The 1927 Manitoba general election was held on 28 June 1927 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the province of Manitoba, Canada. The result was a second consecutive victory for Manitoba farmers, following its 1922 win.
This was the first election in Manitoba history to elect MLAs through casting of ranked ballots in all districts. Ten MLAs were elected in Winnipeg through Single transferable vote, as they had done since 1920. The other districts now began to elect MLAs through Instant-runoff voting.
The Progressive Party of Manitoba, led by Premier John Bracken, won a second consecutive majority government in 1927. Progressive candidates won twenty-nine seats out of fifty-five to win their second majority government. During the campaign, the Progressives stressed that they were not a party in the traditional sense and promised "A business (not a party) government". Many Progressive candidates simply described themselves as Bracken supporters. The Progressive Party was supported by the powerful United Farmers of Manitoba organization.
The Conservatives won fifteen seats under the leadership of Fawcett Taylor, an improvement from seven in the election of 1922. This election re-established the Conservatives as the leading opposition party in Manitoba, and made the party a credible challenger for government in the next election.
The Manitoba Liberal Party was unable to regain the support it had lost to the Progressive Party in the previous election. The Liberals won seven seats under the new leadership of Hugh Robson, down one from their 1922 total. After the election, many senior Liberals began to work for an electoral alliance with the Progressives. Robson, who opposed this plan, was persuaded to resign as leader in 1930. The alliance was formalized in 1932.
The Independent Labour Party fell to three seats, down from six in the previous election. All three members, including party leader John Queen, were elected in the city of Winnipeg. Candidates of four separate parties - Liberal, Conservative, ILP and Progressive - plus an Independent - were elected to fill that city's ten seats. Winnipeg seats were filled using a form of proportional representation, Single transferable voting.
Jacob Penner ran in Winnipeg as a Communist candidate, but was not successful. He lasted 19 rounds of transfers but picked up very few votes so was eliminated.
Independent candidate John Edmison was re-elected in Brandon.
The proportion of the vote received by the Progressive Party (based on first-preference votes) was enough to assure a functioning government, but it was one of lowest in Canadian history.
The Legislature experienced a significant turnover of members, with 23 seats electing new MLAs. Twelve incumbents (one in Winnipeg, and 11 more in other ridings) went down in defeat, six failed to be renominated, and five chose not to stand for reelection.
Under the instant-runoff voting used to elect 45 MLAs, the leader in the first count of the district's votes was the one elected in all but three districts, so the final results in the districts outside Winnipeg were almost the same as under First-past-the-post voting .
Of the 45 single-member ridings, two MLAs were returned by acclamation. Twenty-one were decided solely on first-preference votes, with no vote transfers conducted. The remainder (22) went to runoff counts. There were only three "turn-overs" where the first count leader did not win due to vote transfers - in Minnedosa, Morden & Rhineland and Springfield. The Progressive candidate was leading on the first count in all three districts but after vote transfers, Conservatives won two of them and Liberals won one.
Seventeen seats in the single-member districts went to parties different from the previous election. Eleven rural incumbents running for re-election under their old party label were defeated. Three other incumbents changed their party label and were re-elected. Three open seats flipped to another party.
Results
+Manitoba general election (June 29, 1927) - valid for first-preference totals by ridingPartyLeaderFirst-preference votesSeats Votes % 1922 Elected Change includes Robert Curran, who campaigned as a Liberal-ProgressiveJohn Bracken52,42332.124428262Fawcett Taylor44,32027.15407158Hugh Robson33,85220.7440871Independent Labourafter consolidation in the labour movementJohn Queen15,9879.80106338,4955.20124133,2001.9621–12,0151.231–––Independent-Progressive1,6180.993–22Independent-Farmer1,3020.80111 Valid 163,212 100.00 153 55 55 – Rejected n/a Total votes cast 163,212 Registered voters/Turnoutnumber is for contested ridings only 233,453 69.9
Results by riding Bold names indicate members returned by acclamation. Incumbents are marked with *.
Seats changing hands In the single-member ridings, 17 seats changed allegiance:
Progressive to Conservative Killarney Manitou Minnedosa
Progressive to Liberal Mountain Springfield
Progressive to Independent-Farmer Ethelbert
Progressive to Independent-Progressive Iberville Rupertsland
Liberal to Progressive Fairford Gimli
Liberal to Conservative Dauphin
ILP to Conservative Assiniboia Kildonan & St. Andrews
Independent to Progressive St. Clements Ste. Rose
Independent to Conservative St. Boniface
Independent-Farmer to Progressive Emerson
(Italics indicate that incumbent changed allegiance)
In Winnipeg, the seat distribution was changed as follows:
+ Winnipeg - distribution of seats (1927 vs 1922) Party 1922 1927 change12123122 ILP 4311–1Total1010
Turnovers on runoff
In the single-member ridings, there were three cases where the first-place candidate on first-preference votes failed to win:
! rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Party ! rowspan="2"|Candidate ! colspan="2"|First-preference votes ! colspan="3"|Maximum votes |- style="text-align:right; background-color:#E9E9E9; text-align:center" ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! Round ! Initial vs transfer votes mix
| style="text-align:left;" |Norman W.P. Shuttleworth | 1,405 | 41.89 | 1,581 | 2 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |George Compton | 1,377 | 41.06 | 1,595 | 2 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Walter Cooper Richardson | 572 | 17.05 | 572 | 1 | style="text-align:left;" | |- | colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" |Total |3,354 |100.00 |colspan="3"| |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:left;" |Exhausted votes |178 |5.31% | style="text-align:left;" |
! rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Party ! rowspan="2"|Candidate ! colspan="2"|First-preference votes ! colspan="3"|Maximum votes |- style="text-align:right; background-color:#E9E9E9; text-align:center" ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! Round ! Initial vs transfer votes mix
| style="text-align:left;" |John Henry Black | 1,075 | 41.20 | 1,132 | 2 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Hugh McGavin | 1,016 | 38.94 | 1,252 | 2 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Peter Buerckert | 518 | 19.85 | 518 | 1 | style="text-align:left;" | |- | colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" |Total |2,609 |100.00 |colspan="3"| |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:left;" |Exhausted votes |225 |8.62% | style="text-align:left;" |
! rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Party ! rowspan="2"|Candidate ! colspan="2"|First-preference votes ! colspan="3"|Maximum votes |- style="text-align:right; background-color:#E9E9E9; text-align:center" ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! Round ! Initial vs transfer votes mix
| style="text-align:left;" |Clifford Barclay | 1,459 | 43.70 | 1,489 | 2 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Murdoch Mackay | 1,389 | 41.60 | 1,507 | 2 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Theo Stefanik | 491 | 14.70 | 491 | 1 | style="text-align:left;" | |- | colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" |Total |3,339 |100.00 |colspan="3"| |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:left;" |Exhausted votes |343 |10.27% | style="text-align:left;" |
First-preference votes by riding
= won on first-preference votes, by receiving majority of valid votes in the first count. The candidate in the winning position in the first count won in the end in every district, except in the Minnedosa, Morden and Springfield districts, where the winner is indicated by his or her first count vote tally being in bold. (Note: that vote count was not the winner's final vote count.)
