| Election Name: | 1944 Saskatchewan general election |
| Country: | Saskatchewan |
| Flag Year: | 1921 |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Party Colour: | no |
| Party Name: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1938 Saskatchewan general election |
| Previous Year: | 1938 |
| Previous Mps: | 9th Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan |
| Elected Mps: | members |
| Next Election: | 1948 Saskatchewan general election |
| Next Year: | 1948 |
| Next Mps: | 11th Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan |
| Seats For Election: | 52 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan |
| Majority Seats: | 27 |
| Leader1: | Tommy Douglas |
| Leader Since1: | July 17, 1942 |
| Leaders Seat1: | Weyburn |
| Last Election1: | 10 |
| Seats1: | 47 |
| Seat Change1: | 37 |
| Popular Vote1: | 211,364 |
| Percentage1: | 53.13% |
| Swing1: | 34.4pp |
| Leader2: | William John Patterson |
| Leader Since2: | 1935 |
| Leaders Seat2: | Cannington |
| Last Election2: | 38 |
| Seats2: | 5 |
| Seat Change2: | 33 |
| Popular Vote2: | 140,901 |
| Percentage2: | 35.42% |
| Swing2: | 10.03pp |
| Image3: | PC |
| Leader3: | Rupert Ramsay |
| Leader Since3: | February 15, 1944 |
| Leaders Seat3: | Ran in Saskatoon City (lost) |
| Last Election3: | 0 |
| Seats3: | 0 |
| Seat Change3: | ±0 |
| Popular Vote3: | 42,511 |
| Percentage3: | 10.69% |
| Swing3: | 1.18pp |
| Leader4: | — |
| Party4: | Labor-Progressive |
| Leader Since4: | — |
| Leaders Seat4: | — |
| Last Election4: | 2 |
| Seats4: | 0 |
| Seat Change4: | 2 |
| Popular Vote4: | 2,067 |
| Percentage4: | 0.52% |
| Swing4: | 1.41pp |
| Leader5: | Joseph Needham |
| Leader Since5: | 1935 |
| Leaders Seat5: | Did not run |
| Last Election5: | 2 |
| Seats5: | 0 |
| Seat Change5: | 2 |
| Popular Vote5: | 249 |
| Percentage5: | 0.06% |
| Swing5: | 15.84pp |
| Premier | |
| Before Election: | William John Patterson |
| Posttitle: | Premier after election |
| After Election: | Tommy Douglas |
The 1944 Saskatchewan general election 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. It is still the worst defeat of a sitting government in Saskatchewan's history.
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.
| Party | Party leader |
| Seats | Popular vote | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1938 | Dissol. | Elected | % Change | % | % Change | Tommy Douglas | 52 | 10 | 11 | 47 | +327.3% | 211,364 | 53.13% | +34.4% | William Patterson | 52 | 38 | 37 | 5 | align="right" | -86.5% | 140,901 | 35.42% | align="right" | -10.03% | Rupert Ramsay | 39 | – | – | – | – | 42,511 | 10.69% | align="right" | -1.18% | Labor-Progressive | 3 | 2 | 2 | – | – | 2,067 | 0.52% | align="right" | -1.41% | Independent | 5 | – | – | – | – | 705 | 0.18% | align="right" | -0.73% | Joseph J. Needham (default) | 1 | 2 | 2 | – | – | 249 | 0.06% | align="right" | -15.84% | Independent Liberal | 1 | – | 5 | 0.00% | ||||||||
| Total | 153 | 52 | 52 | 52 | – | 397,802 | 100% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: Elections Saskatchewan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Seats | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 2 | 0 | Other parties | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
Names in bold represent cabinet ministers and the Speaker. Party leaders are italicized. The symbol " ** " indicates MLAs who are not running again.
