Winnipeg South (provincial electoral district) explained

Winnipeg South was a provincial electoral division in Manitoba, Canada, which existed on two separate occasions.

It was initially created for the 1883 provincial election, and abolished with the 1920 election and merged with Winnipeg Centre and Winnipeg North into a single ten-member constituency known as Winnipeg. It was re-established out of Winnipeg for the elections of 1949 and 1953 as a four-member constituency, and was divided into the ridings of River Heights, Fort Rouge, Osborne, Wolseley, and Winnipeg Centre in 1958.

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Original constituency

The original Winnipeg South constituency was created for the 1883 election, when the Winnipeg constituency was divided into two sections: Winnipeg North and Winnipeg South. It was created a single-member constituency, and remained this way until the 1914 election when it returned two members. From 1914 to 1920, electors were allowed to cast ballots for two seats, which were called "Winnipeg South A" and "Winnipeg South B".

Winnipeg South covered the most affluent and middle-class areas of Winnipeg, and usually supported the winning party in provincial elections. Premier Hugh John Macdonald represented the constituency from 1899 to 1900.

Winnipeg South

 NamePartyTook officeLeft officeAlbert Killam
Liberal1883 1885 Charles Hamilton
Conservative1885 1886 William Luxton
Liberal18861888 Isaac Campbell
Liberal18881891 John Cameron
Liberal18911899 Hugh John Macdonald
Conservative1899 1900 James Thomas Gordon
Conservative1900 1910 Lendrum McMeans
Conservative1910 1914

Winnipeg South A

 NamePartyTook officeLeft officeAlbert B. Hudson
Liberal1914 1920

Winnipeg South B

 NamePartyTook officeLeft officeWilliam L. Parrish
Liberal1914 1920

Re-established constituency

The single constituency of Winnipeg was divided into three sections for the 1949 election: Winnipeg North, Winnipeg Centre and Winnipeg South. All three constituencies elected four members to the legislature, with electors choosing members by a single transferable ballot.

By this time, Winnipeg South had become well-established as the most conservative and middle-class section of Winnipeg. It was dominated by the Civic Election Committee at the municipal level, and regularly returned pro-business candidates at the provincial level. The division returned a total of five representatives, all of whom were prominent figures. Liberal-Progressives John Stewart McDiarmid and Ronald Turner served as cabinet ministers in the administration of Douglas Campbell. Dufferin Roblin became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1954 and Premier of Manitoba in 1958, and included Gurney Evans in his cabinet. Lloyd Stinson was Winnipeg South's sole representative from the left, winning election for the socialist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in both 1949 and 1953. He was named as the Manitoba CCF's leader in 1953.

The constituency was eliminated at the 1958 election, when Manitoba abolished its multi-member seats. Several single-member constituencies were created in its place.

Winnipeg South (1949–1958)

 NamePartyTook officeLeft officeJohn Stewart McDiarmid
19491953 Ronald Turner
19491958 Lloyd Stinson
CCF1949 1958 Dufferin Roblin
Independent Progressive Conservative1949 1950Progressive Conservative1950 1958Gurney Evans
Progressive Conservative1953 1958

Election results

1914

Winnipeg South B

1915

Winnipeg South B

1953

The election in this district used single transferable vote. Shown here is the first round of voting only, as the official report only shows this round.