1944 Saskatchewan general election

Summary

The 1944 election was held six years after the previous election in 1938. While there is normally a five-year limit on the lifespan of Parliaments and provincial assemblies in Canada, the emergency brought on by the Second World War allowed the government to delay the election temporarily, which William Patterson's governing Liberal Party opted to do.

The 1944 election marked the first time a nominally socialist government was elected anywhere in Canada. With the victory, Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) leader Tommy Douglas became the premier of Saskatchewan. The CCF, which had spent two terms as the Official Opposition, won 47 of the 52 seats in the legislature, and over half the popular vote.

The Liberals, led by Patterson, had run a negative campaign, accusing Douglas and the CCF of being communists. The Liberal popular vote fell by 10 percentage points, and the party won only five seats. This marked the worst defeat of a sitting government in Saskatchewan's history.

The Social Credit Party, which had won 16% of the vote and two seats in the 1938 election, collapsed; the party had only one candidate, who received only 249 votes.

The Communist Party-led Unity movement reverted to the name Labor-Progressive Party, and lost both of the seats it had won in 1938.

The Conservative Party, renamed the Progressive Conservative Party and led by Rupert Ramsay, continued to see its share of the vote drop, taking only just over 10% of the vote, and won no seats.

An at-large service vote was held for Saskatchewan residents in the Canadian armed services fighting during the war. This special vote elected three nonpartisan members to represent Saskatchewan soldiers, sailors and airmen stationed in Great Britain, the Mediterranean region, and Newfoundland and Canada outside the province. Alberta had a similar system during the war.

Results

Note: * Party did not nominate candidates in previous election.

Percentages

Ranking

Riding-by-riding results

Names in bold represent cabinet ministers and the Speaker. Party leaders are italicized. The symbol " ** " indicates MLAs who are not running again.

Northwestern Saskatchewan

|- | |Pierre Ephrem Ayotte 57 || |Louis Marcien Marion 626 | |Alexander Fred De Laronde 9 | |Errick Guttormur Erickson (Ind.) 78 Francis Xavier Poitras (Ind. Liberal) 5 ||

| |John A. Gordon 1820 | | | | ||

| |Donald MacDonald 1805 | |William Titley 362 | |Arthur J. Doucet (Labor-Progressive) 716 ||

| |Wilfred James Langley 1285 | |Ernest Wilson 662 | |Peter John Semko (Ind.) 99 ||

| |Henry Begrand 1541 || |Peter J. Hooge 2199 | |Gordon Ellis Goble 473 | | ||

| |Omer Demers 2177 | | | | ||

| |Paul Prince 2426 | |Robert Wendell McNair 446 | | ||

| |William Franklin Kerr 1766 | |Chester Hicks 399 | | || |William Franklin Kerr

Northeastern Saskatchewan

|- || |Leslie Walter Lee 357 | |Deakin Alexander Hall 242 | |Raoul Olier St. Denis 11 | | ||

| |Arnold William Loehr 2673 | |Stephen David Weese 358 | | ||

| |Gladstone Mansfield Ferrie 1880 | |Samuel Edward Hall 649 | | ||

| |Russell Martin Paul 1544 | |Andrew Fraser 671 | | ||

| |John Duncan MacFarlane 1862 | |Stanley Beattie Caskey 1450 | | ||

| |Harold John Fraser 3617 | |Edgar Percy Woodman 655 | | ||

| |Clarence Railsback O'Connor 2269 | |Isaac Flexman Stothers 703 | | ||

| |Donald L. Menzies 846 | |Keith Acton Baldwin 535 | | || |James Archibald Kiteley**

