The 1934 Ontario general election was the 19th general election held in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on June 19, 1934, to elect the 19th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs").
The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Mitchell Hepburn, defeated the governing Ontario Conservative Party, led by George Stewart Henry. Hepburn was assisted by Harry Nixon's Progressive bloc of MLAs who ran in this election as Liberal-Progressives on the understanding that they would support a Hepburn led government. Nixon, himself, became a senior cabinet minister in the Hepburn government.
Campaign The campaign was brief and bitter, and both sides gained ammunition to use during that time. The Liberals were helped by the effects of the Great Depression, in much the same manner as their colleagues in the recent elections in Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. They also aggressively pledged to reduce the cost of government once in office, and downplayed the issue of temperance, by pledging to bring recently passed amendments to liquor legislation into force as soon as they attained office.
Under their new leader Mitchell Hepburn, the Liberals were considered to possess more energy in campaigning as a party than at any time since the collapse of the Ross government in 1905. In several meetings (starting in Milton in April 1934), Hepburn especially accused several Conservatives of operating a "tollgate system" in agencies selling British liquor to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario through which they earned kickbacks based on the volume sold.
The Liberals fielded candidates in 81 of the 90 ridings. None of the remaining nine were won by Conservatives: they were taken by 5 Liberal-Progressives, 1 UFO, 1 Liberal-Labour, 1 CCF and 1 Independent.
+ Riding contests, by number of candidates (1934) CandidatesLibConCCFL-PUFOLib-LabIndInd-LibCommOtherTotal234 39 3 1 1 78328 31 22 2 6 1 1 2 93413 13 10 1 4 1 6 4 5253 4 2 2 1 3 5 2063 3 3 2 3 4 18Total81 90 37 5 2 1 14 3 13 15 261
Outcome The Liberals won a majority in the Legislature, while the Conservatives lost four out of every five seats that they had won in the previous election. Eight Cabinet ministers were defeated, and no riding west of York County returned a Tory MPP. Northern Ontario went solidly Liberal.
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, in its first provincial election, ran 37 candidates and won a seat in the Ontario Legislature for the first time with the election of Samuel Lawrence in Hamilton East.
The United Farmers of Ontario had affiliated with the CCF but disaffiliated immediately prior to the 1934 election due to a row over suspected Communist infiltration of the party. Accordingly, two UFO nominated candidates, incumbent MLA Farquhar Oliver (Grey South) and Leslie Warner Oke, former MLA for Lambton East, ran as UFO candidates rather than with the CCF. Oliver was re-elected and later supported the Hepburn government.
Post-election developments Three byelections had to be held shortly afterwards in August 1934:
Earl Hutchinson (Kenora) was re-elected as a Liberal-Labour MLA but resigned a month later to allow Peter Heenan, a former Labour MLA in the riding, to contest Kenora in a by-election as a Liberal so that he could be appointed to Cabinet. Heenan was returned by acclamation. Hutchinson was then appointed vice-chairman of the Workmen's Compensation Board. David Taylor (Grey North) was appointed as Deputy Minister of Games and Fisheries. He was succeeded by Roland Patterson. Paul Munro (Wellington South) died in a car crash in July 1934. James King became the new MPP.
