The 1934 Ontario general election was the 19th general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on June 19, 1934, to elect the 19th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs"). The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Mitchell Hepburn, defeated the governing Ontario Conservative Party, led by George Stewart Henry. Hepburn was assisted by Harry Nixon's Progressive bloc of MLAs who ran in this election as Liberal-Progressives on the understanding that they would support a Hepburn led government. Nixon, himself, became a senior cabinet minister in the Hepburn government.

Campaign

The campaign was brief and bitter, and both sides gained ammunition to use during that time. The Liberals were helped by the effects of the Great Depression, in much the same manner as their colleagues in the recent elections in Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. They also aggressively pledged to reduce the cost of government once in office, and downplayed the issue of temperance, by pledging to bring recently passed amendments to liquor legislation into force as soon as they attained office. Under their new leader Mitchell Hepburn, the Liberals were considered to possess more energy in campaigning as a party than at any time since the collapse of the Ross government in 1905. In several meetings (starting in Milton in April 1934), Hepburn especially accused several Conservatives of operating a "tollgate system" in agencies selling British liquor to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario through which they earned kickbacks based on the volume sold. The Liberals fielded candidates in 81 of the 90 ridings. None of the remaining nine were won by Conservatives: they were taken by 5 Liberal-Progressives, 1 UFO, 1 Liberal-Labour, 1 CCF and 1 Independent.

Outcome

The Liberals won a majority in the Legislature, while the Conservatives lost four out of every five seats that they had won in the previous election. Eight Cabinet ministers were defeated, and no riding west of York County returned a Tory MPP. Northern Ontario went solidly Liberal. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, in its first provincial election, ran 37 candidates and won a seat in the Ontario Legislature for the first time with the election of Samuel Lawrence in Hamilton East. The United Farmers of Ontario had affiliated with the CCF but disaffiliated immediately prior to the 1934 election due to a row over suspected Communist infiltration of the party. Accordingly, two UFO nominated candidates, incumbent MLA Farquhar Oliver (Grey South) and Leslie Warner Oke, former MLA for Lambton East, ran as UFO candidates rather than with the CCF. Oliver was re-elected and later supported the Hepburn government.

Post-election developments

Three byelections had to be held shortly afterwards in August 1934:

Redistribution and reduction of ridings

The Legislative Assembly was reduced from 112 seats to 90 as a result of an Act passed in 1933: A subsequent Act in 1934 modified the limits of several Toronto ridings.

Results

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Synopsis of results

Reorganization of ridings

Seats that changed hands

Of the unaltered seats, there were 47 that changed allegiance in the election:

Notes and references