Canadian federal election, 1949

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	Government	Opposition
‹ 1945 • members members • 1953 ›
Canadian federal election, 1949 262 seats in the 21st Canadian Parliament
June 27, 1949

Leader	Louis St. Laurent	George A. Drew
Party	Liberal	PC
Leader since	1948	1948
Leader's seat	Quebec East	Carleton
Last election	117	65
Seats won	191	41
Seat change	+74	-24
Popular vote	2,874,813	1,734,261
Percentage	49.15%	29.65%
Swing	+9.37%	+2.03%
	Third Party	Fourth Party

Leader	Major James Coldwell	Solon Earl Low
Party	CCF	Social Credit
Leader since	1942	1944
Leader's seat	Rosetown—Biggar	Peace River
Last election	28	13
Seats won	13	10
Seat change	-15	-3
Popular vote	784,770	135,217
Percentage	13.42%	2.31%
Swing	-2.13%	-1.74%

Incumbent PM Louis St. Laurent Liberal PM-Elect Louis St. Laurent Liberal

The Canadian parliament after the 1949 election

The Canadian federal election of 1949 was held on June 27 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 21st Parliament of Canada. It was the first election in Canada in almost thirty years in which the Liberal Party of Canada was not led by William Lyon Mackenzie King. King had retired in 1948, and was replaced as Liberal leader and Prime Minister by Louis St. Laurent. The Liberal Party was re-elected with its fourth consecutive majority government, winning just under 50% of the vote.

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by former Premier of Ontario George Drew, gained little ground in this election.

Smaller parties, such as the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and Social Credit, a party that advocated monetary reform, lost support to the Liberals, and to a lesser extent, the Conservatives.

Voter turn-out: 73.8%

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1945	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Liberal	Louis St. Laurent	258	117	191	+63.2%	2,874,813	49.15%	+9.37%
	Progressive Conservative	George Drew	249	65	41	-21.5%	1,734,261	29.65%	+2.03%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	M.J. Coldwell	180	28	13	-53.6%	784,770	13.42%	-2.13%
	Social Credit	Solon Low	28	13	10	-23.1%	135,217	2.31%	-1.74%
	Independent		28	6	4	-33.3%	119,827	2.05%	-2.84%
	Independent Liberal		15	8	1	-87.5%	30,407	0.52%	-1.27%
	Liberal-Labour		2	-	1		11,730	0.20%	+0.19%
	Liberal-Progressive		1	1	1	-	9,192	0.16%	+0.04%
	Union of Electors		56	-	-	-	86,087	1.47%	+1.46%
	Labour Progressive	Tim Buck	17	1	-	-100%	32,623	0.56%	-1.58%
	Independent PC		6	1	-	-100%	8,195	0.14%	-0.14%
	Farmer-Labour		1	-	-	-	6,161	0.11%	-0.07%
	National Unity	Adrien Arcand	1	*	-	*	5,590	0.10%	*
	Nationalist		1	*	-	*	4,994	0.09%	*
	Independent Social Credit		2	*	-	*	4,598	0.08%	*
	Labour		2	-	-	-	415	0.01%	x
	Socialist Labour		1	*	-	*	271	x	*
Total			851	243	262	+7.8%	5,849,151	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

* The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	Terr	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	11	5	14	11	55	68	8	10	3	5	1	191
	Liberal	Popular Vote:	36.7	33.8	43.4	45.1	45.1	60.4	53.8	52.7	49.2	71.9	49.0	49.1
	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	3	2	1	1	25	2	2	2	1	2	-	41
	Progressive Conservative	Vote:	27.9	16.8	14.4	22.0	37.4	24.5	39.4	37.5	48.4	27.9		29.7
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Seats:	3	-	5	3	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	13
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Vote:	31.5	10.0	40.9	25.9	15.2	1.1	4.2	9.9	2.4	0.2	17.0	13.4
	Social Credit	Seats:	-	10	-		-							10
	Social Credit	Vote:	0.5	37.4	0.9		0.2							2.3
	Independent	Seats:	1			-	-	3	-					4
	Independent	Vote:	2.6			2.1	0.1	6.1	0.2				34.0	2.1
	Independent Liberal	Seats:					1	-	-					1
	Independent Liberal	Vote:					0.3	1.3	1.4					0.5
	Liberal-Labour	Seats:					1	-						1
	Liberal-Labour	Vote:					0.6	xx						0.2
	Liberal-Progressive	Seats:				1								1
	Liberal-Progressive	Vote:				2.9								0.2
Total Seats			18	17	20	16	83	73	10	13	4	7	1	262
Parties that won no seats:
	Union of Electors	Vote:					0.1	5.1	1.0					1.5
	Labour Progressive	Vote:	0.8	0.7	0.4	2.0	0.7	0.3						0.6
	Independent PC	Vote:					xx	0.5						0.1
	Farmer-Labour	Vote:					0.3							0.1
	National Unity	Vote:						0.4						0.1
	Nationalist	Vote:						0.3						0.1
	Independent Social Credit	Vote:		1.4										0.1
	Labour	Vote:					xx	xx						xx
	Socialist Labour	Vote:					xx							xx