1914 Ontario general election

The 1914 Ontario general election was the 14th general election held in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on June 29, 1914, to elect the 111 Members of the 14th Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
The Ontario Conservative Party, led by Sir James P. Whitney, won a fourth consecutive term in government. Whitney died three months after the election and was succeeded by William Howard Hearst. The Conservatives contested 109 of the 111 ridings, deciding not to have candidates stand in Glengarry and Norfolk North. However, dissension within the Tory ranks resulted in a significant number of them campaigning as either independent or temperance candidates.
The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Newton Rowell, formed the official opposition.
Independent Labour MLA Allan Studholme was re-elected in Hamilton East. He had held the seat since a 1906 by-election.
The campaign was seen to turn more significantly on the matter of Regulation 17, in comparison to temperance issues, and that worked against the Liberals, who placed Prohibition of sales in bars and clubs as a main plank in their platform.

Expansion of the Legislative Assembly

An Act passed prior to the election expanded the number of members from 106 to 111, and the number of ridings from 103 to 107. The following changes were made:
The Patricia Portion acquired in 1912 was divided between Cochrane and Kenora.

Electoral system

Most seats filled using first past the post voting in single-member districts.
The eight Toronto MPPs were elected in four two-seat districts where each seat was filled in a separate first past the post contest.

Results

Analysis

Parties		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
	3	81	24	2
	1	23	66	1
		1	1	2
		1		1
		1
			9
			2	3
			2
			1	1
			1
			1
				11	1

MLAs elected by region and riding

Party designations are as follows:
Italicized names indicate members returned by acclamation.
Northern Ontario

Ottawa Valley

Saint Lawrence Valley

Georgian Bay

Central Ontario

Wentworth/Halton/Niagara

Midwestern Ontario

Southwestern Ontario

Peel/York/Ontario

Toronto

Reorganization of ridings

The newly created ridings returned the following MLAs:

Seats that changed hands

There were 20 seats that changed allegiance in the election:
Liberal to Conservative

Liberal to Independent-Liberal

Prescott

Liberal-Conservative to Conservative

Rainy River

Conservative to Liberal

Conservative to Liberal-Temperance

Wellington South

Acclamations

When nominations closed, three candidates were acclaimed. A later withdrawal in Kenora enabled the acclamation of Harold Arthur Clement Machin.
Forbes Godfrey was acclaimed because the Liberal candidate was held to have missed the deadline by one minute. In Wellington East, the Liberals opted not to press a similar case against the Conservative candidate, whose nomination papers were filed 90 minutes after the deadline.