Manitoba general election, 1953

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Manitoba's general election of June 8, 1953 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. This was the first election held in Manitoba after the breakup of a ten-year coalition government led by the Liberal-Progressives and Progressive Conservatives. The coalition, which began in 1940, was ended in 1950 when the Progressive Conservatives crossed to the opposition side.

This was also the last provincial election in Manitoba to feature multi-member constituencies and election by the single transferable ballot. Winnipeg Centre, Winnipeg North and Winnipeg South elected four members each, while St. Boniface elected two members. All other constituencies elected one member by instant runoff voting.

The result of the election was a convincing victory for the Liberal-Progressive government of Premier Douglas Campbell, which won thirty-two of fifty-seven seats. Three Independent Liberal-Progressives were also elected. The Progressive Conservatives, led by Errick Willis, saw their representation in the legislature increase from nine to twelve members. This was a disappointing result for many in the party. Willis had been a prominent cabinet minister in the coalition government, and many questioned the sincerity of his new-found opposition to Campbell's ministry. The following year, he lost the leadership of the party to Dufferin Roblin.

The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) suffered a disappointing loss under new leader Lloyd Stinson, falling from seven seats to five.

During the campaign, the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper devoted considerable attention to the return of the Social Credit Party in Manitoba. The party had not contested the previous provincial election, but was buoyed by the recent Social Credit victory in British Columbia and ran several candidates. The Free Press, which supported the Liberal-Progressives, and played up the threat of a Social Credit victory to rally popular support for the government. The actual threat posed by Social Credit was minimal: only two of its candidates were elected.

The Communist Labour Progressive Party also won representation in the legislature, with party incumbent William A. Kardash taking one of the four constituency seats in Winnipeg North. This was the last time that a Communist candidate won election to the Manitoba legislature, or indeed to any provincial legislature in Canada.

Two independent candidates were also elected, in addition to the three Independent Liberal-Progressives.

Contents

1 Results
2 See also
3 Constituency results

3.1 Single-member constituencies
3.2 Multi-member constituencies
3.3 Deferred elections

4 Sources
5 Post-election changes

Results

Party	Party leader	# of candidates	Seats	Popular vote
1949	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change \|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Liberal-Progressive	Douglas Campbell	50		32		104,976	39.22	\|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Independent Liberal-Progressive	7		3		12,911	4.82	\|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Total Government	57		35		117,887	44.05	\|- \|bgcolor="#9999FF"\|	Progressive Conservative	Errick Willis	38		12		56,278	21.03	\|- \|bgcolor="#EEDDAA"\|	Co-operative Commonwealth	Lloyd Stinson	25		5		44,332	16.56	\|- \|bgcolor="lightgreen"\|	Social Credit	none	43		2		35,750	13.36	\|- \|bgcolor="tomato"\|	Labour Progressive	William Cecil Ross	1		1
Total	175		57		267,636	100

Preceded by:
1949 Manitoba election List of Manitoba elections Followed by:
1958 Manitoba election

Constituency results

(x) denotes incumbent.

Single-member constituencies

Arthur:

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±% \|- \|bgcolor="#9999FF"\|	Progressive Conservative	J. Arthur Ross	1,920	57.14	\|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Liberal-Progressive	(x)John R. Pitt	1,440	42.86
Total valid votes	3,360	100.00
Rejected votes	65
Turnout	3,425	78.88

Assiniboia:

First Count

Fournier and Bloomfield were eliminated, and their votes were distributed as follows: Wightman 837, Mackling 768. 600 votes were non-transferable.

