1949 Manitoba general election

The 1949 Manitoba general election was held on November 10, 1949, to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada.

1949 Manitoba general election

← 1945 November 10, 1949 (1949-11-10) 1953 →
57 seats of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba 29 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Douglas Campbell Errick Willis Edwin Hansford Party Liberal–Progressive Progressive Conservative Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since November 13, 1948 June 9, 1936 1948 Leader's seat Lakeside Turtle Mountain St. Boniface Last election 25 13 9 Seats won 31 19 7 Seat change 6 4 2 Percentage 38.70% 19.013% 25.6%
Premier before election Douglas Lloyd Campbell Liberal–Progressive Premier after election Douglas Lloyd Campbell Liberal–Progressive

This election pitted the province's coalition government, made up of the Liberal-Progressive Party and the Progressive Conservative Party, against a variety of opponents.

The social democratic Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) was the coalition's primary challenger, while the communist Labour Progressive Party and an assortment of independent candidates also challenged the coalition in some constituencies.

Liberal-Progressive and Progressive Conservative candidates ran against each other in some ridings, generally where no anti-coalition candidates had a serious chance of winning.

The result was a landslide victory for the coalition. Premier Douglas Campbell's Liberal-Progressives remained the dominant party in government, increasing their caucus to thirty-one seats out of fifty-seven—enough to form a majority government even without assistance from other parties. One of these candidates was elected simply as a "Liberal", but sat as a full member of the Liberal-Progressive caucus.

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by Errick Willis, remained the junior partner in government, falling to nine seats from thirteen in the previous election. Five independent "Conservative" or "Progressive Conservative" candidates were also elected, with all but one opposing the coalition government. These results provoked serious debate in the Progressive Conservative Party about the wisdom of staying with the coalition.^{[citation needed]}

The CCF under Edwin Hansford fell to seven seats, down from nine in the previous election. Bill Kardash of the LPP retained his seat in north-end Winnipeg. Three pro-coalition independents were also elected, as was Edmond Prefontaine, an independent Liberal opposing the coalition.

The Social Credit League did not contest the election, having fallen into a state of internal disorganization.

Winnipeg had 12 seats filled through Single Transferable Voting, with four members elected in each of three Winnipeg districts. St. Boniface had two seats filled through STV.

The other districts elected one MLA each through Alternative Voting, where a candidate had to have majority of the votes to be elected. In Iberville, Morris and Rhineland, where no candidate had the majority in the First Count, only the First Count totals are shown - the final vote count and the intermediate counts are not. In all three cases, the leader in the first count was elected. Instant runoff voting thus made no change to who would have been elected versus who would have been elected under First past the post.