The '''Ontario general election of 1945''' was held on June_4, 1945, to elect the 90 members of the Legislative Assembly (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of the Province of Ontario, Canada. The Ontario_Progressive_Conservative_Party, led by George_Drew, won a second consecutive term in office, winning a solid majority of seats in the legislature -- 66, up from 38 in the previous election. The Ontario_Liberal_Party, led by former premier Mitchell_Hepburn, was returned to the role of Official_opposition with 11 seats, plus 3 Liberal-Labour seats that it won in coalition with the Labour-Progressive_Party (which was, in fact, the Communist Party). The three new Liberal-Labour MPPs are James_Newman of Rainy_River, Joseph_Meinzinger of Waterloo_North and Alexander_Parent of Essex_North. The Social_democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, led by Ted_Jolliffe, was reduced from 34 seats to only 8. Two seats were won by the Labour-Progressive Party on its own with the re-election of A.A._MacLeod and J.B._Salsberg. The Drew government called the election in an attempt to get a Majority_government. By exploiting increasing Cold War tensions, the PC Party was able to defeat Jolliffe's CCF by stoking fears about communism. Jolliffe replied by giving a radio speech (written by Lister_Sinclair) that accused Drew of running a political Gestapo in Ontario, alleging that a secret department of the Ontario_Provincial_Police was acting as a political police spying on the opposition and the media. This accusation led to a backlash, and loss of support for the CCF, including the loss of Jolliffe's own seat of York_South. This probably helped Drew win his majority, although in the 1970s, archival evidence was discovered proving the charge. ==Results== {| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse border-color: #444444" |- bgcolor="CCCCCC" !rowspan="2"|   !rowspan="2"| Party !rowspan="2"| Leader |rowspan="2" align="center"|1943 !rowspan="2" align="center"|Elected !rowspan="2" align="center"|% change !colspan=2 align="center"|Popular vote |- |- bgcolor="CCCCCC" |align=center| % |align=center|change {{Canadian_politics/party_colours/Progressive Conservatives/row}} |Progressive Conservative |George_Drew |align="right"|38 |align="right"|'''66''' |align="right"|+73.7% |align="right"|44.3% |align="right"|+8.6% {{Canadian_politics/party_colours/Liberal/row}} | Liberal |rowspan=2| Mitchell_Hepburn |align="right"|15 |align="right"|'''11''' | align="right"|-26.7% |rowspan=2 align="right"|29.8% | rowspan=2 align="right"|-1.4% {{Canadian_politics/party_colours/Liberal/row}} | Liberal-Labour |align="right"|- |align="right"|'''3''' |align="right"|   {{Canadian_politics/party_colours/CCF/row}} | Co-operative Commonwealth |Ted_Jolliffe |align="right"|34 |align="right"|'''8''' |align="right"|-76.5% |align="right"|22.4% |align="right"|-9.3% {{Canadian_politics/party_colours/Communist/row}} |Labour-Progressive Party |Leslie_Morris |align="right"|2 |align="right"|'''2''' |align="right"|- |align="right"|2.4% |align="right"|   |- |colspan="3"|'''Total Seats''' |align="right"|'''90''' |align="right"|'''90''' |align="right"|'''-''' |align="right"| 100% |align="right"|   |} ==See also== {{Sequence| prev=1943 election| list=List_of_Ontario_general_elections| next=1948 election }} *Politics_of_Ontario *List of Ontario political parties *Premier_of_Ontario *Leader_of_the_Opposition_(Ontario) Category:1945_elections Category:Elections_in_Ontario