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