West Central Saskatchewan

|- | |William R. Fansher 2256 || |Gustaf Herman Danielson 2343 | |Thomas Alfred Homersham 1068 | | ||

| |Frank Freeman 2156 | | | | ||

| |Charles Agar 1775 | |James Hubert Cannon 893 | | ||

| |Donald Laing 2377 | |Wellington Smith Myers 933 | | ||

| |William Leith 1864 | |John Wilbert Stewart 1046 | | ||

| |Frank Stephen Krenn 2312 | |Hugh Smith 749 | | ||

| |John Cunningham Knowles 2527 | | | | || |John Cunningham Knowles

East Central Saskatchewan

|- || |Myron Henry Feeley 3538 | |Stephen T. Shabbits 2537 | | | | ||

| |Henry Philip Mang 2064 | |James Lindsay Blair 1281 | | ||

| |Lionel Stilborn 3614 | |Shamus Patrick Regan 821 | | ||

| |Reginald John Marsden Parker 2544 | | | |William Michael Berezowski (Labor-Progressive) 554 ||

| |Donald Alexander MacKenzie 2874 | |Rae Melville Salkeld 454 | | ||

| |John Joseph Collins 1925 | |William Seneshen 301 | | ||

| |George Russell Cook 1686 | | | |Walter Elvy Rogers (Ind.) 207 ||

| |Alfred Ariel Brown 2280 | |Norman Roebuck 958 | | || |Alan Carl Stewart** (Unity)

Southwest Saskatchewan

|- || |Maurice John Willis 3771 | |Hubert Staines 1807 | |Ernest J. Ewing 1013 | | ||

| |Edward M. Culliton 2586 | | | | ||

| |Harvey Harold McMahon 2200 | |Charles Howard Howlett 1356 | | ||

| |John Joseph Mildenberger 2872 | |George Chester Stewart 911 | | ||

| |Benjamin Thomas Hyde 2122 | |Clifford Bruce Martin 725 | | ||

| |Charles William Johnson 2862 | | | | ||

| |James Gordon Taggart 3123 | |Bryan Maxwell Hill 1021 | | || |James Gordon Taggart

Southeast Saskatchewan

|- || |Allan Lister Samuel Brown 3847 | |Thomas Waddell 2473 | | | | ||

| |Gladys Strum 3204 || |William John Patterson 3210 | |William Armstrong Brigden 687 | | ||

| |James Gallagher Knox 1887 | |Arthur Maurice Pearson 1220 | | ||

| |William Pedersen 2207 | | | | ||

| |David Alexander Cunningham 3324 || |Arthur Thomas Procter 3865 | | | | ||

| |Frederick Middleton Dundas 3314 | |William Herman Acres 938 | | ||

| |Norman Leslie McLeod 2660 | |Herbert Samuel Penny 1259 | | ||

| |James Weyburn Adolphe 3489 | | | | || |George Levi Crane**

Urban constituencies

|- || |John Wesley Corman 6296 Dempster Henry Ratcliffe Heming 5894 | |William George Baker 2881 Harold Walpole Pope 2887 | |Russell Lawrence Brownridge 1271 Hugh Alexander Tiers 1036 | |Frank Ernest Talbot (Social Credit) 249 || |William Gladstone Ross** William George Baker |- || |John Henry Sturdy 9375 Arthur Thomas Stone 7792 | |James Wilfred Estey 5084 Robert Mitford Pinder 3924 | |Rupert David Ramsay 5368 Henry Oswald Wright 3171 | |Frederick Nelson Clarke (Labor-Progressive) 797

Russell Hartney (Ind.) 200

John Harrison Hilton (Ind.) 121 || |Robert Mitford Pinder James Wilfred Estey |- || |Clarence Melvin Fines 14129 Charles Cromwell Williams 14784 | |Charles Roberts Davidson 10982 Bernard J. McDaniel 10551 | |Hugh McGillivray 3536 Claude Henry James Burrows 3114 | | || |Bernard J. McDaniel Percy McCuaig Anderson**

By-elections

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1944 service elections

Active Service Voters, Saskatchewan members of the Canadian armed services on active duty outside of Saskatchewan, were polled between October 17 and October 30, 1944. One representative was elected from each of three areas. These candidates did not specify any party affiliation.

Area 1 (Great Britain)

Area 2 (Mediterranean Theatre)

Area 3 (Newfoundland and Canada outside of Saskatchewan)

References

• Saskatchewan Election Results By Electoral Division
• Elections Saskatchewan: Previous Elections

References

1. (2004). "Tommy Douglas and the Election of 1944". Saskatchewan Council for Archives & Archivists.
2. Waiser, Bill. (2005). "Saskatchewan: A New History". Fifth House.
3. (2001). "Saskatchewan Politics: Into the Twenty-First Century". Canadian Plains Research Centre.