1919 Ontario general election explained

Election Name:	1919 Ontario general election
Country:	Ontario
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Party Colour:	no
Party Name:	no
Previous Election:	1914 Ontario general election
Previous Year:	1914
Previous Mps:	14th Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Next Election:	1923 Ontario general election
Next Year:	1923
Seats For Election:	111 seats in the 15th Legislative Assembly of Ontario 56 seats were needed for a majority
Election Date:	October 20, 1919
Leader1:	Ernest C. Drury
Leader Since1:	October 1919
Leaders Seat1:	-
Last Election1:	pre-creation
Seats1:	44
Seat Change1:	44
Percentage1:	21.0%
Swing1:	21.0pp
Leader2:	Hartley Dewart
Leader Since2:	June 26, 1919
Last Election2:	24
Seats2:	27
Seat Change2:	3
Percentage2:	25.5%
Swing2:	12.4pp
Leader4:	William Hearst
Leader Since4:	1914
Leaders Seat4:	Sault Ste. Marie (lost re-election)
Last Election4:	84
Seats4:	25
Seat Change4:	59
Percentage4:	34.1%
Swing4:	19.8pp
Leader5:	Walter Rollo
Leader Since5:	-
Leaders Seat5:	Hamilton West
Last Election5:	1
Seats5:	11
Seat Change5:	10
Percentage5:	9.1%
Swing5:	7.8pp
Premier
Posttitle:	Premier after election
Before Election:	William Hearst
After Election:	Ernest C. Drury

The 1919 Ontario general election, held on October 20, 1919, elected 111 Members of the 15th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs"). The United Farmers of Ontario captured the most seats but only a minority of the legislature. They joined with 11 Labour MPPs and three others to form a coalition government, ending the 14-year rule of Ontario's Conservatives.^[1] This is one of the few examples of coalition government in Canadian history.

Premier William Howard Hearst had aimed to win a fifth consecutive term for the Conservatives, but instead the party became the first in Ontario history to fall from first to third place.^[2] As newspaperman John Willison later remarked, "There could not have been a worse time for a general election."^[2]

Campaign

The parties tended to have a targeted approach in fielding their candidates:

Candidates nominated !!rowspan="2"

Ridings !	Party
align="center"	Con	align="center"	Lib	align="center"	UFO	align="center"	Lab	align="center"	Ind	align="center"	Farm-Lab	align="center"	Ind-Con	align="center"	Soc	align="center"	Farm-Lib	align="center"	Soldier	align="center"	Sold-Lab	align="center"	Ind-Lib	Totals
Acclamation	4	4												4
2	48	44	15	31	2	2		1		1				96
3	50	46	44	32	14	8	3			1	1	1		150
4	8	8	6	2	4	4	2	2	2		1	1		32
5														-
6	1	1	1	1	1				1				1	6
Total	111	103	66	66	21	14	5	3	3	2	2	2	1	288

It was the first in which women could vote and run for office. Election day was also held on the same day as the scheduled referendum on prohibition.^[2]

Conservatives

Hearst alienated the business community with his progressive policies; he had a rift with Adam Beck (London) over the direction of the Ontario Hydro-Electric Commission; and his promotion of prohibition alienated the urban "wets".^[2]

Only the Conservatives attempted to field a full slateand were helped by having four candidates being declared elected by acclamationbut about two dozen incumbents decided to step aside in favour of the local farmer candidates.

Seventeen Conservative MLAs either retired from the Legislature, or had failed to be renominated. Arthur Pratt (Norfolk South) opted to campaign as an Independent-Conservative, claiming earlier in the year that at least 27 MLAs privately opposed Hearst's prohibition policy.

Beck also decided to stand as an Independent, saying, "I do not object to the Government having a control of the Hydro enterprise, but I object to its becoming a Government department; only as an Independent can I look after the interests of Hydro-Electric Power for the people of the Province in the most efficient manner."