Redistribution and reduction of ridings
The Legislative Assembly was reduced from 112 seats to 90 as a result of an Act passed in 1933:
Abolished ridings New ridingsMergers of ridingsAlgoma ManitoulinAlgoma—ManitoulinBrockville LeedsLeedsBruce North Bruce SouthBruceDufferin Simcoe SouthwestDufferin—SimcoeElgin East Elgin WestElginDundas GrenvilleGrenville—DundasHaldimand NorfolkHaldimand—NorfolkHamilton West Wentworth SouthWentworthLanark North Lanark SouthLanarkLincoln St. CatharinesLincolnLondon North London SouthLondonMuskoka Ontario NorthMuskoka—OntarioNipissing Sturgeon FallsNipissingOttawa NorthPart transferred to Carleton. Ottawa SouthOttawa SouthOxford North Oxford SouthOxfordPerth North Perth SouthPerthPeterborough City Peterborough CountyPeterboroughPrince Edward Frontenac-LennoxPrince Edward—LennoxVictoria North Victoria SouthVictoriaRiding abolished; parts transferred to other ridingsBrocktonDovercourt ParkdaleGreenwoodRiverdale WoodbineHastings NorthHastings East Hastings WestChange of nameBrant CountyBrantHuron NorthHuron—BruceAlso absorbed part of Bruce South.Huron SouthHuronMiddlesex WestMiddlesex SouthAlso absorbed part of Middlesex North.Ontario SouthOntarioWellington NortheastWellington NorthWentworth NorthHamilton—WentworthWindsor EastWindsor—WalkervilleWindsor WestWindsor—Sandwich
A subsequent Act in 1934 modified the limits of several Toronto ridings.
Results EO data errors on party affiliations corrected: Supplementary correction for T.A. Blakelock (Halton) - he was nominated, and campaigned, as a Liberal-Progressive): , |- ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party ! rowspan=2 | Party leader ! colspan=5 | MPPs ! colspan=3 | Votes |- ! Candidates !1929 !Dissol. !1934 !± !# !% ! ± (pp)
|style="text-align:left;"|Mitchell Hepburn | 81 || 11 || 16 || 64 || 53 || 727,168 || 46.56% || 15.06
|style="text-align:left;"|George Stewart Henry | 90 || 90 || 88 || 17 || 73 || 621,218 || 39.78% || 16.88
|style="text-align:left;"|John Mitchell(party president) | 37 || – || – || 1 || 1 || 108,961 || 6.98% || Progressive and Liberal-Progressive 1929 results are combined. |style="text-align:left;"|Harry Nixon | 5 || 7 || 4 || 5 || 2 || 45,090 || 2.89% || 1.92
|style="text-align:left;"| | 14 || – || – || 1 || 1 || 19,103 || 1.22% || 1.16
|style="text-align:left;"|Farquhar Oliver | 2 || 1 || 1 || 1 || || 8,648 || 0.55% || 0.71
|style="text-align:left;"| | 1 || – || – || 1 || 1 || 5,877 || 0.38% ||
|style="text-align:left;"| | 3 || 2 || 2 || – || 2 || 423 || 0.03% || 2.13
| | 1 || 1 || 1 || – || 1 || 216 || 0.01% || 0.84
|style="text-align:left;"| | 3 || – || – || – || – || 12,284 || 0.79% ||
|style="text-align:left;"| | 13 || – || – || – || – || 9,559 || 0.61% || 0.46
|style="text-align:left;"| | 5 || – || – || – || – || 1,626 || 0.10% ||
|style="text-align:left;"| | 1 || – || – || – || – || 608 || 0.04% ||
|style="text-align:left;"| | 1 || – || – || – || – || 534 || 0.03% ||
|style="text-align:left;"| | 1 || – || – || – || – || 165 || 0.01% ||
|style="text-align:left;"|Workers |style="text-align:left;"| | 1 || – || – || – || – || 158 || 0.01% ||
|style="text-align:left;"|Dry Liberal |style="text-align:left;"| | 1 || – || – || – || – || 107 || 0.01% ||
|style="text-align:left;"| | 1 || – || – || – || – || 81 || 0.01% || |-style="background:#E9E9E9;" |colspan="3" style="text-align:left;"|Total | 261 || 112 || 112 || 90 || -22 || 1,561,826 || 100.00% || |- |colspan="8" style="text-align:left;"|Blank and invalid ballots |align="right"|17,267 |style="background:#E9E9E9;" colspan="2"| |-style="background:#E9E9E9;" |colspan="8" style="text-align:left;"|Registered voters / turnout |2,145,255 |73.61% |16.99
Vote and seat summaries
+ Seats and popular vote by party Party Seats Votes Change (pp)
Synopsis of results