1953 Canadian federal election

Overview

Liberal Party

Throughout the years since the previous federal election, St. Laurent had been an active and popular Prime Minister, increasing the country's autonomy from the United Kingdom, overseeing the construction of the Trans-Canada Highway, and introducing various welfare programmes. With the Liberals remaining well ahead in the polls, St. Laurent decided there was little to be gained by waiting out his whole mandate, and called an early federal election a year before his mandate was due to expire.

As with the previous election, the campaign was largely based around St. Laurent's personal image, and was light on any actual policies beyond a continuation of what his government had already been doing. While they would lose support in relatively equal measure to all the other three major parties, the majority that they had won four years earlier still held up, and delivered St. Laurent his second majority government.

Progressive Conservatives

While party leader George A. Drew had largely escaped blame for the poor showing at the previous election, the years ahead saw much debate about the party's future direction. Many believed that Ontario, where Drew remained personally very popular and his successor as Premier, Leslie Frost had maintained the party's heavy dominance of the provincial legislature, was key to any prospect of the Progressive Conservatives forming another government. Others within the party pointed out that even if they won every single seat in Ontario, it would leave them 48 seats short of a majority, and that they would need to make up the numbers elsewhere. Western Canada seemed the only realistic prospect of building a political base elsewhere in the country due to the Liberals' heavy domination of Quebec and (to a lesser degree) Atlantic Canada, but the party establishment largely dismissed this prospect, seeing the west as CCF and Socred territory. All the while, the party generally polled better than it had done in the 1945-1949 parliament, but there rarely looked to be any prospect of them forming the next government.

Ultimately, the election result would do little to settle these factional disputes, as the party made something of a recovery in Ontario, and won two extra seats apiece in Quebec and Manitoba, but saw a further drop in their popular vote share west of Manitoba.

Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation

For this election, the CCF scaled back the scope of their campaign. Having tried to win seats throughout the country in the previous two elections, this time the party's goal was to re-establish its political base in Western Canada and retake the seats that it had lost to the Liberals. The party therefore abandoned any pretence of trying to make a breakthrough in Ontario, nominating very few candidates east of Manitoba, and almost none in Quebec.

In the end, despite suffering the largest popular vote share loss of the major parties, the CCF's strategy paid off, largely reversing the losses they had suffered in the previous election. They earned a firm majority of seats in their political base of Saskatchewan, and also performed well in British Columbia, coming a close second to the Liberals in the province's seat total. Their final total of 23 seats nationally was 5 fewer than they had earned in 1945, but still the second-best showing since the party's formation.

Social Credit Party

While little changed in the Social Credit Party's political base of Alberta, with them winning the same total of 10 seats that they had at the previous federal election, this election marked an important breakthrough for the Socreds, who were able to capitalise on the newly-formed Social Credit provincial government of W. A. C. Bennett in British Columbia, and win seats in the province for the first time. They won a total of five seats, while coming a very close third (within half a percentage point) behind the CCF in the province's popular vote. For the first time, the Socreds held more seats than the Progressive Conservatives in two provinces.

During the campaign, leader Solon Earl Low was largely able to side-step any questions of whether his party would be willing to prop up a potential minority Progressive Conservative government, as there was little doubt that the Liberals would win another majority. However, the Socreds' breakthrough into a new province and the PCs' seeming disinterest in the west soon resulted in much debate about Social Credit's potential role in a federal government (or at least supporting one on matters of confidence) in the years ahead.

National results

See also Results of the 1953 Canadian federal election

Notes:

• • not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

1 The Liberal-Labour MP sat with the Liberal caucus.

Vote and seat summaries

|File:Ternary CA1949.svg |1949 |File:Ternary CA1953.svg |1953

Results by province

• xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

References