RidingProgConLibILPIndInd-FrmInd-ModInd-ProgCommTotal Rural single-member ridingsArthur1,226 902 2,128Assiniboia471 1,380 520 1,320 566 4,257Beautiful Plains1,360 965 511 2,836Birtle1,134 635 742 2,511Brandon City489 1,288 3,526 5,303Carillon1,604 458 2,062Cypress1,091 1,235 311 2,637Dauphin920 1,022 647 2,589Deloraine1,174 1,014 369 2,557Dufferin1,790 1,047 307 3,144Emersonmultiple Independent candidates795 313 652 814 2,574Ethelbert 917 1,302 2,219Fairford437 296 358 1,091Fisher754 310 179 12 1,255Gilbert Plains1,021 592 315 1,928Gimli1,026 198 801 846 2,871Gladstone1,311 624 1,935Glenwood721 544 1,072 2,337Hamiota1,086 520 462 2,068IbervilleAcclaimedKildonan and St. Andrews1,134 1,387 1,159 3,680Killarney934 1,189 2,123Lakeside1,442 1,274 2,716Lansdowne 550 1,947 2,497La Verendrye1,074 440 581 2,095Manitou1,097 1,330 541 2,968Minnedosa1,405 1,377 572 3,354Morden and Rhineland1,075 1,016 518 2,609Morris1,663 285 1,948Mountain1,494 1,578 3,072Norfolk1,341 1,307 2,648Portage la Prairie 1,580 795 2,375Roblin734 1,057 270 2,061Rockwood1,486 719 474 66 2,745Rupertsland 81 145 216 442Russell1,227 936 903 254 3,320St. Boniface1,188 1,990 1,790 1,469 6,437St. Clements2,146 440 1,436 4,022St. George524 466 814 1,804Ste. Rose1,055 831 358 2,244Springfield1,459 491 1,389 3,339Swan River1,213 797 546 2,556The Pas582 454 1,036Turtle Mountain946 1,167 2,113VirdenAcclaimedWinnipeg (multi-member riding)Winnipeg8,794 13,362 11,029 11,470 3,200 836 2,015 50,706ProvincewideTotal52,423 44,320 33,852 15,987 8,495 1,302 3,200 1,618 2,015 163,212
Winnipeg
Eligible voters 67,124 Valid votes 50,706 Turnout: 76%
10 seats. Quota: 4,610
Elected: 2 Progressive Party, 3 Conservatives, 2 Liberals, 3 ILP (listed in same order as in above table)
Rogers and Ivens passed quota in Round 21. Their surpluses were not transferred as they could not possibly have bridged the gap between the least-popular remaining candidate and the other two remaining contenders. With their election, there were only three remaining candidates and two remaining open seats. Downes was then declared defeated - his votes were not transferred as Tobias and Montgomery were the only ones still standing and there were two seats left to be filled Tobias and Montgomery were elected with partial quota, as the field of candidates had been thinned to the number of remaining open seats.Winnipeg Tribune, June 30, 1927
! rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Label ! rowspan="2"|Candidate ! colspan="2"|First-preference votes ! colspan="3"|Maximum votes |- style="text-align:right; background-color:#E9E9E9; text-align:center" ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! Round ! Initial vs transfer votes mix
| style="text-align:left;" |John Thomas Haig* | 5,108 | 10.07 | 5,108 | 1 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Hugh Robson | 4,862 | 9.59 | 4,862 | 1 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |William Sanford Evans* | 4,551 | 8.98 | 4,800 | 3 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Independent Labour Party | style="text-align:left;" |John Queen* | 3,985 | 7.86 | 4,631 | 9 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |William Major | 3,713 | 7.32 | 5,142 | 14 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Independent Labour Party | style="text-align:left;" |Seymour Farmer* | 3,497 | 6.90 | 5,376 | 13 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Edward Montgomery | 2,236 | 4.41 | 3,960 | 22 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |John K. Downes* | 2,047 | 4.04 | 3,411 | 21 | style="text-align:left;" |
| style="text-align:left;" |Jacob Penner | 2,015 | 3.97 | 2,229 | 19