Liberals

The Liberals split between those still loyal to former leader Newton Rowell and his successor William Proudfoot (Huron Centre), and those who supported the new leader, Hartley Dewart.^[2] John Campbell Elliott (Middlesex West) (who had come in 3rd in the 1919 leadership contest), joined by five others, decided to drop out of the race.

They tried to avoid direct contests with UFO candidates,^[2] fielding candidates in only 66 ridings as opposed to the 90 named in the 1914 election. In many respects, however, they underestimated the discontent that was simmering among rural Ontarians, and Dewart focused his attention unnecessarily against the Conservative campaign manager George Howard Ferguson.^[3]

Proudfoot opted to campaign as an Independent.

United Farmers

The UFO focused on rural areas. Its leader, R.H. Halbert, did not campaign, as he had been elected to the House of Commons of Canada in an earlier by-election. It had only two incumbent MPPs, Beniah Bowman and John Wesley Widdifield, who had entered the legislature by winning by-elections in Manitoulin and Ontario North.

Labour

The labour political movement was fragmented between the Independent Labour Party, the Ontario section of the Canadian Labour Party, and the Ontario Labour Educational Association and its newspaper The Industrial Banner. The ILP was the effective organization on the campaign trail that year, and it promoted joint action with the UFO.

Media in the campaign

Media support in the campaign was mixed. The Globe and The Toronto Star, at that time both Liberal in outlook, were hostile against Dewart because of his stand on temperance issues. The Toronto World, generally a Conservative backer, pursued a simmering scandal from 1916^{[4] [5]} concerning International Nickel and alleged provincial support of wartime shipments of the metal to Germany via the cargo submarine Deutschland.^[6] The Farmer's Sun, recently acquired by the UFO, was an enthusiastic promoter of farmer policies.

Electoral system

Of the 111 seats, 103 were from single-member constituencies elected through first-past-the-post voting. The remaining eight came from four dual-member ridings in Toronto, each of which had parallel contests voting separately for seat A and seat B under the same FPTP rules.

Post-election pendulum

The robustness of the margins of victory for each party can be summarized in electoral pendulums. These are not necessarily a measure of the volatility of the respective riding results. The following tables show the margins over the various 2nd-place contenders, for which one-half of the value represents the swing needed to overturn the result. Actual seat turnovers to the opposition parties in the 1919 election are noted for reference.

= seats that opposition parties gained in the election

colspan="4" align="center"	Coalition (58 seats)
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins 5% or less
Northumberland East			Con	0.98
Lanark North			Con	1.18
Essex South			Lib	1.51
Huron Centre			Ind	1.97
Renfrew North			Con	2.38
Hastings East			Con	2.44
Renfrew South			Con	3.06
Niagara Falls			Lib	3.48
Simcoe East			Con	3.89
Wentworth South			Con	4.07
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins 5%10%
Oxford South			Con	5.52
Grey Centre			Con	5.74
Peterborough West			Lib	6.01
Dufferin			Con	7.00
Simcoe South			Con	7.36
London			Ind	7.88
Bruce North			Lib	8.17
Ontario North			Con	8.24
Riverdale			Lab	8.31
Lambton West			Lab	8.64
Wellington West			Con	9.20
Halton			Con	9.54
Huron South			Con	9.84
Grey South			Con	9.98
Lanark South			Con	9.99
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins 10%20%
Kent East			Con	10.56
Grey North			Con	11.84
Carleton			Con	12.48
Wellington East			Con	12.48
Brant			Con	12.59
Elgin West			Con	14.22
St. Catharines			Con	14.58
Durham East			Con	15.78
Simcoe Centre			Con	15.78
Victoria North			Con	15.88
Peterborough East			Con	16.36
Brant South			Lib	17.27
Sault Ste. Marie			Con	18.22
Dundas			Con	18.90
Elgin East			Con	18.94
Haldimand			Con	19.66
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins > 20%
Manitoulin			Con	20.40
Fort William			Lib	20.80
Middlesex North			Con	22.18
Glengarry			Lib	24.20
Norfolk South			I-Con	25.34
Kenora			Ind	25.79
Norfolk North			Con	26.18
Lambton East			Con	28.01
Perth South			Con	28.40
Middlesex East			Lib	28.53
Hamilton East			S-Lab	28.55
Waterloo South			Lib	29.12
Hamilton West			Con	32.07
Victoria South			Con	37.94
Essex North			Con	42.18
Wentworth North			Con	44.42
Middlesex West			Con	51.18

