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1936 Manitoba general election

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1936 Manitoba general election

← 1932 July 27, 1936 1941 →

55 seats of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
27 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader John Bracken Errick Willis
Party Liberal–Progressive Progressive Conservative
Leader since August 8, 1922 June 9, 1936
Leader's seat The Pas Turtle Mountain
Last election 38 10
Seats won 23 16
Seat change Decrease15 Increase6
Popular vote 91,357 71,927
Percentage 35.3% 27.8%
Swing Decrease4.3pp Decrease7.6pp

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Seymour Farmer none
Party ILP-CCF Social Credit
Leader since 1936
Leader's seat Winnipeg
Last election 5 -
Seats won 7 7
Seat change Increase2 new
Popular vote 30,983 23,413
Percentage 12.0% 9.0%
Swing Decrease4.5pp new

Premier before election

John Bracken
Liberal–Progressive

Premier after election

John Bracken
Liberal–Progressive

The 1936 Manitoba general election was held July 27, 1936 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. The Liberal-Progressives won minority government in this election, taking 23 seats out of 55 and 35 percent of the vote.

This was the second election in Manitoba after the formation of a Liberal-Progressive alliance in 1932. The Progressive Party, which had governed the province since 1922, forged an alliance with the Liberal Party just prior to the 1932 provincial election to prevent the Conservative Party from winning. This alliance won the 1932 election under Premier John Bracken's leadership, and the two parties had effectively become united by 1936.

The Liberal-Progressives faced opposition from a variety of parties in the 1936 election. The Conservative Party remained the dominant opposition group, and the most serious challenge to the government. On the left, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) formed an alliance with the national Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), and contested the election as the ILP-CCF. The Communist Party also fielded a strong candidate in Winnipeg, while the upstart Social Credit League also ran candidates, hoping to repeat William Aberhart's surprising victory in Alberta the previous year.

Despite economic hardships in the province, Bracken expected that his government would be returned with another majority. He was mistaken. Although the Liberal-Progressives won the election, they could claim only twenty-two seats out of 53 after the initial results were declared. The Conservative party, under its new leader, former federal Member of Parliament (MP) Errick Willis, finished a close second with sixteen. The ILP-CCF won seven seats, while the Social Credit League unexpectedly won five. One independent Liberal was also elected. A number of rural ridings, which had previously supported Liberal-Progressive candidates, shifted to the Conservatives or to Social Credit in this poll.

The greatest surprise of the election occurred in the Winnipeg constituency, which elected ten members via a single transferable ballot. Former judge Lewis Stubbs, an independent leftist, received an astounding 24,805 votes on the first ballot, almost 20,000 more than his nearest competitor. The second-place candidate, moreover, was James Litterick, the first openly declared communist to win election at the state or federal level in North America.

After the election, Bracken attempted to persuade Errick Willis to form a four-year alliance of the Liberal-Progressive and Conservative parties, so as to provide a stable government for the province. Willis rejected the offer the same day, claiming his caucus was unwilling to accept it.

The provincial impasse continued until August 13, when the Social Credit League unexpectedly announced that it would provide support to Bracken's government in the legislature. Social Credit did not formally join with the Liberal-Progressives in a coalition government, but provided critical support to Bracken's minority government for the next four years.

Ironically, Bracken's own constituency of The Pas was the site of one of the two deferred elections. He was re-elected, while a second Independent Liberal was returned in Rupertsland.

Including the Social Credit MLAs, Bracken's government could count on the support of only 28 members out of 55. He was nonetheless able to keep his government intact for four years, and in late 1940 formed a new wartime coalition government with the Conservatives, CCF and Social Credit. This coalition contested the 1941 election, and won a landslide majority.

The Communist Party was not included in this coalition, as it had been declared illegal after the start of World War II. James Litterick was expelled from the legislature in 1940 and went into hiding. He and CPC leader Tim Buck surrendered themselves to police in 1942 and spent time in the Don Jail, being released in 1942 or 1943. Litterick's whereabouts after the war are unknown. His disappearance has been the cause of speculation in the Canadian left. Some say that he was a spy for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and that he was killed as a traitor during the war by other members of the Communist Party. This has never been verified, however.

Like the previous Manitoba elections, all the voters cast preferential votes. Ten MLAs were elected in Winnipeg through Single transferable votes; all others were elected through Instant-runoff voting.

