The 1937 Ontario general election was held on October 6, 1937, to elect the 90 Members of the 20th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs"). It was the 20th general election held in the Province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. The

Ontario Liberal Party The Ontario Liberal Party (OLP; french: Parti libéral de l'Ontario, PLO) is a political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by interim leader John Fraser since August 2022. The party espouses the principles of lib ...

, led by

Mitchell Hepburn Mitchell Frederick Hepburn (August 12, 1896 – January 5, 1953) was the 11th premier of Ontario, from 1934 to 1942. He was the youngest premier in Ontario history, appointed at age 37. He was the only Ontario Liberal Party leader in the 20th cent ...

, was re-elected for a second term in government, with a slightly reduced majority in the Legislature. The Ontario Conservative Party, led by William Earl Rowe, was able to win six additional seats, and continued to form the

official opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

. Meanwhile, the fledgling democratic socialist

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialistThe foll ...

(CCF) ran 37 candidates out of a possible 90, led by party president John Mitchell running in Waterloo South, who also campaigned throughout the province on the party's behalf. The election, however, resulted in a modest decline in popular vote and the loss of the party's sole MLA, Sam Lawrence in Hamilton East. Incumbent MLA

Farquhar Oliver Farquhar Robert Oliver (March 6, 1904 – January 22, 1989) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. Oliver was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a United Farmers of Ontario Member of the Legislative Assembly in the 1926 provi ...

was the last remaining

United Farmers of Ontario The United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) was an Agrarianism, agrarian and Populism, populist provincial political party in Ontario, Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers (disambiguation), United Farmers movement of the earl ...

MLA and ran as the party's sole candidate in the election. In practice, however, he had been a supporter of the Liberal government and would join Hepburn's cabinet in 1940, formally joining the Liberal Party. In 1938, MLAs voted to adopt the title "

Member of Provincial Parliament Member of Provincial Parliament is the title given to provincial legislators in two legislatures: * Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada) * Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape) In the Western Cape province of South Africa, Member of P ...

", and became known as "MPPs". This Ontario election was the last to date in which the winning party (together with effective support from the Progressives and UFO, against which they did not field opposing candidates) has won an absolute majority of the popular vote.

Results

, - ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 , Political party ! rowspan=2 , Party leader ! colspan=5 , MPPs ! colspan=3 , Votes , - ! Candidates !

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a max ...

! Dissol. !1937 !± !# !% ! ± (pp) , style="text-align:left;",

, 86 , 65 , 66 , 63 , 2 , 777,579 , 49.49% , 2.40 , style="text-align:left;", William Earl Rowe , 89 , 17 , 17 , 23 , 6 , 619,599 , 39.44% , 0.33 , style="text-align:left;", , 3 , 4 , 4 , 2 , 2 , 16,920 , 1.08% , 1.36 , style="text-align:left;", , 8 , – , – , 1 , 1 , 20,776 , 1.32% , 0.49 , style="text-align:left;",

, 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , , 7,296 , 0.46% , 0.09 , style="text-align:left;", John Mitchell
(party president) , 39 , 1 , 1 , – , 1 , 83,579 , 5.32% , 1.66 , , 6 , 1 , – , – , 1 , 5,549 , 0.35% , 0.06 , style="text-align:left;", , 8 , 1 , 1 , – , 1 , 4,108 , 0.26% , 0.86 , style="text-align:left;", , 6 , – , – , – , , 14,675 , 0.93% , 0.89 , style="text-align:left;", , 2 , – , – , – , , 9,626 , 0.61% , , style="text-align:left;", , 5 , – , – , – , , 8,270 , 0.53% , 0.51 , style="text-align:left;", Socialist-Labour , style="text-align:left;", , 11 , – , – , – , , 2,199 , 0.14% , 0.04 , style="text-align:left;", , 1 , – , – , – , , 538 , 0.03% , , style="text-align:left;", , 1 , – , – , – , , 408 , 0.03% , 0.45 , style="text-align:left;", Workers , style="text-align:left;", , – , – , – , – , , colspan="3", ''Did not campaign'' , colspan="3", , , colspan="5", , -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;", Total , 266 , 90 , 90 , 90 , , 1,571,122 , 100.00% , , - , colspan="8" style="text-align:left;", Blank and invalid ballots , align="right", 16,799 , style="background:#E9E9E9;" colspan="2", , -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan="8" style="text-align:left;", Registered voters / turnout , 2,237,678 , 70.96% , 4.28

Seats that changed hands

There were 17 seats that changed allegiance in the election. ; Liberal to Conservative *

Dufferin—Simcoe Dufferin—Simcoe was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1925 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario. This riding was created in 1924 from parts of Dufferin and Simcoe South ridings. I ...

* Fort William * Hastings West *

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Peel Peel or Peeling may refer to: Places Australia * Peel (Western Australia) * Peel Island, Queensland *Peel, New South Wales * Peel River (New South Wales) Canada * Peel Parish, New Brunswick * Peel, New Brunswick, an unincorporated communi ...

* Prince Edward—Lennox * Riverdale *

Simcoe East Simcoe East was a federal electoral district in the province of Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1882 to 1968. This riding was created in 1882 from parts of Muskoka riding. The "East Riding of the co ...

* Victoria ; Conservative to Liberal *

Bracondale Bracondale was a provincial electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1926 to 1967. The constituency got its name from an old Toronto suburb called Bracondale, that was annexed ...

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

* St. David ; Liberal-Progressive to Liberal * Brant *

Muskoka—Ontario Muskoka—Ontario was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1925 to 1949. It was located in the province of Ontario. This riding was created in 1924 from parts of Muskoka and Ontario North ridings. I ...

; CCF to Liberal * Hamilton East ; Labour to Liberal *

Kenora Kenora (), previously named Rat Portage (french: Portage-aux-Rats), is a city situated on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada, close to the Manitoba boundary, and about east of Winnipeg by road. It is the seat of Kenora District. The hi ...

; Independent to Independent-Liberal *

Brantford Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independ ...

Results

Seats that changed hands

See also

Notes

References

Further reading