1945 Canadian federal election

1945 Canadian federal election

← 1940 June 11, 1945 1949 →
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245 seats in the House of Commons 123 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	75.3%[1] (5.4pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader W. L. Mackenzie King John Bracken M. J. Coldwell Party Liberal Progressive Conservative Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since August 7, 1919 December 11, 1942 March 22, 1942 Leader's seat Prince Albert (lost re-election) Neepawa Rosetown—Biggar Last election 179 39 8 Seats won 118 67 28 Seat change 61 28 20 Popular vote 2,086,545 1,448,744 815,720 Percentage 39.78% 27.62% 15.55% Swing 11.54pp 2.79pp 7.31pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Solon Earl Low Maxime Raymond Tim Buck Party Social Credit Bloc populaire Labor–Progressive3 Leader since April 6, 1944 February 10, 1943 1929 Leader's seat Peace River Beauharnois—Laprairie Ran in Trinity (lost) Last election 10 pre-creation 0 Seats won 13 2 1 Seat change 3 2 1 Popular vote 212,220 172,765 111,892 Percentage 4.05% 3.29% 2.13% Swing 1.46pp pre-creation 1.94pp
The Canadian parliament after the 1945 election
Prime Minister before election William Lyon Mackenzie King Liberal Prime Minister after election William Lyon Mackenzie King Liberal

The 1945 Canadian federal election was held on June 11, 1945, to elect members of the House of Commons of the 20th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberals won a third term. The party fell five seats short of a majority but was able to rule as a majority government with the support of Independent Liberal MPs.

Since 1939, Canada had been fighting in World War II. In May 1945, the war in Europe ended, allowing King to call an election. As the war in Asia was still raging on, King promised a voluntary force to fight in Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan, while Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party) leader John Bracken promised conscription, which was an unpopular proposal and led to the PCs' third consecutive defeat. The Liberals were also re-elected because of their promise to expand welfare programs. However, they lost about a third of their seats; the stark decline in support was partly attributed to their introduction of conscription in 1944, which was unpopular in many parts of Canada.^[2] In addition, the democratic socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation made a major breakthrough, tripling its seats, while the Social Credit Party made more modest gains.

Although the election officially resulted in a minority government, the election of eight "Independent Liberal" MPs, most of whom did not run as official Liberals because of their opposition to conscription, gave the King government an effective working majority in parliament. Most of the Independent Liberal MPs joined (or re-joined) the Liberal caucus following World War II when the conscription issue became moot. As King was defeated in his own riding of Prince Albert, fellow Liberal William MacDiarmid, who was re-elected in the safe seat of Glengarry, resigned so that a by-election could be held, which was subsequently won by King.^[3]