1943 Ontario general election

← 1937 August 4, 1943 1945 →
90 seats in the 21st Legislative Assembly of Ontario 46 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader George Drew Ted Jolliffe Harry Nixon Party Progressive Conservative Co-operative Commonwealth Liberal Leader since December 9, 1938 April 3, 1942 April 30, 1943 Leader's seat High Park York South Brant Last election 23 0 63 Seats won 38 34 15 Seat change 15 34 48 Percentage 35.7% 31.7% 31.2% Swing 4.3pp 26.1pp 20.4pp
Premier before election Harry Nixon Liberal Premier after election George Drew Progressive Conservative

The 1943 Ontario general election was held on August 4, 1943, to elect the 90 Members of the 21st Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of the Province of Ontario.^[1]

Because of the outbreak of war, the Legislative Assembly had passed Acts in 1942^[2] and 1943^[3] to defer the calling of a general election. The latter extension had received royal assent in April 1943, but Premier Harry Nixon came into office the following month and opted to call an earlier election on June 30, 1943 for August 4, 1943. Noting that the last extension had been vigorously opposed by the Progressive Conservative opposition, he said, "We know of no precedent in the British Empire where a parliament extended its own life against an opposition vote."^[4]

The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by George Drew, defeated the Ontario Liberal Party government. The Liberal government had disintegrated over the previous two years because of a conflict between Mitchell Hepburn, the Ontario caucus and the federal Liberal Party of Canada.

Hepburn resigned and was eventually succeeded by Harry Nixon in early 1943. The change in leadership was not enough to save the government. The election held later that year resulted in the Conservative Party, recently renamed the "Progressive Conservative Party", winning a minority government. This began forty-two uninterrupted years of government by the Tories who combined moderate progressive policies with pragmatism and caution.

The Liberals fell to third place behind a new force, the socialist Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), led by Ted Jolliffe, went from obscurity to form the Official Opposition, winning 32% of the vote and 34 seats in the legislature, just four short of Drew's Tories. The Liberals and their Liberal-Progressive allies fell from 66 seats to a mere 15.

Two members of the banned Communist Party of Ontario running as "Labour" candidates won seats in the Legislature for the first time in this election: A.A. MacLeod in the Toronto riding of Bellwoods, and J.B. Salsberg in the Toronto riding of St. Andrews. Several days following the election the Labor-Progressive Party was officially formed and Salsberg and MacLeod agreed to sit in the legislature as the party's representatives.

The Legislature's first two female MPPs were elected in 1943:

First female MPPs (1943)

Party		MPP		Riding
	CCF		Rae Luckock	Bracondale
	CCF		Agnes Macphail	York East

Elections to the 21st Parliament of Ontario (1943)^{[a 1]}

Political party		Party leader	MPPs					Votes
			Candidates	1937	Dissol.	1943	±	#	%	± (pp)
	Progressive Conservative	George Drew	90	23	19	38	15	469,672	35.75%	3.69
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Ted Jolliffe	86	–	–	34	34	415,441	31.62%	26.30
	Liberal	Harry Nixon	89	62	59	15	51	399,185	30.38%	20.65
	Liberal–Progressive[a 2]		–	3	2	–		–	–
	United Farmers[a 3]		–	1	–	–		–	–
	Labour[a 4]		2	–	–	2	2	11,888	0.90%	0.15
	Independent Liberal[a 5]		4	1	–	1		10,123	0.77%	0.55
	Independent Labour		2	–	–	–		2,215	0.17%	0.16
	Independent		3	–	–	–		2,540	0.19%	0.06
	Independent-CCF		1	–	–	–		1,566	0.12%	New
	Socialist Labour		3	–	–	–		740	0.06%	0.08
	Soldier		2	–	–	–		569	0.04%	New
	Vacant				10
Total			282	90	90	90		1,313,939	100.00%
Blank and invalid ballots								10,746
Registered voters / turnout								2,269,895	58.36%	12.93

* - seat was vacant when election called

  = open seat

  = turnout is above provincial average

  = winning candidate was in previous Legislature

  = incumbent switched allegiance for the election

  = incumbency arose from byelection gain

  = previously incumbent in another riding

  = other incumbents renominated

  = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada

  = multiple candidates

There were 58 seats that changed allegiance in the election.

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