1932 Manitoba general election


The 1932 Manitoba general election was held on June 16, 1932 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada.
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 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.

Results

Of the 17 opposition MLAs, 7 were elected in Winnipeg through STV.

Results by electoral division

L = continuing Liberal group led by Campbell
Arthur:
Assiniboia:
First Count
Smith was eliminated.
Second Count
Beautiful Plains:
Birtle:
Brandon City:
First Count
Cater was eliminated. Clement was eliminated on the second count with 1555 votes.
Third Count
Carillon:
Cypress:
Dauphin:
First Count
Wicks was eliminated.
Second Count
Deloraine:
Dufferin:
Emerson:
First Count
Kolodzinski was eliminated.
Second Count
Ethelbert:
Fairford:
Fisher:
First Count
Hamilton was eliminated. Note that one source lists Hamilton as a Continuing Liberal.
Second Count
Gilbert Plains:
Gimli:
First Count
Ewanchuk was eliminated. Kapusta was eliminated on the second count with 716 votes, and Thorvaldson was eliminated on the third count with 858 votes.
Fourth Count
Gladstone:
Glenwood:
Hamiota:
Iberville:
Kildonan and St. Andrews:
First Count
Cook was eliminated.
Second Count
Killarney:
Lakeside:
Lansdowne:
La Verendrye:
First Count
Ramsay was eliminated.
Second Count
Manitou:
Minnedosa:
First Count
St. John was eliminated.
Second Count
Morris:
Mountain:
Morden and Rhineland:
Norfolk:
Portage la Prairie:
Roblin:
Rockwood:
First Count
Lewis was eliminated.
Second Count
Rupertsland :
First Count
Atkinson was eliminated.
Second Count
Russell:
St. Boniface:
Valid votes: 11,359
majority required to win on First Count: 5680
First Count
2nd Count Campbell was eliminated. His 1116 votes were transferred to other candidates according to voters' marked preferences or put aside as "exhausted."
3rd Count Gagnon was eliminated. His 3560 votes were transferred.
After 3rd Count
Lawrence with a majority of the remaining votes in the district was declared elected.
At the end there were 9424 votes still in play. The others were "exhausted." They had run out of marked preferences so were no longer in use.
St. Clements:
First Count
Smith was eliminated. Dunn was eliminated after the second count with 1824 votes.
Second Count
St. George:
Ste. Rose:
Springfield:
First Count
Matheson was eliminated. McRury and Grant were eliminated after the second count with 1113 and 251 votes, respectively.
Third Count
Swan River:
First Count
Goodman was eliminated.
Second Count
Turtle Mountain:
The Pas :
Virden:
Winnipeg :
First Count : Evans and Queen declared elected
Ralph Maybank to take the last empty seats.
These were elected:
, November 27, 1933:
Arthur, June 24, 1935:
Russell, July 4, 1935:
Carillon, July 4, 1935:
Gimli
Winnipeg
Winnipeg