1944 Saskatchewan general election

Saskatchewan general election, 1944
← outgoing members members →
52 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan; 27 seats needed for a majority
Premier before election; William John Patterson; Liberal	Premier-designate ; Tommy Douglas; Co-operative Commonwealth

The Saskatchewan general election of 1944 was the tenth provincial election in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It was held on June 15, 1944 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.

The election was held six years after the previous election. There is normally a five-year limit on the lifespan of Parliaments and provincial assemblies in Canada, but the emergency brought on by the Second World War allowed the government to delay the election temporarily.

It marked the first time a socialist government was elected anywhere in Canada. Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) leader Tommy Douglas became the premier of the province.

The CCF won 47 of the 52 seats in the legislature, and over half the popular vote, despite a very negative campaign by the governing Liberal Party. The Liberals, led by William John Patterson, accused Douglas of being a communist.

The Liberal popular vote fell by 10 percentage points, and they won only five seats.

The Social Credit Party of Saskatchewan, which had won 16% of the vote and two seats in the 1938 election, collapsed; the party had only one candidate, who won only 249 votes.

The Communist Party-led Unity movement reverted to the name Labor-Progressive Party, and lost both of the seats it had won in 1938.

The Conservative Party, renamed the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan and led by Rupert Ramsay, won over 10% of the vote, but no seats.

An at-large service vote was held for Saskatchewan residents in the Canadian armed services fighting during World War II. This special vote elected three nonpartisan members to represent Saskatchewan soldiers, sailors and airmen stationed in 1.) Great Britain, 2.) the Mediterranean region and 3.) Newfoundland and Canada outside the province. Alberta had a similar system during the war.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats				Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1938	Dissol.	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Tommy Douglas	52	10	11	47	+327.3%	211,364	53.13%	+34.4%
	Liberal	William Patterson	52	38	37	5	-86.5%	140,901	35.42%	-10.03%
	Progressive Conservative	Rupert Ramsay	39	–	–	–	–	42,511	10.69%	-1.18%
	Labor-Progressive		3	2	2	–	–	2,067	0.52%	-1.41% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Independents/row	Independent	5	–	–	–	–	705	0.18%	-0.73%
	Social Credit	Joseph J. Needham (default)	1	2	2	–	–	249	0.06%	-15.84%
	Independent Liberal		1	*	*	–	*	5	0.00%	*
Total			153	52	52	52	–	397,802	100%
Source: Elections Saskatchewan

Note: * Party did not nominate candidates in previous election.

Ranking

Party		Seats	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth
	Co-operative Commonwealth	47	4	1	0	0
	Liberal	5	47	0	0	0
	Progressive Conservative	0	0	37	2	0 Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Independents/row	Other parties	0	1	3	3	3

Riding-by-riding results

Names in bold represent cabinet ministers and the Speaker. Party leaders are italicized. The symbol " ** " indicates MLAs who are not running again.

Northwestern Saskatchewan

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Northeastern Saskatchewan

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West Central Saskatchewan

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East Central Saskatchewan

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Southwest Saskatchewan

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Southeast Saskatchewan

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Urban constituencies

Russell Hartney (Ind.) 200

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By-elections

By-election: Shellbrook, June 29, 1945
CCF hold
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	CCF	Guy Franklin Van Eaton	3,350	53.1	-7.3
	Liberal	Harold Keith Elder	2,514	42.9	+3.2
	Social Credit	Albert M. Courchene	450	15.2	-
Total			6,314

By-election: Wadena, November 21, 1945
CCF hold
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	CCF	Frederick Arthur Dewhurst	2,474	80.9	+12.2
	Labor-Progressive	William Beeching	584	19.1	-
Total			3,085

By-election: Morse, June 27, 1946
CCF hold
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	CCF	James William Gibson	3,006	46.1	-3.1
	Liberal	Herbert Wiebe	2,410	37.0	-0.8
	Progressive Conservative	Rupert Ramsay	1,098	16.9	+3.9
Total			6,514

1944 service elections

Active Service Voters, Saskatchewan members of the Canadian armed services on active duty outside of Saskatchewan, were polled between October 17 and October 30, 1944. One representative was elected from each of three areas. These candidates did not specify any party affiliation.

Area 1 (Great Britain)

Candidate	Votes	%
LAC Delmar Storey Valleau	605
Lt. Col. N.S. Cuthbert	554
Lt. Col. F.E. Bell	330
Major J.R. Mather	319
Lt. P.A. Mahon	311
Sgt. H.S. Bearden	301
RSM A.S. Cochrane	301
Lt. Col. F. Steele	283
F/L C.A. Angus	265
Col. R.B. Martin	260
F/L G. Ward	233
Capt. H.C. Rees	217
S/Sgt. S. Haskell	159
F/O J.C. Cavanagh	149
Lt. J.E. McCann	90
F/O J. Knippelberg	89
Capt. S.A. Giverego	53

Area 2 (Mediterranean Theatre)

Candidate	Votes	%
Lt. Col. Alan Williams Embury	803
BSM H.J. MacBurney	451
Sgt. H.M. Woollard	218
Pte. J.H. Heffernan	216
Capt. E. Horvath	211
Capt. K.A. Calder	203
Cpl. Ian Selkirk	186
Lt. J.H. Archer	168
BSM R.G. Polloc	148
Lt. E.J. Western	105
Sgt. V.C. McCarthy	86
Sgt. C.J. Baker	59
Sgt. D.G. Rice	49
A/PO H.W. Moody	41

Area 3 (Canada outside of Saskatchewan/Newfoundland)

Candidate	Votes	%
Major Malcolm James Dobie	510
S/L John Allan Young	386
C.W.M.S. Clifford Herbert Peet	355
Lt. Col. Henry Austin Hunt	355
Lt. Douglas Hague	347
S/L E.W. Campbell	317
Major Percy H. Maguire	265
AC1 John Bender	209
Lt. Col. Thomas Russell MacNutt	209
Lt. Comdr. Donald Alexander Grant	190
L/Sgt. William Harold Lilwall	186
S/L Angus C. McClaskey	170
F/L Walter Hemming Nelson	124
Sgt. Benjamin Malcolm MacKinnon	114
F/O Robert Bruce Butler	114
Sgt. Irving S. Brown	80
S.Q.M.S. (WO II) David Vogt	74
F/S Gerhard Epp	72
F/S Arthur Rudolph Dohlen	41
F/L H.E.M. Hales	29

References

External links

v t e Elections in Saskatchewan
General elections	1905 1908 1912 1917 1921 1925 1929 1934 1938 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1967 1971 1975 1978 1982 1986 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2016 2020 2024
By-elections	List of Saskatchewan by-elections
Municipal elections	2006 2009 2012 2016 2020 2024