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Athabasca||Pierre Ephrem Ayotte
57|| |Louis Marcien Marion
626||Alexander Fred
De Laronde
9||Errick Guttormur Erickson (Ind.) 78Francis Xavier Poitras (Ind. Liberal) 5|| |Hubert Staines**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cut Knife|| |Isidore Charles Nollet
2726||John A. Gordon
1820|||||| |William Roseland**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Meadow Lake|| |Herschel Lee Howell
2034||Donald MacDonald
1805||William Titley
362||Arthur J. Doucet (Labor-Progressive) 716|| |Donald MacDonald|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Redberry|| |Dmytro Matthew Lazorko
2306||Wilfred James Langley
1285||Ernest Wilson
662||Peter John Semko (Ind.) 99|| |Orest Zerebko**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Rosthern||Henry Begrand
1541|| |Peter J. Hooge
2199||Gordon Ellis Goble
473|||| |John Michael Uhrich**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Shellbrook|| |Albert Victor Sterling
3310||Omer Demers
2177|||||| |Omer Alphonse Demers|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|The Battlefords|| |Alexander Duff Connon
2783||Paul Prince
2426||Robert Wendell McNair
446|||| |Paul Prince|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Turtleford|| |Bob Wooff
2506||William Franklin Kerr
1766||Chester Hicks
399|||| |William Franklin Kerr
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cumberland|| |Leslie Walter Lee
357||Deakin Alexander Hall
242||Raoul Olier
St. Denis
11|||| |Deakin Alexander Hall|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Humboldt|| |Ben Putnam
3587||Arnold William Loehr
2673||Stephen David Weese
358|||| |Joseph William Burton**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Kelvington|| |Peter Anton Howe
3132||Gladstone Mansfield Ferrie
1880||Samuel Edward Hall
649|||| |Peter Anton Howe|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Kinistino|| |William James Boyle
3055||Russell Martin Paul
1544||Andrew Fraser
671|||| |John Richard Parish Taylor**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Melfort|| |Oakland Woods Valleau
3396||John Duncan MacFarlane
1862||Stanley Beattie Caskey
1450|||| |Oakland Woods Valleau|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Prince Albert|| |Lachlan Fraser McIntosh
6178||Harold John Fraser
3617||Edgar Percy Woodman
655|||| |Harold John Fraser|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Tisdale|| |John Hewgill Brockelbank
5283||Clarence Railsback O'Connor
2269||Isaac Flexman Stothers
703|||| |John Hewgill Brockelbank|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Torch River|| |John Bruce Harris
2609||Donald L. Menzies
846||Keith Acton Baldwin
535|||| |James Archibald Kiteley**
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Arm River||William R. Fansher
2256|| |Gustaf Herman Danielson
2343||Thomas Alfred Homersham
1068|||| |Gustaf Herman Danielson|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Biggar|| |Woodrow Stanley Lloyd
3633||Frank Freeman
2156|||||| |John Allan Young**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Hanley|| |James Smith Aitken
2272||Charles Agar
1775||James Hubert Cannon
893|||| |Charles Agar|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Kerrobert-Kindersley|| |John Wellbelove
3236||Donald Laing
2377||Wellington Smith Myers
933|||| |Donald Laing|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Rosetown|| |John Taylor Douglas
3168||William Leith
1864||John Wilbert Stewart
1046|||| |Neil McVicar**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Watrous|| |James Andrew Darling
3801||Frank Stephen Krenn
2312||Hugh Smith
749|||| |Frank Stephen Krenn|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Wilkie|| |Hans Ove Hansen
3567||John Cunningham Knowles
2527|||||| |John Cunningham Knowles
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Canora|| |Myron Henry Feeley
3538||Stephen T. Shabbits
2537|||||| |Myron Henry Feeley|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Last Mountain|| |Jacob Benson
3803||Henry Philip Mang
2064||James Lindsay Blair
1281|||| |Jacob Benson|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Melville|| |William James Arthurs
4575||Lionel Stilborn
3614||Shamus Patrick Regan
821|||| |John Frederick Herman**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Pelly|| |Dan Daniels
3273||Reginald John Marsden Parker
2544||||William Michael Berezowski
(Labor-Progressive) 554|| |Reginald John Marsden Parker|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Saltcoats|| |Joseph Lee Phelps
3461||Donald Alexander MacKenzie
2874||Rae Melville Salkeld
454|||| |Joseph Lee Phelps|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Touchwood|| |Tom Johnston
3337||John Joseph Collins
1925||William Seneshen
301|||| |Tom Johnston|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Wadena|| |George Hara Williams