colspan="4" align="center"	Liberal (27 seats)
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins 5% or less
Algoma			Con	0.61
Bruce West			UFO	1.30
Toronto NW - B			Con	1.60
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins 5%10%
Lincoln			UFO	6.16
Parry Sound			Con	8.98
Russell			UFO	9.59
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins 10%20%
Northumberland West			Con	10.64
Perth North			UFO	11.21
Prince Edward			Con	11.56
Bruce South			UFO	12.24
Durham West			Con	12.40
Nipissing			Lab	12.70
Brockville			Con	12.94
Stormont			UFO	13.43
Prescott			UFO	15.67
Welland			Con	16.49
Kent West			UFO	17.31
Toronto SE - A			Con	17.55
Toronto SW - B			Con	18.10
Cochrane			Con	18.69
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins > 20%
Oxford North			Con	20.51
Windsor			Con	27.18
Toronto SW - A			Con	27.72
Ontario South			Con	27.94
Toronto SE - B			Con	33.84
Ottawa East			Lab	38.54
Sturgeon Falls			Con	41.46
colspan="4" align="center"	Conservative (25 seats)
colspan="4" align="center"	Acclaimed
Toronto NE - A
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins 5% or less
Timiskaming			F-Lab	0.89
Peel			Lib	0.93
Grenville			UFO	1.00
Wellington South			Lib	1.01
Sudbury			Lib	1.62
York North			Lib	2.63
Ottawa West			Lab	4.21
Hastings West			Lib	4.38
Muskoka			Lib	4.39
Huron North			Lib	4.43
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins 5%10%
Lennox			Lib	5.39
York East			UFO	6.87
York West			F-Lab	7.61
Port Arthur			Lib	7.74
Toronto NW - A			Lib	7.86
Frontenac			UFO	7.99
Leeds			Lib	9.18
Rainy River			Lib	9.92
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins 10%20%
Simcoe West			UFO	10.92
Toronto NE - B			I-Con	17.59
colspan="4" align="center"	Margins > 20%
Parkdale			Ind	37.90
colspan="4" align="center"	Independent-Liberal (1 seat)
Waterloo North			Lab	13.85

Impact

The result was highly skewed as a result of the way the ridings were drawn up. The Ottawa Journal noted, "The arrangement of electoral districts in Ontario (and throughout Canada) is such that a farmer’s vote has practically twice the effect of the vote of any person resident in cities or large towns. Ottawa, for instance, with 110,000 population elects two members to the Ontario Legislature; Carleton County on one side with 20,000 people elects one member; Russell County on the other side has a population of 40,000 and elects one member."

The UFO emerged from the vote with the largest bloc of seats, joining the eleven Labour MLAs to form a coalition government. Liberal-UFO MLA David James Taylor of Grey North, "Soldier" MLA Joseph McNamara of Riverdale and Labour-UFO MLA Karl Homuth of Waterloo South were also members of the governing caucus giving Drury's coalition 58 seats in total, a slight majority.

The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Hartley Dewart, increased the size of its caucus by a small number, despite turning over more than half the seats held. The Conservative Party lost ground to all other parties, despite receiving the most votes.

