The 1926 Ontario general election was the 17th general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on December 1, 1926, to elect the 112 Members of the 17th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs").
Campaign.
The United Farmers of Ontario decided to withdraw from electoral politics after having been defeated in the 1923 election, and most of its MPPs redesignated themselves as Progressives with former UFO Attorney-General William Edgar Raney becoming party leader. Nevertheless, several MPPs, including Raney himself, continued to run as candidates endorsed by local UFO associations.
Leslie Oke and Beniah Bowman were opposed to Raney's leadership as he was not a farmer. They were also opposed to the creation of a new Progressive Party which would not focus exclusively on farmers' issues, so they chose to remain as UFO MPPs. Bowman later resigned from the legislature before the election.
The Ontario Conservative Party, led by Howard Ferguson, was re-elected for a second term in government. There were several disputes in the selection of candidates: in Port Arthur, Donald Hogarth was one of two Conservative candidates—the other being the incumbent Francis Keefer—who were selected in parallel meetings arising from a dispute over the validity of the list of delegates.
The principal issue of the campaign was the government's proposal to repeal the "Ontario Temperance Act", replacing prohibition with government control of liquor sales. The "Daily British Whig" described it as "the greatest issue that has ever been placed before [the voters]". The Liberal and Progressive parties both campaigned against repeal, and one of Ferguson's ministers, William Folger Nickle, resigned from the cabinet and ran for re-election against the government as a Prohibitionist candidate. Raney proposed that the Progressives and Liberals work in concert to support a single dry ticket in certain ridings, which led to the nomination of 27 Prohibitionist candidates. In other ridings, the two parties tended to avoid campaigning against each other, in order to minimize the split of the temperance vote.
The Conservatives fielded candidates in all but two ridings, and three of them were returned by acclamation. In 54 two-way contests, the Liberals declined to field a candidate in favour of an ally considered more likely to gain votes. There were only 15 three-cornered races, one four-way and one five-way battles.
Several Liberals, protesting their party's temperance stand, chose to stand as Independent-Liberals.
Outcome.
The Ontario Liberal Party, led by W.E.N. Sinclair, obtained 13 seats, while the Progressives won 10. Five Liberal-Progressive candidates were also elected, along with several independents. The selection of Liberal-Progressive candidates was complex in some cases: in Victoria North, William Newman was selected by the Progressives, while W.G. Carley was the Liberal nominee. Newman was named as the L-P candidate in a joint meeting of the local parties.
Oke was the only UFO MPP who was re-elected as such, and he was joined by Thomas Farquhar from Manitoulin and Farquhar Oliver from Grey South. The latter won with the assistance of federal MP Agnes MacPhail.
Karl Homuth of Waterloo South was the only Labour MPP returned. His support of the government (and eventual admission to the Conservative caucus after the election) led to Labour's collapse as a party.
The fracture of the UFO, together with a large number of resignations from MPPs (of which five chose to run federally in 1925, and two more in 1926) significantly changed the composition of the Assembly.
Post-election scandals.
After the election, the "Toronto Star" reported accusations of corrupt payments during the campaign:
* In Bruce South, the Liberal candidate (and former MLA in 1911-1914) J.G. Anderson consented to withdraw his nomination upon being paid $1,250 by the Prohibition Union to cover expenses related to the election.
* In Kent East, the former Progressive Candidate W.J.Cryderman stated that an unnamed Liberal had offered him $500 cash plus a Dominion government position if he withdrew his nomination.
* In Perth South, the Progressive candidate W.A. McKenzie was twice offered payments by the Prohibition Union if he withdrew his nomination. He did withdraw, but returned both cheques because of their blatant illegality.
The election in Bruce South was later declared void in June 1927.
Redistribution of seats.
A 1925 Act provided for the redistribution of the Legislative Assembly into 112 ridings for the election.
The dual-member ridings in the City of Toronto, in effect since the 1914 election, were abolished and replaced by single-member seats:
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Beaches was drawn out from York East, and High Park from York West.
There were other changes made to ridings elsewhere in the Province:
* Brant and Brant South were reorganized into Brant County and Brantford
* Bruce West was divided between Bruce North and Bruce South
* Durham East and Durham West were combined to form Durham
* Frontenac and Lennox became Frontenac—Lennox
* Grey Centre was divided between Grey North and Grey South
* Hamilton Centre was created from parts of Hamilton East and Hamilton West
* Huron Centre was split between Huron North and Huron South
* London was split into London North and London South
* Middlesex East was split between Middlesex North and Middlesex West
* Norfolk North and Norfolk South merged to form Norfolk
* Northumberland East and Northumberland West became Northumberland
* Ottawa West was divided to form Ottawa North and Ottawa South
* Peterborough East and Peterborough West were reorganized to form Peterborough City and Peterborough County
* Wellington East and Wellington West merged to form Wellington Northeast
* Windsor was divided to form Windsor East and Windsor West
* York South was carved out from York West
A further Act in 1926 merged Simcoe South and Simcoe West into Simcoe Southwest, and divided Cochrane into Cochrane North and Cochrane South.
Raney complained that the net effect of the redistribution was to transfer up to 11 seats from rural to urban voters, and thus "to secure the re-election of the Ferguson Government".
Results.
Synopsis of results.
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 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = turnout is above provincial average
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = incumbent switched allegiance for the election
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = not incumbent; previously elected as a UFO MLA
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = not incumbent; previously elected as a Labour MLA
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = not incumbent; previously elected as a Liberal-Temperance MLA
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = petition against election withdrawn
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = petition against election dismissed
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = election declared void
Notes and references.
References.
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