1932 Manitoba general election

June 16, 1932
55 seats of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba 27 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader John Bracken Fawcett Taylor John Queen Party Liberal–Progressive Progressive Conservative Independent Labour Leader since August 8, 1922 April 5, 1922 1923 Leader's seat The Pas Portage la Prairie Winnipeg Last election 36 15 3 Seats won 38 10 5 Seat change 2 5 2 Popular vote 101,286 92,660 41,963 Percentage 39.6% 35.4% 16.5% Swing 13.5pp 8.2pp 6.0pp
Premier before election John Bracken Liberal–Progressive Premier after election John Bracken Liberal–Progressive

The 1932 Manitoba general election was held on June 16, 1932 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. A Liberal-Progressive majority government was elected.

This was the second election in Manitoba where two types of preferential voting was used in all electoral divisions. Winnipeg elected ten members through single transferable ballot, while all other constituencies elected one member by instant runoff voting.

The election was called soon after the announcement of an alliance between the governing Progressive Party of John Bracken and the Liberal Party led by Murdoch Mackay. These parties were ideologically similar, and had a common interest in preventing the Conservative Party from coming to power. National Liberal leader William Lyon Mackenzie King supported this alliance, out of concern that a Conservative victory would strengthen the hand of Conservative Prime Minister Richard Bennett.

Bracken tried to bring the Conservatives into his coalition, but was rebuffed by Conservative leader Fawcett Taylor. Taylor's refusal to consider a consensus government was used against him in the campaign.

The election was also contested by the social democratic Independent Labour Party, under the leadership of John Queen. Though it was the second-largest party in the legislature after the 1920 election, Labour had slumped to only three seats in 1927 amid a general period of decline in the Canadian left. While the ILP was poised to improve its showing in the 1932 campaign, it was not a serious contender for government. In the event it elected only five MLAs, four in Winnipeg and one in St. Boniface, evidence of the benefits of preferential balloting to a minority party.

Some members of the provincial Liberal Party opposed the Liberal-Progressive alliance, and contested the election as "continuing Liberals". Their leader was David Campbell, the mayor of St. Boniface.

Leslie Morris and Jacob Penner of the Communist Party campaigned in the city of Winnipeg, and other Communist candidates ran in the outlying areas. As the Communist Party was under legal restrictions at the time, they ran as "United Front Workers" candidates. Former Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) George Armstrong ran as a candidate of the Socialist Party, and Jessie MacLennan campaigned as a labour candidate unaffiliated with the ILP.

The result was a resounding victory for the governing alliance, as Liberals, Progressives and their allies won 38 out of 55 seats. The Conservatives fell from fifteen seats to ten. Having lost his third consecutive election, Fawcett Taylor resigned as Conservative leader in 1933. The Independent Labour Party managed a modest recovery after its poor showing in 1927, increasing its caucus to five members. No other parties' candidates were elected, although two former Progressives were elected as independents. The Continuing Liberals fared especially poorly, and disappeared after the election.

Leslie Morris came 309 votes short of winning the tenth seat in Winnipeg. Had he won, he would have been the first Communist elected to a provincial legislature in Canada.

The new Legislature would see 15 new MLAs, ten arising from incumbents being defeated, and the other five from open seats. Of the latter, four incumbents chose not to run, and one incumbent (John H. Edmison of Brandon) had died in March 1932.^[1]

Results

Manitoba general election (June 16, 1932)^[2]

Party		Leader	First-preference votes		Seats
			Votes	% FPv	Cand.	1927	Elected	Change
	Liberal–Progressive[a 1]	John Bracken	97,388	38.26	50	33	36	3
	Conservative	Fawcett Taylor	90,135	35.41	48	15	10	5
	Independent Labour	John Queen	35,992	14.14	15	3	5	2
	Continuing Liberal	David Campbell	6,126	2.41	12	–	–	–
	United Front Workers		5,635	2.21	4	–	–	–
	Independent		3,897	1.53	7	1	–	1
	Independent-Farmer-Labour		3,594	1.41	2	–	1	1
	Independent-LP		3,530	1.39	3	–	2	2
	Independent Ukrainian		2,693	1.06	1	–	–	–
	Independent-Progressive		1,954	0.77	1	2	1	1
	Labour		1,600	0.63	1	–	–	–
	Independent-Farmer		997	0.39	1	1	–	1
	Socialist		848	0.33	1	–	–	–
	Independent-Conservative		173	0.07	1	–	–	–
Valid			254,562	100.00	147	55	55	–
Rejected			n/a
Total votes cast			254,562
Registered voters/Turnout			350,476	72.6

Seats changing hands

In the single-member ridings, 13 seats changed allegiance:

Conservative to Liberal-Progressive Cypress Dauphin Killarney Manitou Morden & Rhineland Conservative to ILP St. Boniface

Conservative to Independent-LP Roblin Liberal-Progressive to Conservative Swan River Liberal-Progressive to Independent-Progressive Birtle Liberal-Progressive to Independent-Farmer-Labour Springfield

Independent to Conservative Brandon Independent-Farmer to Liberal-Progressive Ethelbert Independent-Progressive to Independent-LP Iberville

(Italics indicate that incumbent changed allegiance)

In Winnipeg, the seat distribution was changed as follows:

Winnipeg - distribution of seats (1927 vs 1922)

Party		1927	1932	change
	Liberal–Progressive	4	3	1
	Conservative	3	3
	ILP	3	4	1
Total		10	10

Sources

The first ballot results for Winnipeg and results for all other constituencies are taken from an official Manitoba government publication entitled "Manitoba elections, 1920-1941", cross-referenced with an appendix to the government's report of the 2003 provincial election. The Canadian parliamentary guide lists slightly different results from Kildonan & St. Andrews, Lansdowne, La Verendrye, Morris, Springfield and Turtle Mountain; the other two sources are more comprehensive, however, and may be taken as more reliable.

All ballot results for Winnipeg after the first count are taken from reports in the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper. It is possible that some errors appeared in the original publication.

Post-election changes

Portage la Prairie (res. Fawcett Taylor, 1933), November 27, 1933:

• Toby Sexsmith (C) 1166, 1261
• E.A. Gilroy (Ind [LP]) 851, 1024
• H.A. Ireland (Ind-Lab) 597

Arthur (dec. Duncan McLeod, May 10, 1935), June 24, 1935:

• John R. Pitt (LP) accl.

Russell (Isaac Griffiths to cabinet, May 28, 1935), July 4, 1935:

• Isaac Griffiths (LP) accl.

Carillon (dec. Albert Prefontaine, 1935), July 4, 1935:

• Edmond Prefontaine (LP) 1948
• Louis-P. Gagnon 1793

Gimli (res. Einar Jonasson, 1935)

Winnipeg (res. Ralph Maybank, October 1, 1935)

Winnipeg (res. John Thomas Haig, 1935)

Further reading

• The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1932. Toronto: The Annual Review Company. 1933.

References