Final Count

Party	Candidate	Votes	% \|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Liberal-Progressive	(x)Reginald Wightman	4,196	48.55 \|- \|bgcolor="#EEDDAA"\|	Co-operative Commonwealth Federation	Alvin H. Mackling	3,846	44.50 \|- \|bgcolor="gainsboro"\|	Votes Not Transferred		600	6.94

Birtle:

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±% \|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Liberal-Progressive	(x)Francis Bell	2,148	69.18	\|- \|bgcolor="#9999FF"\|	Progressive Conservative	Francis Macdonald Manwaring	957	30.82
Total valid votes	3,105	100.00
Rejected votes	15
Turnout	3,120	66.97

Brandon City:

First Count

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±% \|- \|bgcolor="#9999FF"\|	Progressive Conservative	(x)Reginald Lissaman	3,514	46.04	\|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Liberal-Progressive	James A. Creighton	3,063	40.13	\|- \|bgcolor="lightgreen"\|	Social Credit	W.A. Wyborn	1,056	13.83
Total valid votes	7,633	100.00
Rejected votes	143
Turnout	7,776	61.82

Wyborn was eliminated, and his votes were distributed as follows: Lissaman 272, Creighton 138. 646 votes were non-transferable.

Second Count

Party	Candidate	Votes	% \|- \|bgcolor="#9999FF"\|	Progressive Conservative	(x)Reginald Lissaman	3,786	49.60 \|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Liberal-Progressive	James A. Creighton	3,201	41.94 \|- \|bgcolor="gainsboro"\|	Votes Not Transferred		646	8.46

Carillon:

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±% \|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Liberal-Progressive	(x)Edmond Prefontaine	3,278	75.48	\|- \|bgcolor="lightgreen"\|	Social Credit	K.T. Kroeker	1,065	24.52
Total valid votes	4,343	100.00
Rejected votes	111
Turnout	4,454	69.44

Cypress:

First Count

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±% \|- \|bgcolor="lavender"\|	Liberal-Progressive	Francis Ferg	1,785	45.39	\|- \|bgcolor="#9999FF"\|	Progressive Conservative	Dr. Roderick George Hurton	1,198	30.46	\|- \|bgcolor="lightgreen"\|	Social Credit	Marcel Philippe	950	24.15
Total valid votes	3,933	100.00
Rejected votes	50
Turnout	3,983	70.78

Ferg was subsequently declared elected on transfers from Philippe.

Dauphin:

First Count

Bullmore was subsequently elected on transfers.

Deloraine-Glenwood:

Dufferin:

First Count

McDonald was subsequently elected on transfers from Collins.

Emerson:

First Count

Solomon was subsequently declared elected on transfers from Friesen.

Ethelbert:

Fairford:

First Count

Joseph H. Kacher entered the contest as an Independent Liberal-Progressive, but withdrew before election day. Anderson was subsequently elected on transfers.

Fisher:

Gilbert Plains:

First Count

Brown and Elliott were eliminated, and their votes were transferred as follows: Mitchell 239, Wilson 222. 614 votes were non-transferable.

Final Count

Gimli:

Gladstone:

Hamiota:

First Count

Charles was eliminated, and his votes were distributed as follows: Venables 123, Shuttleworth 88. 314 votes were non-transferable.

Second Count

Iberville:

First Count

Hilgenga and Rempel were eliminated, and their votes were distributed as follows: Jarvis 207, McDowell 195. 637 votes were non-transferable.

Final Count

Kildonan—Transcona:

First Count

Although Melnyk ran as an independent, he was supported by the local Progressive Conservative association.

Both Carson and Melnyk were eliminated after the first count. Paulley received 275 additional votes on transfers, while Bodie received 163. It is assumed that all of these transfers came from Melynk's total, and that Paulley was declared elected before Carson's ballots were scrutinized. For the purposes of this article, Carson's final vote total is listed under "votes not transferred".

Second Count

Killarney:

First Count

Harrison was subsequently elected on transfers from Paterson.

Lakeside:

Lansdowne:

First Count

Sutherland was subsequently elected on transfers from Doherty. The Winnipeg Free Press of June 12, 1953, indicates that Sutherland had 2,160 votes on the second count.

La Verendrye:

Manitou-Morden:

First Count

Morrison was subsequently elected on transfers from O'Donnell.

Minnedosa:

First Count

Hutton was subsequently elected on transfers from Burgess.

