This is a list of results of leadership elections for the Ontario Liberal Party, a political party in Ontario, Canada.
Note: Before 1919, the leaders of the Ontario Liberal Party were chosen by its elected Members of the Legislative Assembly. There were calls for a more open process as early as 1907.
(Held on June 26, 1919 at the Foresters' Hall, 22 College Street, Toronto.)[1]
First ballot:
Second ballot:
Charles Martin Bowman, MPP for Bruce North; W.T.R. Preston, editor of the Port Hope Evening Guide, Rev. W. G. Charlton of Aylmer, and A. J. Young of Toronto were nominated but declined. Frederick Forsyth Pardee, Member of Parliament for Lambton West was to be nominated but sent a message to the convention declining.[2]
(Held on March 3, 1922 at the Foresters' Hall, 22 College Street, Toronto.)[3]
(Note: The vote totals do not appear to have been announced.)
(Held on December 16–17, 1930 at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto.)[4]
W.E.N. Sinclair and Sydney Tweed both withdrew from the race before balloting.
(Held on April 30, 1943 at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto.)
There were 8 spoiled ballots. Premier Gordon Conant had also been a candidate but collapsed the morning of the leadership vote and withdrew.
(Held on April 2, 1945 at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto.)
Harry Nixon resigned as Liberal leader on December 10, 1944 and nominated Hepburn to succeed him as parliamentary leader until a leadership convention could be held.[5] Following the defeat of George Drew's Conservative government in a non-confidence motion, Hepburn was elected Acting Leader on April 2, 1945, at a joint meeting held at the King Edward Hotel of Ontario Liberal MPPs, federal Ontario Liberal MPs the party executive and other party officials in order to lead the party into the election. The move was to be affirmed by a party convention to be held on May 1, but this was cancelled due to the 1945 provincial election being underway.[6] [7] [8] Hepburn was defeated in the 1945 provincial election, and Farquhar Oliver was chosen as the Ontario Liberal Party's parliamentary leader on July 4, 1945.
(Held on May 16, 1947 at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto)[9]
(Note: Complete vote totals were not reported. Oliver received 492 of 661 votes cast)[10]
(Held on November 10, 1950 at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.)[11]
First ballot:
Second ballot (Sullivan eliminated; Hicks, Cox and Hipel withdrew):
Third ballot (Calder eliminated):
(Held on April 9, 1954 at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.)[12]
(Held on April 20, 1958 at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto.)[13]
First ballot:
Wren eliminated and endorsed Wintermeyer; Whicher and Reaume withdrew and endorsed Wintermeyer.[14]
Second ballot:
Singer eliminated.
Third ballot:
See main article: 1964 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. (Held on September 19–20, 1964 at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.)
| Candidate | 1st ballot | 2nd ballot | 3rd ballot | 4th ballot | 5th ballot | 6th ballot | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % |
| Andy Thompson | 379 | 27.7 | 408 | 29.7 | 462 | 33.6 | 520 | 38.1 | 539 | 39.9 | 772 | 58.8 |
| Charles Templeton | 317 | 23.1 | 356 | 25.9 | 396 | 28.8 | 422 | 30.9 | 419 | 31.0 | 540 | 41.2 |
| Robert Nixon | 313 | 22.8 | 351 | 25.6 | 356 | 25.9 | 387 | 28.3 | 392 | 29.0 | ||
| Joe Greene | 236 | 17.2 | 211 | 15.4 | 149 | 10.9 | 37 | 2.7 | ||||
| Victor Copps | 61 | 4.5 | 27 | 2.0 | 10 | 0.7 | ||||||
| Eddie Sargent | 51 | 3.7 | 20 | 1.5 | ||||||||
| Joseph Gould | 13 | 0.9 | ||||||||||
| Total | 1,370 | 100.0 | 1,373 | 100.0 | 1,373 | 100.0 | 1,366 | 100.0 | 1,350 | 100.0 | 1,312 | 100.0 |
(Held on January 6, 1967 at the Royal York Hotel, Toronto)[15]
(Nixon was elected interim leader by the caucus on November 16, 1966 following the resignation of Andrew Thompson. Nixon had suggested that Charles Templeton may become permanent leader but members of his caucus spoke in opposition and Templeton decline to run. Nixon was acclaimed as permanent leader at the party's 1967 convention. He announced his resignation as party leader in 1972, but subsequently entered the race to succeed himself in 1973.)
See main article: 1973 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election.
(Held on October 28, 1973 at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.)
| Candidate | 1st ballot | 2nd ballot | 3rd ballot | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % |
| Robert Nixon | 730 | 42.5 | 768 | 45.3 | 922 | 57.7 |
| Norman Cafik | 574 | 33.4 | 613 | 36.1 | 675 | 42.3 |
| Donald Deacon | 402 | 23.4 | 316 | 18.6 | Endorsed Nixon | |
| Michael Houlton | 11 | 0.6 | No endorsement | |||
| Total | 1,717 | 100.0 | 1,697 | 100.0 | 1,597 | 100.0 |
See main article: 1976 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. (Held on January 24–25, 1976 at the Four Seasons Sheraton Hotel, Toronto)
| Candidate | 1st ballot | 2nd ballot | 3rd ballot | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % |
| Stuart Smith | 629 | 32.0 | 742 | 38.5 | 998 | 51.2 |
| David Peterson | 518 | 26.4 | 673 | 34.9 | 953 | 48.8 |
| Albert Roy | 469 | 23.9 | 513 | 26.6 | No Endorsement | |
| Mark MacGuigan | 308 | 15.7 | No Endorsement | |||
| Larry Condon | 37 | 1.9 | No Endorsement | |||
| Michael Houlton | 4 | 0.2 | No endorsement | |||
| Total | 1,965 | 100.0 | 1,928 | 100.0 | 1,951 | 100.0 |
See main article: 1982 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. (Held on February 21, 1982 at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Toronto).