The election had several sweeping results:

• only about two dozen MPPs from the previous Legislative Assembly were re-elected;

• notably, Conservative William Hearst was defeated by a Labour candidate;

• Beck and Proudfoot were also defeated by Labour candidates, despite the decision of the Conservatives and Liberals not to contest the seats;

• three clergymen were elected;

• eighteen returned soldiers were elected; and

• all anti-Prohibition candidates were defeated.

Upon hearing the news of the Conservative defeat, Hearst noted:

Three days after the election, James J. Morrison, Secretary of the UFO, reported on the way he had addressed the need to form a working majority in the chamber. He released the following statement:

Ernest C. Drury agreed to lead the new government as Premier of Ontario,^[7] and a UFO-Labour coalition cabinet was formed. Although he was Vice-President of the UFO, Drury had not been a candidate in the election and had to run in a by-election to enter the legislature following his appointment to the office of Premier.

Results overview

|-! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party! rowspan=2 | Party leader! colspan=5 | MPPs! colspan=3 | Votes|-! Candidates!1914!Dissol.!1919!±!#!%! ± (pp)|-|rowspan="7" |  |style="text-align:left;" colspan="10"|UFO-Labour Coalition|-|style="text-align:left;" ||style="text-align:left;"| - |66| - |2|44|44|248,274|20.97%||-|style="text-align:left;" ||style="text-align:left;"|Walter Rollo|21|1|1|11|10|107,588|9.09%|7.75|-|style="text-align:left;" ||style="text-align:left;"||5| - | - |1|1|27,841|2.35%||-|style="text-align:left;" ||style="text-align:left;"||2| - | - |1|1|7,448|0.63%||-|style="text-align:left;" ||style="text-align:left;"||2| - | - |1|1|9,618|0.81%||-|style="text-align:left;" colspan="5"|Coalition Total|58||400,679|33.85%||style="text-align:left;"|Hartley Dewart|66|24|27|27|3|301,995|25.51%|12.41|style="text-align:left;"|William Hearst|103|84|79|25|59|403,655|34.09%|19.78|style="text-align:left;"||1|1|1|1||5,354|0.45%|0.01|style="text-align:left;"|Liberal-Temperance|style="text-align:left;"|| - |1|1| - |1|colspan="3"|Did not campaign|style="text-align:left;"||14| - | - | - | - |48,244|4.07%|3.08|style="text-align:left;"||3| - | - | - | - |14,213|1.20%|0.81|style="text-align:left;"||2| - | - | - | - |9,088|0.77%||style="text-align:left;"||3| - | - | - | - |637|0.05%|0.87|-style="background:#E9E9E9;"|colspan="3" style="text-align:left;"|Total|288|111|111|111||1,183,955|100.00%||-|colspan="8" style="text-align:left;"|Blank and invalid ballots|align="right"|50,810|style="background:#E9E9E9;" colspan="2"||-style="background:#E9E9E9;"|colspan="8" style="text-align:left;"|Registered voters / turnout|1,443,746|85.53%|21.10|}

Party !! Seats !! Votes !! colspan="3"

Change (pp)

Results by riding

Italicized names indicate members returned by acclamation. Two-tone colour boxes indicate ridings that turned over from the 1914 election, eg,

Central Ontario

Eastern Ontario

Hamilton/Halton/Niagara

Midwestern Ontario

Northeastern Ontario

Northwest Ontario

Southwestern Ontario

Toronto

York/Peel/Ontario

Analysis

Party !! !!1st !!2nd !!3rd !!4th !!5th

			44	12	9	1
			11	6	3	1
			1	2	2
			1		1
			1		1
			27	21	17	1
		4	21	59	18		1
			1
				4	8	2
				2		1
				1		1
						2
Totals		4	107	107	59	9	1

Party !!UFO !!Lab !!F-Lab !!Lib !!Con !!Ind !!Ind-Con !!S-Lab

			1		4	38		1
					4	3	3		1
					1
						1
			1
		8	2			17
		4	1	2	12		1	1
			1
Totals		12	6	2	21	59	4	2	1