Morris:

First Count

Tinkler was eliminated, and his votes were distributed as follows: Shewman 432, Beaubien 58. 354 votes were not transferred.

Second Count

Mountain:

Norfolk-Beautiful Plains:

First Count

Nelson was eliminated, and his votes were distributed as follows: McKinnon 342, Burch 257. 766 votes were not transferred.

Portage La Prairie:

First Count

Rempel was eliminated, and his votes were transferred as follows: Warren 200, Greenlay 94. 490 votes were non-transferable.

First Count

Clement was subsequently elected on transfers.

St. Andrews:

St. Clements:

Fred Klym entered the contest as an Independent Liberal Progressive candidate, but withdrew before election day.

St. George:

Halldorson was also supported by the St. George Progressive Conservative Association.

Springfield:

First Count

Watt was eliminated, and his votes were distributed as follows: Storsley 206, Lucko 128. 309 votes were not transferred.

Swan River:

First Count

Renouf was subsequently elected on transfers.

The Pas:

Turtle Mountain:

Virden:

Eric Bailey was nominated for the Social Credit Party, but withdrew before election day. Herman Scheel was nominated in his place, but also withdrew after discovering that some electors who had signed his nomination papers believed they were endorsing Bailey.

Multi-member constituencies

St. Boniface (two members):

Party Totals

First Count

No candidates were declared elected after the first count. Leger was eliminated, and his 737 votes were distributed as follows: Hughes 296, Teillet 77, Van Belleghem 75, Lemoine 61, Fennell 46, Turner, 38, McKinnon 36. 108 votes were non-transferable.

Second Count

McKinnon was eliminated, and her 1,329 votes were distributed as follows: Turner 818, Fennell 80, Teillet 80, Hughes 68, Van Belleghem 61, Lemoine 56. 166 votes were non-transferable.

Third Count

Lemoine was eliminated, and his 1,537 votes were distributed as follows: Van Belleghem 256, Teillet 236, Turner 219, Hughes 103, Fennell 77. 646 votes were non-transferable.

Fourth Count

Hughes was eliminated, and his 2,568 votes were distributed as follows: Fennell 495, Van Belleghem 351, Turner 331, Teillet 164. 1,227 votes were non-transferable.

Fifth Count

Van Belleghem was eliminated, and his 3,932 votes were distributed as follows: Teillet 1133, Fennell 608, Turner 384. 1,807 votes were non-transferable. Teillet and Fennell were declared elected.

Sixth Count

Winnipeg Centre (four members):

Party Totals

First Count

The quota for election was 4,115 votes (20.00%). No candidates were declared elected after the first count. Colson and Mulgrew were both eliminated, and their combined 349 votes were distributed as follows: Johnson 95, Brown 63, Juba 49, Murphy 19, St. John 18, Graham 17, Stubbs 15, Swailes 11, Scott 10, Stepnuck 10, Fines 5, Borgford 4. Thirty-three votes were non-transferable.

Second Count

Johnson was eliminated, and his 449 votes were distributed as follows: Brown 269, Scott 22, Juba 21, St. John 17, Stubbs 15, Murphy 13, Fines 9, Graham, 9, Borgford 8, Swailes 8, Stepnuk 1. Fifty-seven votes were non-transferable.

Third Count

Stepnuk was eliminated, and his 489 votes were distributed in the following manner: Scott 195, Juba 94, Stubbs 49, St. John 33, Swailes 21, Murphy 18, Graham 16, Brown 7, Borgford 5, Fines 1. Fifty votes were non-transferable.

Fourth Count

Borgford was eliminated, and his 558 votes were distributed as follows: Swailes 254, Fines 151, Juba 43, Stubbs 27, St. John 16, Brown 15, Graham 6, Scott 6, Murphy 4. Thirty-six votes were non-transferable. Swailes was declared elected to the first position.

Fifth Count

Swailes's surplus of 89 votes was not transferred, as it was too low to change the relevant candidate order. Graham was eliminated, and his 879 votes were distributed as follows: St. John 334, Murphy 285, Juba 68, Stubbs 57, Scott 45, Fines 19, Brown 15. Fifty-six votes were non-transferable.