= Eliminated from next round
= Withdrew nomination
= Winner
| Candidate | 1st Ballot | 2nd Ballot | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||||
| David Peterson | 966 | 46.3 | 1136 | 55.2 | ||||||
| 636 | 30.5 | 774 | 37.6 | |||||||
| Richard Thomas | 234 | 11.2 | 148 | 7.2 | ||||||
| 130 | 6.2 | |||||||||
| 122 | 5.8 | |||||||||
| Votes cast by ballot | ||||||||||
| Total | 2088 | 100.0 | 2058 | 100.0 | ||||||
See main article: 1992 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. (Held February 8–9, 1992 at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton.)
= Eliminated from next round
= Withdrew nomination
= Winner
| Candidate | 1st Ballot | 2nd Ballot | 3rd Ballot | 4th Ballot | 5th Ballot | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | |
| 740 | 30.2 | 767 | 31.8 | 865 | 35.6 | 988 | 41.6 | 1153 | 49.8 | ||
| Lyn McLeod | 667 | 27.2 | 744 | 30.9 | 873 | 35.9 | 1049 | 44.1 | 1162 | 50.2 | |
| 345 | 14.1 | 380 | 15.8 | 402 | 16.6 | 341 | 14.3 | Released delegates | |||
| 247 | 10.1 | 307 | 12.7 | 289 | 11.9 | Released delegates | |||||
| 236 | 9.6 | 213 | 8.8 | Supported McLeod | |||||||
| 216 | 8.8 | Released delegates | |||||||||
| Votes cast by ballot | |||||||||||
| Total | 2451 | 100.0 | 2411 | 100.0 | 2429 | 100.0 | 2378 | 100.0 | 2315 | 100.0 | |
There were 21 spoiled ballots on the final count.
See main article: 1996 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. (Held November 30 – December 1, 1996 at the Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto)
See main article: 2013 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. (Held January 26, 2013 at the Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto)
= Eliminated from next round
= Withdrew nomination
= Winner
| Candidate | Committed[16] | Ballot 1 | Ballot 2 | Ballot 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Votes | Votes | Votes | +/- (pp) | Votes | +/- (pp) | ||
| Sandra Pupatello | 509 27.4% | 599 28.7% | 817 39.4% | +10.7 | 866 43.0% | +5.8% | ||
| Kathleen Wynne | 468 25.2% | 597 28.6% | 750 36.2% | +7.6 | 1,150 57.0% | +20.8 | ||
| Gerard Kennedy | 260 14.0% | 281 13.5% | 285 13.7% | +0.2 | Endorsed Wynne | |||
| Harinder Takhar | 244 13.1% | 235 11.3% | 18 0.9% | -10.4 | Endorsed Pupatello | |||
| Charles Sousa | 204 11.0% | 222 10.7% | 203 9.8% | -0.9 | Endorsed Wynne | |||
| Eric Hoskins | 105 5.7% | 150 7.2% | Endorsed Wynne | |||||
| Independent | 67 3.6% | |||||||
| Glen Murray | Endorsed Wynne | |||||||
| Votes cast and net change by ballot | ||||||||
| Total | 1,857 | 2,084 | 2,073 | -11 | 2,016 | -57 | ||
Takhar endorsed Pupatello before the second ballot voting took place, but after the deadline to drop off the ballot.
See main article: 2020 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. (Held March 6–7, 2020 at the International Centre, Mississauga)
See main article: 2023 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. (Results announced December 2, 2023 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre)
A leadership election was held December 2, 2023 due to the June 2, 2022 resignation of Steven Del Duca as party leader following his party's poor result in the 2022 Ontario general election.
= Winner
| Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | 3rd round | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes cast | % | Points allocated | % | Votes cast | % | Points allocated | % | Votes cast | % | Points allocated | % | |||||
| 5,559 | 42.96% | 6,047 | 46.73% | 6,911 | 53.40% | |||||||||||
| Nathaniel Erskine-Smith | 3,320 | 25.66% | 3,792 | 29.30% | 6,029 | 46.59% | ||||||||||
| Yasir Naqvi | 2,760 | 21.33% | 3,101 | 23.96% | Eliminated | |||||||||||
| Ted Hsu | 1,300 | 10.05% | Eliminated | |||||||||||||
| Total | 100% | 12,939 | 100% | 100% | 12,940 | 100% | 100% | 12,940 | 100% | |||||||
According to the party, 22,827 party members cast ballots[17] out of a total membership of over 100,000.[18]