The 1953 Manitoba general election was held on June 8, 1953 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. The election produced a majority government for the Liberal-Progressive party led by Douglas Campbell. His party won thirty-two of fifty-seven seats although with but 39 percent of the vote overall. To date this is the last election in which the Liberal Party won a majority of seats in Manitoba.
This was the first election held in Manitoba after the breakup of a ten-year coalition government led by the Liberal-Progressives and Progressive Conservatives. The coalition, which began in 1940, was ended in 1950 when the Progressive Conservatives crossed to the opposition side.
Prior to the 1949 election, Winnipeg's single at-large 10-member district was broken up into three four-member districts. The new districts, named Winnipeg Centre, Winnipeg North and Winnipeg South, elected four members each, through STV. 
St. Boniface elected two members through STV. 
Each of the other districts elected one MLA using Instant-Runoff Voting. This was to be the last provincial election in Manitoba to use Instant-Runoff Voting in these districts.
The result of the election was a convincing victory for the Liberal-Progressive government of Premier Douglas Campbell, which won thirty-two of fifty-seven seats although with but 39 percent of the vote overall.
Three Independent Liberal-Progressives were also elected.
The Progressive Conservatives, led by Errick Willis, saw their representation in the legislature increase from nine to twelve members. This was a disappointing result for many in the party. Willis had been a prominent cabinet minister in the coalition government, and many questioned the sincerity of his new-found opposition to Campbell's ministry. The following year, he lost the leadership of the party to Dufferin Roblin.
The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) suffered a disappointment under new leader Lloyd Stinson, falling from seven seats to five. Its 17 percent of the vote made it due about eight seats proportionally.
During the campaign, the "Winnipeg Free Press" newspaper devoted considerable attention to the return of the Social Credit Party in Manitoba. The party had not contested the previous provincial election, but was buoyed by the recent Social Credit victory in British Columbia and ran several candidates. The "Free Press", which supported the Liberal-Progressives, and played up the threat of a Social Credit victory to rally popular support for the government. The actual threat posed by Social Credit was minimal: only two of its candidates were elected, although it did receive 13 percent of the vote.
The Communist Labor-Progressive Party also won representation in the legislature, with party incumbent Bill Kardash taking one of the four constituency seats in Winnipeg North. This was the last time that a Communist candidate won election to the Manitoba legislature, or indeed to any provincial legislature in Canada.
Two independent candidates were elected. Stephen Juba, the mayor of Winnipeg, was one of them.
Sources.
Results for the first ballot counts for all constituencies are taken from the 1954 Canadian Parliamentary Guide, and from Election Manitoba's "Historical Summaries" (printed as an appendix to the 2003 election results).
There are minor discrepancies between these sources for the Social Credit vote count in Brandon City, Manitou-Morden, Rockwood and Swan River. The sources also disagree as to the candidate order for Minnedosa on the first count (although both agree that Gilbert Hutton was subsequently elected). In each case, the "Historical Summaries" entry has been taken as more reliable.
All results after the first ballot are taken from reports in the "Winnipeg Free Press". This paper made an obvious error in reporting Lloyd Stinson's fifth-vote count, which has been corrected here. Other than this, the results for multi-member constituencies may be taken as accurate and verifiable. For the single-member constituencies, it possible that "Free Press" reports differed from the final results in some particulars.
Post-election changes.
Ivan Schultz (Mountain, LP) resigned his seat in the first half of 1955, while James O. Argue (Deloraine-Glenwood, PC) died in the same period. By-elections for both constituencies were held on June 27, 1955. The CCF concluded that it did not have a chance of victory in either seat, and declined to nominate candidates. Social Credit also planned to stay out of the elections, until Roger Poiron entered the Mountain poll without consulting the provincial party. Although not technically an official candidate, he still received support from the Social Credit organization.
! colspan="9"|Manitoba provincial by-election, June 27, 1955: Deloraine—Glenwood
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! colspan="9"|Manitoba provincial by-election, June 27, 1955: Mountain
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The "Winnipeg Free Press"'s coverage indicates that the Campbell government was concerned with the results of the 1955 by-elections. Mountain had previously been regarded as one of the safest Liberal-Progressive seats in the province, and Boulic's performance was unexpectedly strong. Many leading government figures had campaigned for Clark in the campaign's final days, to ensure his victory. Clark received most of his support from Mountain's Anglophone majority and large Flemish community, while Boulic did well among French Canadians, who made up about one third of the voters.
St. George (dec. Christian Halldorson, 1956), December 30, 1956:
Emerson (res. John Solomon, 1957), November 14, 1957:
[Note: These figures are taken from the Winnipeg Free Press, with 31 of 32 polls reporting. The outstanding poll was too small to affect the final result.]
Manitou-Morden (dec. Hugh Morrison, 1957), November 14, 1957:
Gladstone (dec. William Morton, early 1958)
Dauphin (William Bullmore left the Social Credit party in either 1957 or 1958)
Arthur (dec. J. Arthur Ross, April 1, 1958)