1951 Ontario general election

The 1951 Ontario general election was held on November 22, 1951, to elect the 90 members of the 24th Legislative Assembly of Ontario of the province of Ontario.

Background

Because of Canada's participation in the Korean War, and because previous legislation governing the participation of active service voters stationed overseas had lapsed, new provision was made to enable the collection of votes of Ontario residents who had returned to active service because of the present conflict. Legislation governing the functioning of elections and the preparation of voters' lists was also revised.

Opinion Polls

Polling firm	Last day of survey	Source	PCO	OLP	OCCF	Other	Undecided	Sample
Polling firm	Last day of survey	Source					Undecided	Sample
Election 1953	November 22, 1951		48.5	31.5	19.1	0.9
Gallup	October 1951		44	40	14	3	22
Gallup	August 1951		47	40	11	1	30
Gallup	June 1951		45	41	13	1		-
Gallup	February 1951		43	42	14	1	23
Gallup	July 1950		44	39	14	3	21
Election 1948	June 7, 1948		41.28	26.52	29.78	2.42

Campaign

The majority of races were three-way contests between the major parties:

Candidates	PC	Lib	L-L	CCF	Lab-Pr	I-PC	I-Lab	Ind	S-L	Total
2	13	13								26
3	64	62	2	64						192
4	12	12		12	5	2	1	3	1	48
5	1	1		1	1			1		5
Total	90	88	2	77	6	2	1	4	1	271

Outcome

The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by Leslie Frost, won a fourth consecutive term in office, increasing its caucus in the legislature from 53 in the previous election to 79—a solid majority.
The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Walter Thomson, lost six seats, but regained the role of official opposition because of the collapse of the CCF vote. Albert Wren was elected as a Liberal-Labour candidate and sat with the Liberal caucus.
The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, led by Ted Jolliffe, lost all but two of its previous 21 seats with Jolliffe himself being defeated in the riding of York South.
One seat was won by J.B. Salsberg of the Labor-Progressive Party. LPP leader A.A. MacLeod lost his downtown Toronto seat of Bellwoods in this election and three other LPP candidates were also defeated.

Results

! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party
! rowspan=2 | Party leader
! colspan=5 | MPPs
! colspan=3 | Votes
! Candidates
!1948
!Dissol.
!1951
!±
!#
!%
! ±

Analysis

Parties	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Total
	79	10	1			90
	7	57	24			88
	2	22	50	3		77
	1	1				2
	1		1	4		6
			1	1		2
				3	1	4
				1		1
				1		1

Seats that changed hands

There were 29 seats that changed allegiance in the election.
CCF to PC

CCF to Liberal

Essex North

PC to Liberal

Stormont

PC to Liberal-Labour

Kenora

Liberal to PC

Labor-Progressive to PC

Bellwoods

Liberal-Labour to PC

Rainy River