Results

[edit]
Manitoba general election (July 27, 1936)[1]
Party Leader First-preference votes Seats
Votes % FPv Cand. 1932 Elected Change
Liberal–Progressive John Bracken 91,357 36.1 49 36 23 13Decrease
Conservative Errick Willis 71,927 28.4 37 10 16 6Increase
  ILP-CCF Seymour Farmer 30,983 17.3 13 5 7 2Increase
Independent 27,552 10.9 4 1 1Increase
Social Credit 23,413 9.2 12 5 5Increase
Communist James Litterick 5,864 2.3 1 1 1Increase
Independent-Liberal 2,340 0.9 2 2 2Increase
Independent-LP 2 2Decrease
Independent-Progressive 1 1Decrease
Independent-Farmer-Labour 1 1Decrease
Valid 253,436 100.0 118 55 55
Rejected 5,524
Total votes cast 258,960
Registered voters/Turnout[a 1] 391,902 66.1
  1. ^ Excludes constituencies where candidates returned by acclamation

Results by riding

[edit]

Bold names indicate members returned by acclamation. Incumbents are marked with *.

Turnover on runoff

[edit]

Among the single-member ridings, there was only one case where the first-place candidate in first-preference votes failed to win:

St. Boniface - Summary of results (1936)
Party Candidate First-preference votes Maximum votes
Votes % FPv Votes Round Initial vs transfer votes mix
Liberal–Progressive L.P. Gagnon 3,630 32.22 4,235 3
  Independent Labour Harold Lawrence* 3,157 28.03 4,620 3
Conservative G.C. McLean 2,747 24.39 2,890 2
Social Credit J.F. Jodoin 1,730 15.36 1,730 1
Total 11,264 100.00  
Exhausted votes 2,409 21.39%

Winnipeg

[edit]

Winnipeg:

Winnipeg MLAs returned by party
Party MLAs
Liberal–Progressive 2
  ILP-CCF 3
Conservative 3
Independent 1
Communist 1
Total 10

Ten MLAs were elected through Single transferable vote.

Winnipeg (ten members)
Party Candidate FPv% Count
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Independent Lewis Stubbs 31.27 24,805
Communist James Litterick 7.39 5,864 7,971
Conservative Ralph Webb*[a 1] 7.03 5,581 7,250
Liberal–Progressive William Major* 6.56 5,211 5,558 5,564 5,568 5,574 5,589 5,863 5,907 6,457 6,482 6,576 6,691 6,692 6,694 6,704 6,848 7,920
Liberal–Progressive John Stewart McDiarmid* 5.86 4,652 5,235 5,252 5,267 5,278 5,298 5,618 5,642 6,462 6,519 6,650 6,800 6,802 6,806 6,817 7,039 8,289
Conservative James Barry 5.11 4,055 4,702 4,713 4,724 4,735 4,747 4,817 4,867 4,964 4,999 5,411 5,551 5,559 5,566 5,587 7,251
Liberal–Progressive Mary Dyma 4.85 3,849 4,313 4,338 4,346 4,385 4,403 4,511 4,543 4,696 4,721 4,769 4,869 4,870 4,877 4,891 4,944
Conservative Huntly Ketchen* 4.76 3,775 4,471 4,485 4,490 4,505 4,546 4,598 4,626 4,760 4,803 5,507 5,713 5,727 5,730 5,750 7,771
Co-operative Commonwealth Marcus Hyman* 4.36 3,459 4,357 4,408 4,430 4,562 4,586 4,607 4,623 4,649 4,905 4,947 5,280 5,283 5,429 5,775 5,871 6,127
Co-operative Commonwealth John Queen*[a 2] 3.41 2,709 5,754 5,949 6,027 6,216 6,264 6,381 6,476 6,596 7,386
Conservative R.W.B. Swail 3.15 2,500 3,106 3,110 3,117 3,123 3,141 3,169 3,197 3,275 3,300 4,577 4,739 4,746 4,749 4,760
Conservative Gunnar Thorvaldson 3.03 2,400 2,783 2,791 2,802 2,808 2,821 2,925 2,960 3,041 3,063
Co-operative Commonwealth Seymour Farmer*[a 3] 2.48 1,969 4,533 4,704 4,812 5,250 5,338 5,408 5,493 5,555 6,596 6,692 7,647
Social Credit G.E. Smith 2.24 1,780 2,502 2,536 2,564 2,576 3,025 3,045 4,024 4,063 4,149 4,200
Liberal–Progressive C. Rice-Jones 2.23 1,767 2,124 2,133 2,142 2,147 2,157 2,349 2,375
Liberal–Progressive Paul Bardal 1.46 1,155 1,489 1,498 1,503 1,513 1,527
Co-operative Commonwealth William Ivens* 1.42 1,130 2,080 2,199 2,245 2,412 2,435 2,464 2,506 2,542
Social Credit H. Streuber 1.22 964 1,273 1,289 1,320 1,329 1,648 1,673
Social Credit A.C. Benjamin 0.99 788 1,147 1,167 1,182 1,188
Co-operative Commonwealth Beatrice A. Brigden 0.77 607 978 1,010 1,093
Co-operative Commonwealth C.G. Stewart 0.40 318 504 520
Exhausted ballots 34 65 141 238 427 606 743 951 2,990 2,990 2,990 2,990 3,550 5,916
Electorate: 133,666   Valid: 79,344   Spoilt: 1,486   Quota: 7,214   Turnout: 80,830 (60.47%)  
* - Incumbent
  1. ^ Webb's surplus of 36 votes was not transferred until the 13th count
  2. ^ Queen's surplus of 172 votes was not transferred until the 14th count
  3. ^ Farmer's surplus of 433 votes was not transferred until the 15th count
Winnipeg (analysis of transferred votes, ranked in order of 1st preference votes)
Party Candidate Maximum
round
Maximum
votes
Share in
maximum
round
Maximum votes
First round votesTransfer votes