Sixth Count

Swailes's surplus of 89 votes was not transferred, as it was too low to change the relevant candidate order. Brown was eliminated, and his 1,132 votes were distributed as follows: Juba 98, Scott 96, Fines 74, Stubbs 74, St. John 66, Murphy 53. 671 votes were non-transferable.

Seventh Count

Swailes's surplus of 89 votes was not transferred, as it was too low to change the relevant candidate order. Fines was eliminated, and his 1,339 votes were distributed as follows: Stubbs 203, Juba 180, Scott 54, Murphy 53, St. John 50. 799 votes were non-transferable. Juba was declared elected to the second position.

Eighth Count

Swailes's surplus of 89 votes was not transferred, as it was too low to change the relevant candidate order. Juba's surplus of 57 votes was also not transferred, for the same reason. Murphy was eliminated, and her 1,991 votes were distributed as follows: St. John 1309, Scott 205, Stubbs 163. 314 votes were non-transferable. St. John was declared elected to the third position.

Ninth Count

St. John's surplus of 1,004 votes was distributed as follows: Scott 390, Stubbs 212. 402 votes were not transferred. The surpluses of Swailes and Juba were not transferred, as they were too small to affect the final candidate order. Scott was declared elected to the fourth position, despite finishing below the quota.

Tenth Count

Winnipeg North (four members):

Party Totals

First Count

Albert Wiesner had also been nominated as a Social Credit candidate, but withdrew before election day.

The quota was 4,323 votes. Morris Gray was declared elected to the first position, and his 319 surplus votes were distributed as follows: Brotman 108, Hawryluk 89, Aylen 70, Kardash 18, Hallas 11, Carrick 9, Turk 7, Keisch 3, Kozariz 3, Yuzyk 1. 385 of Gray's votes were non-transferable, although these were not counted toward the total.

Second Count

Hallas and Zuzyk were eliminated, and their combined 1,067 votes were distributed as follows: Hawryluk 219, Carrick 136, Keisch 106, Aylen 101, Turk 83, Kozariz 73, Brotman 58, Kardash 42. 249 votes were non-transferable.

Third Count

Kelsch was eliminated, and his 1,282 votes were distributed as follows: Kozariz 431, Turk 412, Brotman 131, Carrick 64, Hawryluk 42, Aylen 32, Kardash 31. 139 votes were non-transferable.

Fourth Count

Aylen was eliminated, and his 1,325 votes were distributed as follows: Hawryluk 767, Brotman 73, Carrick 72, Kardash 46, Turk 40, Kozariz 27. Three hundred votes were non-transferable.

Fifth Count

Brotman was eliminated, and his 2,042 votes were distributed as follows: Turk 439, Carrick 297, Hawryluk 244, Kozariz 184, Kardash 153. 725 votes were non-transferable.

Sixth Count

Carrick was eliminated, and his 2,373 votes were distributed as follows: Hawryluk 575, Turk 465, Kozariz 298, Kardash 110. 925 votes were non-transferable. Hawryluk was declared elected to the second position.

Seventh Count

Hawryluk's surplus of 470 votes was distributed as follows: Kozariz 203, Turk 66, Kardash 59. 142 votes were non-transferable. Kardash and Turk were declared elected to the third and fourth positions, even though both finished below the quota.

Eighth Count

Winnipeg South (four members):

Party Totals

First Count

William Bayley had been nominated for the newly-formed Prosperity for Posterity Party, but withdrew before election day.

The quota for election was 5,826 votes (20.00%). Turner and Roblin were declared elected after the first count, for the first and second positions. Turner's 2181 surplus votes were distributed as follows: Macleod 1,437, Evans 336, McCreery 221, Stinson 96, Israels 48, Webster 26, Benjamin 17.

Second Count

Roblin's 219 surplus votes were distributed as follows: Evans 142, McCreery 49, Stinson 12, Macleod 11, Israels 2, Webster 2, Benjamin 1.