Principal races, according to 1st and 2nd-place results

Parties		Seats
		42
		29
		12
		6
		4
		3
		2
		1
		1
		1
		1
		1
		1
		1
		1
		1
Total		107

Seats that changed hands

Elections to the 15th Parliament of Ontario – seats won/lost by party, 1914–1919

Party		1914	Gain from (loss to)																		1919
			UFO		Lab		F-Lab		F-Lib		Sol		Lib		Con		I-Lib		L-Tmp
		-											10		34						44
		1											3		7						11
		-													1						1
		-													1						1
		-													1						1
24		(10)		(3)									16	(1)	1				27
84		(34)		(7)		(1)		(1)		(1)	1	(16)				(1)	1		25
1												(1)	1						1
Liberal-Temperance	1														(1)					-
Total		111	-	(44)	-	(10)	-	(1)	-	(1)	-	(1)	14	(17)	61	(2)	1	(1)	1	-	111

There were 77 seats that changed allegiance in the election:

(* - open seats, # - byelection gains held, ^ - change of affiliation)

(Riding names in italics did not have Liberal candidates. Riding names in bold did not have Conservative candidates.)

Conservative to UFO

• Carleton
  • Dufferin
  • Dundas
• Durham East
• Elgin East
  • Elgin West
• Grey Centre
• Grey South
• Haldimand
• Halton
• Hastings East
• Huron South
  • Lambton East
• Lambton West
  • Lanark North
• Lanark South
  • Manitoulin

1. • Middlesex East

• • Norfolk South
• Northumberland East
  • Ontario North

1. • Oxford South

• Perth South
  • Peterborough East
• Renfrew North
• Renfrew South
• Simcoe Centre
  • Simcoe East
• Simcoe South
• Victoria North
• Victoria South
  • Wellington West
• Wentworth North
  • Wentworth South

Conservative to Labour

• Fort William
• Hamilton West
  • Kenora
• London
• Niagara Falls
• Sault Ste. Marie
• St. Catharines

Conservative to Farmer-Labour

• Waterloo South

Conservative to Farmer-Liberal

• Grey North

Conservative to Soldier

• Riverdale

Conservative to Liberal

• Algoma
• Brockville
• Bruce South
• Durham West
• Kent West
  • Nipissing
• Ontario South
• Parry Sound
• Perth North

1. • Stormont

• • Toronto Northwest - B
• Toronto Southeast - A*
• Toronto Southeast - B*
• Toronto Southwest - A#
• Toronto Southwest - B*
• Welland

Conservative to Independent-Liberal

• Waterloo North

Liberal to UFO

• Brant
  • Bruce North
• Essex North
  • Essex South
• Glengarry
  • Kent East
  • Middlesex North
• Middlesex West
  • Norfolk North
  • Wellington East

Liberal to Labour

• Brant South
  • Huron Centre
• Peterborough West

Liberal to Conservative

• Ottawa West

Independent-Liberal to Liberal

• Prescott^

Liberal-Temperance to Conservative

• Wellington South

Source !!colspan="9"

Party
align="center"	UFO	align="center"	Lab	align="center"	F-Lab	align="center"	F-Lib	align="center"	Soldier	align="center"	Lib	align="center"	Con	align="center"	Ind-Lib	Total
Seats retained	Incumbents returned		1				8	14		23
	Open seats held						1	4		5
	Byelection loss reversed							1		1
	Acclamation							4		4
Seats changing hands	Incumbents defeated	23	9	1			10	2	1	46
	Open seats gained	19	1		1	1	5			27
	Byelection gain held	2					2			4
	Change in affiliation						1			1
Total		44	11	1	1	1	27	25	1	111

