 8.6pp 1.4pp   Third party Fourth party   LP Leader Ted Jolliffe Leslie Morris Party Co-operative Commonwealth Labor-Progressive Leader since April 3, 1942 1945 Leader's seat York South (lost re-election) Ran in Bracondale (Lost) Last election 34 2 Seats won 8 2 Seat change 26 ±0 Percentage 22.4% 2.4% Swing 9.3pp
Premier before election George Drew Progressive Conservative Premier-designate George Drew Progressive Conservative

The Ontario general election of 1945 was held on June 4, 1945, to elect the 90 members of the 22nd Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of the Province of Ontario, Canada.

The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by George Drew, won a second consecutive term in office, winning a solid majority of seats in the legislature—66, up from 38 in the previous election.

The Ontario Liberal Party, led by former premier Mitchell Hepburn, was returned to the role of official opposition with 11 seats, plus 3 Liberal-Labour seats that it won, out of 6 contested, in coalition with the Labor-Progressive Party (which was, in fact, the Communist Party), in an effort to marginalize the CCF. The three new Liberal-Labour MPPs were James Newman of Rainy River, Joseph Meinzinger of Waterloo North and Alexander Parent of Essex North.

The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), led by Ted Jolliffe, was reduced from 34 seats to only 8.

Two seats were won by the Labor-Progressive Party on its own with the re-election of A.A. MacLeod and J.B. Salsberg. The LPP contested a total of 31 ridings under the leadership of Leslie Morris who was defeated in the Toronto riding of Bracondale. As well, the Labor-Progressive Party ran several joint candidates with the Liberals under the Liberal-Labour banner.

The Drew government called the election in an attempt to get a majority government. By exploiting increasing Cold War tensions, the PC Party was able to defeat Jolliffe's CCF by stoking fears about communism. Jolliffe replied by giving a radio speech (written by Lister Sinclair) that accused Drew of running a political gestapo in Ontario, alleging that a secret department of the Ontario Provincial Police was acting as a political police spying on the opposition and the media. This accusation led to a backlash, and loss of support for the CCF, including the loss of Jolliffe's own seat of York South. This probably helped Drew win his majority, although in the 1970s, archival evidence was discovered proving the charge.

Results

	Party	Leader	1943	Elected	% change	Popular vote
						%	change
	Progressive Conservative	George Drew	38	66	+73.7%	44.3%	+8.6%
	Liberal	Mitchell Hepburn	15	11	-26.7%	29.8%	-1.4%
	Liberal-Labour		-	3
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Ted Jolliffe	34	8	-76.5%	22.4%	-9.3%
	Labor–Progressive	Leslie Morris	2	2	-	2.4%
	Liberal Independent		1	-	-
Total Seats			90	90	-	100%

See also

• Politics of Ontario
• List of Ontario political parties
• Premier of Ontario
• Leader of the Opposition (Ontario)