Third Count

Webster was eliminated, and her 594 votes were distributed as follows: Benjamin: 438, Stinson 25, McCreery 20, Macleod 19, Evans 17, Israels 8. Sixty-seven votes were non-transferable.

Fourth Count

Benjamin was eliminated, and her 1,068 votes were distributed as follows: Stinson 214, McCreery 131, Evans 113, Macleod 76, Israels 59. 475 votes were non-transferable.

Fifth Count

Israels was eliminated, and his 1,234 votes were distributed as follows: Stinson 691, Evans 120, Macleod 111, McCreery 77. 235 votes were non-transferable. Stinson was declared elected to the third position.

Sixth Count

Stinson's surplus of 146 was not transferred, as it would not have affected the candidate order. McCreery was eliminated, and her 2,318 votes were distributed as follows: Evans 1,248, Macleod 429. 641 votes were non-transferable. Evans was declared elected to the fourth position.

Seventh Count

Deferred elections

The election in Rupertsland was deferred to July 6, due to the difficulties of enumeration in this vast northern constituency. The election in Ste. Rose was also deferred to July 6, after incumbent Liberal-Progressive candidate Maurice Dane MacCarthy died on the eve of the general election.

The election did not technically end until July 21, 1953, when the final results for Rupertsland were announced.

Rupertsland (deferred to July 6, 1958):

First Count

The Progressive Conservatives initially nominated E.G. Perry, but he withdrew from the contest and endorsed Brown. Brown was declared elected following transfers from Abbott. The official Elections Manitoba report of this constituency lists Boulette as an official Liberal-Progressive candidate, but newspaper reports from the period indicate that he was an Independent Liberal-Progressive.

Ste. Rose:

First Count

Pineau was eliminated, and his votes were transferred as follows: Molgat 192, Fletcher 83. 616 votes were not transferred.

Second Count

Sources

Results for the first ballot counts for all constituencies are taken from the 1954 Canadian Parliamentary Guide, and from Election Manitoba's "Historical Summaries" (printed as an appendix to the 2003 election results).

There are minor discrepancies between these sources for the Social Credit vote count in Brandon City, Manitou-Morden, Rockwood and Swan River. The sources also disagree as to the candidate order for Minnedosa on the first count (although both agree that Gilbert Hutton was subsequently elected). In each case, the "Historical Summaries" entry has been taken as more reliable.

All results after the first ballot are taken from reports in the Winnipeg Free Press. This paper made an obvious error in reporting Lloyd Stinson's fifth-vote count, which has been corrected here. Other than this, the results for multi-member constituencies may be taken as accurate and verifiable. For the single-member constituencies, it possible that Free Press reports differed from the final results in some particulars.

Post-election changes

Deloraine-Glenwood (dec. James O. Argue, 1955), June 27, 1955:

Albert Draper (PC) 2070
Robert E. Moffat (LP) 1382

Mountain (res. Ivan Schultz, 1955), June 27, 1955:

Walter Clark (LP) 1849
Marcel Boulic (PC) 1573
Polron (SC) 201

St. George (dec. Christian Halldorson, 1956), December 30, 1956:

Elman Guttormson (LP) 1214
Magnusson (PC) 707
Allen (CCF) 510

Emerson (res. John Solomon, 1957), November 14, 1957:

John Tanchak (LP) 2183
Frank Casper (PC) 2008

[Note: These figures are taken from the Winnipeg Free Press, with 31 of 32 polls reporting. The outstanding poll was too small to affect the final result.]

Manitou-Morden (dec. Hugh Morrison, 1957), November 14, 1957:

Maurice Ridley (PC) 2240
David Lumgair (L) 1057

Gladstone (dec. William Morton, early 1958)

Dauphin (William Bullmore left the Social Credit party in either 1957 or 1958)

Arthur (dec. J. Arthur Ross, April 1, 1958)

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Manitoba general election, 1953

Results

See also

Constituency results

Single-member constituencies

Multi-member constituencies

Deferred elections

Sources

Post-election changes