Notable groups of candidates

Party !! Riding !! Candidate !! Military rank !! Votes !! Placed

	Conservative		Arthur Edward Ross	Brigadier-General	Acclaimed
			Andrew Wellington Gray	Major	4,351	1st
			William Herbert Price	Colonel	11,091	1st
				Colonel	4,562	1st
			Donald McDonald Hogarth	Brigadier-General	2,578	1st
			Thomas Magladery	Captain	3,092	1st
		Toronto Northeast - B		Captain	13,495	1st
			Caleb Henry Buckland†	Captain	4,362	1st
	Liberal		Kenneth Spencer Stover	Lieutenant	2,272	1st
			Malcolm Lang	Major	2,951	1st
			Edward O'Flynn	Lieutenant-Colonel	4,647	2nd
			Bart Robson	Lieutenant-Colonel	2,500	2nd
			Robert Arthur	Lieutenant-Colonel	3,409	2nd
		Toronto Northwest - B		Lieutenant-Colonel	18,522	1st
		Toronto Southwest - B	John Carman Ramsden	Captain	12,428	1st
			James Craig Tolmie †	Major	10,874	1st
	Soldier		Maurice Fitzgerald	Captain	2,146	3rd
				Sergeant-Major	7,472	1st
	Soldier-Labour		Samuel Landers	Lieutenant	8,424	2nd
			Samuel Wilkinson		664	3rd
	United Farmers			Lieutenant-Colonel	4,363	1st
			George Little	Captain	7,290	2nd
		Independent		Harold Arthur Clement Machin *‡	Lieutenant-Colonel	895	2nd
	Independent Conservative		Arthur Clarence Pratt *‡	Colonel	1,954	2nd
		Toronto Northeast - B	Kelly Evans ‡	Lieutenant-Colonel	8,172	2nd

(* - incumbent; † - chaplain; ‡ - Anti-Prohibition)

Candidate !! Votes !! Placed

		Justenia Sears	2,723	4th
Toronto Northeast - B		Henrietta Bundy	5,685	3rd

Party !! Riding !! Candidate

	Conservative		William David Black
			John Robert Cooke
			Arthur Edward Ross
		Toronto Northeast - A	Henry John Cody

Cooke was the only acclaimed candidate who had not previously been an incumbent.

See also

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

Notes and references

References

Further reading

• Book: . 1919. Ontario Sessional Papers, 1920, No.51-79. Return from the Records of the General Election to the Legislative Assembly in 1919. https://archive.org/details/p8ontariosession52ontauoft/page/n17/mode/2up. Toronto. King's Printer.
• Book: Hopkins, J. Castell . The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1919 . 1920 . The Annual Review . Toronto .
• Piva. Michael J.. 1977. Workers and Tories: The Collapse of the Conservative Party in Urban Ontario, 1908-1919. Urban History Review. 5. 3–76. 23–39. 10.7202/1019467ar.
• Scollie. Frederick Brent. 2012. The Woman Candidate for the Ontario Legislative Assembly, 1919-1929. Ontario History. 104. 2. 1–27. 10.7202/1065435ar.
• Tennyson. Brian Douglas. 1969. The 1919 General Election in 1919: The Beginnings of Agrarian Unrest. Journal of Canadian Studies. 4. 1. 26–36. 10.3138/jcs.4.1.26.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 1919 General Election . Elections Ontario . January 3, 2021.
2. Web site: The year the UFOs came to power in Ontario. Bradburn. Jamie. May 3, 2018. tvo.org.
3. Strange . Carolyn . 2005 . Dewart, Herbert Hartley . 15 .
4. Book: Hopkins, J. Castell. 1917. The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1916. Toronto. The Annual Review Publishing Co. Ltd.. 532–540.
5. News: . October 15, 1919. An Old Bone Gnawed Dry. Toronto World. 6.
6. Miller. Scott. 2019. Devil Copper: War and the Canadian Nickel Industry, 1883–1970. Canadian Military Journal. 20. 1. 31–39. at 34
7. News: . October 30, 1919. Simcoe County Farmer is the Unanimous Choice as Ontario's Next Premier. Toronto World. 1.