1944 Saskatchewan general election

The 1944 Saskatchewan general election, the tenth in the history of the province, was held on June 15, 1944 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, under the leadership of Tommy Douglas, was elected to a majority government.

Summary

The 1944 election was held six years after the previous election in 1938. While there is normally a five-year limit on the lifespan of Parliaments and provincial assemblies in Canada, the emergency brought on by the Second World War allowed the government to delay the election temporarily, which William Patterson's governing Liberal Party opted to do.
File:Flag-Billboard-Forward with CCF, 1944.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Douglas standing under a CCF election billboard with C.M. Fines and Clarence Gillis shortly after winning the election.
The 1944 election marked the first time a nominally socialist government was elected anywhere in Canada. With the victory, Co-operative Commonwealth Federation leader Tommy Douglas became the premier of Saskatchewan. The CCF, which had spent two terms as the Official Opposition, won 47 of the 52 seats in the legislature, and over half the popular vote.
The Liberals, led by Patterson, had run a negative campaign, accusing Douglas and the CCF of being communists. The Liberal popular vote fell by 10 percentage points, and the party won only five seats. This marked the worst defeat of a sitting government in Saskatchewan's history.
The Social Credit Party, which had won 16% of the vote and two seats in the 1938 election, collapsed; the party had only one candidate, who received only 249 votes.
The Communist Party-led Unity movement reverted to the name Labor-Progressive Party, and lost both of the seats it had won in 1938.
The Conservative Party, renamed the Progressive [Conservative Party of Saskatchewan|Progressive Conservative Party] and led by Rupert Ramsay, continued to see its share of the vote drop, taking only just over 10% of the vote, and won no seats.
An at-large service vote was held for Saskatchewan residents in the Canadian armed services fighting during the war. This special vote elected three nonpartisan members to represent Saskatchewan soldiers, History of the [Royal Canadian Navy#Second World War|sailors] and airmen stationed in Great Britain, the Mediterranean and [Middle East theatre of World War II|Mediterranean region], and Newfoundland and Canada outside the province. Alberta general election|Alberta] had a similar system during the war.

Results

Note: * Party did not nominate candidates in previous election.

Riding-by-riding results

Names in bold represent cabinet ministers and the Speaker. Party leaders are italicized. The symbol " ** " indicates MLAs who are not running again.

Northwestern Saskatchewan

Francis Xavier Poitras 5

Urban constituencies

Dempster Henry Ratcliffe Heming
5894
Harold Walpole Pope
2887
Hugh Alexander Tiers
1036
William George Baker
Arthur Thomas Stone
7792
Robert Mitford Pinder
3924
Henry Oswald Wright
3171
Russell Hartney 200
John Harrison Hilton 121
James Wilfred Estey
Charles Cromwell Williams
14784
Bernard J. McDaniel
10551
Claude Henry James Burrows
3114
Percy McCuaig Anderson**

By-elections

1944 service elections

Active Service Voters, Saskatchewan members of the Canadian armed services on active duty outside of Saskatchewan, were polled between October 17 and October 30, 1944. One representative was elected from each of three areas. These candidates did not specify any party affiliation.