Ontario general election, 1923

The Ontario general election, 1923 was the 16th general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on June 25, 1923, to elect the 111 Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs").

The Ontario Conservative Party, led by George Howard Ferguson, was returned to power with a majority in the Legislature as voters rejected the United Farmers of Ontario-Labour coalition government of Ernest C. Drury.

The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Wellington Hay, lost close to half its caucus in the Conservative landslide.

Voter turnout

The election saw a voter turnout of just 54.7 per cent, the lowest voter turnout in Ontario history until the 2007 election. ^[1]

Results

	Party	Leader	1919	Elected	% change	Popular vote
						%	change
	Conservative	George Howard Ferguson	25	75	+200%	49.8%	+14.9%
	United Farmers	Ernest C. Drury	44	171,3	-61.4%	20.9%	-0.8%
	Labour		11	42	-63.6%	4.7%	-6.9%
	Labour-United Farmers		12		-100%
	Liberal-United Farmers		13		-100%
	Soldier		14		-100%
	Liberal	Wellington Hay	27	14	-48.1%	21.8%	-5.1%
	Independent		-	1
	Liberal Independent		1		-100%
Total Seats			111	111	-	100%

1. Though the UFO emerged with the second largest bloc of seats, they were denied Official Opposition status by new Premier Howard Ferguson who used as justification an announcement by UFO general secretary James J. Morrison that the UFO would be withdrawing from party politics.

2. Karl Homuth, who was elected as the UFO-Labour MLA for Waterloo South in 1919 was re-elected as a Labour MLA in 1923 and 1927. He would cross the floor to join the Conservative Party in 1929.[1] Morrison MacBride broke with the Labour caucus shortly after the 1919 election in a dispute over its relationship with the UFO and sat in opposition for the entire life of the legislature. He ran for re-election as a "Conservative-Labour" candidate in 1926 though he sat as a Labour MLA after the election.

3. David James Taylor was elected as a Liberal-United Farmers MLA in 1919 was re-elected as a straight UFO MLA in 1923.[2]

4. Joseph McNamara, MLA for Riverdale listed his political affiliation as "Soldier" in Ontario Legislative Assembly records while Elections Ontario records indicate he was elected as a UFO candidate. He did not run for re-election in 1923 but attempted to regain the Riverdale seat in 1948 as a Liberal candidate and came in third place behind the CCF and the Progressive Conservatives.

See also

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

References

1. ^ CTV Toronto - Boring campaign behind poor voter turnout: analysts - CTV News, Shows and Sports - Canadian Television