1981 Ontario general election

The 1981 Ontario general election was held on March 19, 1981, to elect members of the 32nd Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada.

The governing Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by Bill Davis, was re-elected for a twelfth consecutive term in office. The PCs finally won a majority government after winning only minorities in the 1975 and 1977 elections. The Liberal Party, led by Stuart Smith, was able to maintain its standing in the Legislature, while the New Democratic Party, led by Michael Cassidy, lost a significant number of seats, allowing the Tories to win a majority.

Opinion polls During campaign period + Evolution of voting intentions at provincial level Polling firmLast day of survey Source PCO OLP ONDP Other SampleElection 1981March 19, 1981 44.3833.4821.14GallupMarch 11, 1981513118GallupFebruary 18, 19815327181Election called

During the 31st Parliament of Ontario + Evolution of voting intentions at provincial level Polling firmLast day of survey Source PCO OLP ONDP Other SampleElection 1977June 9, 197739.5831.1928.161.07

Campaign

+ Riding contests, by number of candidates (1981) CandidatesPCLibLLNDPIndCommLtnSCTotal382 80 2 82 246431 31 31 10 10 8 3 12458 8 8 7 6 2 1 4062 2 2 4 1 1 1272 2 2 6 1 1 14Total125 123 2 125 27 18 12 3 1 436

A number of unregistered parties also fielded candidates in this election.

There were a number of Rhinoceros Party candidates in the Toronto area, and the party may have also fielded candidates elsewhere in the province. The Workers Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist) a single candidate, Judy Darcy. Ronald G. Rodgers, founder of the Détente Party of Canada, contested a Toronto constituency.

Social Credit leader Reg Gervais announced prior to the election that he planned to run in Nickel Belt, but could not follow through and resigned at a meeting of nominated candidates where John Turmel was appointed interim leader of the Ontario Social Credit Party during the campaign, though there has never been independent confirmation of this (nor is it clear if the Ottawa-area candidacies of Turmel and Raymond Turmel and Serge Girard and Dale Alkerton and Andrew Dynowski were approved by the remaining few members of the official Social Credit Party of Ontario).

Results

|style="text-align:left;"|Bill Davis | 125 || 58 || 70 || 12 || 1,412,488 || 89,765 || 44.38% || 4.80

|rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Stuart Smith | 123 || 33 || 33 || || 1,065,569 || 23,115 || 33.48% || 2.29

| 2 || 1 || 1 || || 7,111 || 1,131 || 0.22% || 0.03

|style="text-align:left;"|Michael Cassidy | 125 || 33 || 21 || 12 || 672,824 || 268,137 || 21.14% || 7.02

| || 27 || – || – || – || 10,585 || 3,171 || 0.33% || 0.11

|style="text-align:left;"|Scott Bell | 12 || – || – || – || 7,087 || 2,874 || 0.22% || 0.08

|style="text-align:left;"|Mel Doig | 18 || – || – || – || 5,306 || 2,831 || 0.17% || 0.07

|style="text-align:left;"|Reg Gervais|| 3 || – || – || – || 1,054 || 644 || 0.03% || 0.02

|style="text-align:left;"|Unparty | || 1 || – || – || – || 460 || 460 || 0.01% ||New |- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total |436||125 ! " colspan="2"|125 ! " colspan="2"|3,182,484 ! " colspan="2"| 100.00% |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Rejected ballots | 20,797 | 1,197 | colspan="2"| |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Voter turnout | 3,203,281 | 158,152 | 58.04 | 7.56 |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Registered electors | 5,519,204 | 395,436 | colspan="2"|

Vote and seat summaries

+ Seats and popular vote by party Party Seats Votes Change (pp) /Liberal-Labour

Synopsis of results

1981 Ontario general election

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