Independent Lewis Stubbs 1 24,805 31.27%
Communist James Litterick 2 7,971 10.05%
Conservative Ralph Webb 2 7,250 9.14%
Liberal-Progressive William Major 17 7,920 10.79%
Liberal-Progressive John Stewart McDiarmid 17 8,289 11.29%
Conservative James Barry 16 7,251 9.57%
Liberal-Progressive Mary Dyma 16 4,944 5.08%
Conservative Huntly Ketchen 16 7,771 10.25%
ILP-CCF Marcus Hyman 17 6,127 8.34%
ILP-CCF John Queen 10 7,386 9.40%
Conservative R.W.B. Swail 15 4,760 6.23%
Conservative Gunnar Thorvaldson 10 3,063 3.90%
ILP-CCF Seymour Farmer 12 7,647 10.41%
Social Credit G.E. Smith 11 4,200 5.36%
Liberal-Progressive C. Rice-Jones 8 2,375 3.01%
Liberal-Progressive Paul Bardal 6 1,527 1.93%
ILP-CCF William Ivens 9 2,542 3.23%
Social Credit H. Streuber 7 1,673 2.11%
Social Credit A.C. Benjamin 5 1,188 1.50%
ILP-CCF Beatrice A. Brigden 4 1,093 1.38%
ILP-CCF C.G. Stewart 3 520 0.66%
Exhausted votes 5916 7.46%

Sources

[edit]

The first ballot results for Winnipeg and results for all other constituencies are taken from an official Manitoba government publication entitled "Manitoba elections, 1920-1941", cross-referenced with an appendix to the government's report of the 2003 provincial election. The Canadian parliamentary guide lists slightly different results for Glenwood, but the other two sources are more comprehensive and may be taken as more reliable.

All ballot results for Winnipeg after the first count are taken from reports in the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper. It is possible that some errors appeared in the original publication.

Post-election changes

[edit]

The ILP-CCF parliamentary group became known as CCF after the election.

Winnipeg (dec. Marcus Hyman, 1938).

Winnipeg (James Litterick disqualified from the legislature, 1940).

Lewis Stubbs was initially the only member of the legislature to remain in opposition when a four-party coalition was formed in 1940. He was later joined by Salome Halldorson of Social Credit, as well as John Poole and Huntly Ketchen of the Conservatives.

Further reading

[edit]
  • The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1935 and 1936. Toronto: The Annual Review Company. 1939.
  1. ^ "Twentieth General Election Held July 27, 1936 - Summary of Results" (PDF). electionsmanitoba.ca. Elections Manitoba. Retrieved January 21, 2023.