4162||George Russell Cook
1686||||Walter Elvy Rogers (Ind.) 207|| |George Hara Williams|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Yorkton|| |Arthur Percy Swallow
3887||Alfred Ariel Brown
2280||Norman Roebuck
958|||| |Alan Carl Stewart** (Unity)
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Elrose|| |Maurice John Willis
3771||Hubert Staines
1807||Ernest J. Ewing
1013|||| |Louis Henry Hantelman**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Gravelbourg|| |Henry Edmund Houze
2681||Edward M. Culliton
2586|||||| |Edward Milton Culliton|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Gull Lake|| |Alvin Cecil Murray
3942||Harvey Harold McMahon
2200||Charles Howard Howlett
1356|||| |Harvey Harold McMahon|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Maple Creek|| |Beatrice Janet Trew
3656||John Joseph Mildenberger
2872||George Chester Stewart
911|||| |John Joseph Mildenberger|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Morse|| |Sidney Merlin Spidell
2763||Benjamin Thomas Hyde
2122||Clifford Bruce Martin
725|||| |Benjamin Thomas Hyde|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke||| |Niles Leonard Buchanan
4176||Charles William Johnson
2862|||||| |Charles William Johnson|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Swift Current|| |Harry Gibbs
4756||James Gordon Taggart
3123||Bryan Maxwell Hill
1021|||| |James Gordon Taggart
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Bengough|| |Allan Lister Samuel Brown
3847||Thomas Waddell
2473|||||| |Herman Kersler Warren** (Unity)|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cannington||Gladys Strum
3204|| |William John Patterson
3210||William Armstrong Brigden
687|||| |William John Patterson|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Lumsden|| |William Sancho Thair
2966||James Gallagher Knox
1887||Arthur Maurice Pearson
1220|||| |Robert Scott Donaldson**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Milestone|| |Frank Keem Malcolm
3302||William Pedersen
2207|||||| |William Pedersen|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Moosomin||David Alexander Cunningham
3324|| |Arthur Thomas Procter
3865|||||| |Arthur Thomas Procter|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Qu'Appelle-Wolseley|| |Warden Burgess
4339||Frederick Middleton Dundas
3314||William Herman Acres
938|||| |Frederick Middleton Dundas|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Souris-Estevan|| |Charles David Cuming
3933||Norman Leslie McLeod
2660||Herbert Samuel Penny
1259|||| |Norman Leslie McLeod|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Weyburn|| |Thomas Clement Douglas
5605||James Weyburn Adolphe
3489|||||| |George Levi Crane**
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Moose Jaw City|| |John Wesley Corman
6296Dempster Henry Ratcliffe Heming
5894||William George Baker
2881Harold Walpole Pope
2887||Russell Lawrence Brownridge
1271Hugh Alexander Tiers
1036||Frank Ernest Talbot (Social Credit) 249|| |William Gladstone Ross**William George Baker|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Saskatoon City|| |John Henry Sturdy
9375Arthur Thomas Stone
7792||James Wilfred Estey
5084Robert Mitford Pinder
3924||Rupert David Ramsay
5368Henry Oswald Wright
3171||Frederick Nelson Clarke
(Labor-Progressive) 797
Russell Hartney (Ind.) 200
John Harrison Hilton (Ind.) 121|| |Robert Mitford PinderJames Wilfred Estey|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Regina City|| |Clarence Melvin Fines
14129Charles Cromwell Williams
14784||Charles Roberts Davidson
10982Bernard J. McDaniel
10551||Hugh McGillivray
3536Claude Henry James Burrows
3114|||| |Bernard J. McDanielPercy McCuaig Anderson**
|-| style="width: 130px" |CCF|Guy Franklin Van Eaton|align="right"|3,350|align="right"|53.1|align="right"|-7.3|-|Liberal|Harold Keith Elder|align="right"|2,514|align="right"|42.9|align="right"|+3.2|-|Social Credit|Albert M. Courchene|align="right"|450|align="right"|15.2|align="right"|-|-|- bgcolor="white"!align="left" colspan=3|Total!align="right"|6,314!align="right"|!align="right"|
|-| style="width: 130px" |CCF|Frederick Arthur Dewhurst|align="right"|2,474|align="right"|80.9|align="right"|+12.2|-|Labor-Progressive|William Beeching|align="right"|584|align="right"|19.1|align="right"|-|-|- bgcolor="white"!align="left" colspan=3|Total!align="right"|3,085!align="right"|!align="right"|
|-| style="width: 130px" |CCF|James William Gibson|align="right"|3,006|align="right"|46.1|align="right"|-3.1|-|Liberal|Herbert Wiebe|align="right"|2,410|align="right"|37.0|align="right"|-0.8|-|Progressive Conservative|Rupert Ramsay|align="right"|1,098|align="right"|16.9|align="right"|+3.9|-|- bgcolor="white"!align="left" colspan=3|Total!align="right"|6,514!align="right"|!align="right"|
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.
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |