1927 Manitoba general election

June 28, 1927
55 seats of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba 27 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader John Bracken Fawcett Taylor Party Progressive Conservative Leader since August 8, 1922 April, 1922 Leader's seat The Pas Portage la Prairie Last election 28 7 Seats won 29 15 Seat change 1 8 Popular vote 52,805 44,320 Percentage 32.4% 27.2%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Hugh Robson John Queen Party Liberal Independent Labour Leader since 1927 1923 Leader's seat Winnipeg Winnipeg Last election 8 6 Seats won 7 3 Seat change 1 3 Popular vote 33,852 17,133 Percentage 20.7% 10.5%
Premier before election John Bracken Progressive Premier after election John Bracken Progressive

The 1927 Manitoba general election was held on 28 June 1927 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. The result was a second consecutive victory for Manitoba farmers, following its 1922 win.

This was the first election in Manitoba history to elect MLAs through casting of ranked ballots in all districts. Ten MLAs were elected in Winnipeg through Single transferable vote, as they had done since 1920. The other districts now began to elect MLAs through Instant-runoff voting.

The Progressive Party of Manitoba, led by Premier John Bracken, won a second consecutive majority government in 1927. Progressive candidates won twenty-nine seats out of fifty-five to win their second majority government. During the campaign, the Progressives stressed that they were not a party in the traditional sense and promised "A business (not a party) government". Many Progressive candidates simply described themselves as Bracken supporters. The Progressive Party was supported by the powerful United Farmers of Manitoba organization.

The Conservatives won fifteen seats under the leadership of Fawcett Taylor, an improvement from seven in the election of 1922. This election re-established the Conservatives as the leading opposition party in Manitoba, and made the party a credible challenger for government in the next election.

The Manitoba Liberal Party was unable to regain the support it had lost to the Progressive Party in the previous election. The Liberals won seven seats under the new leadership of Hugh Robson, down one from their 1922 total. After the election, many senior Liberals began to work for an electoral alliance with the Progressives. Robson, who opposed this plan, was persuaded to resign as leader in 1930. The alliance was formalized in 1932.

The Independent Labour Party fell to three seats, down from six in the previous election. All three members, including party leader John Queen, were elected in the city of Winnipeg. Candidates of four separate parties - Liberal, Conservative, ILP and Progressive - plus an Independent - were elected to fill that city's ten seats. Winnipeg seats were filled using a form of proportional representation, Single transferable voting.

Jacob Penner ran in Winnipeg as a Communist candidate, but was not successful. He lasted 19 rounds of transfers but picked up very few votes so was eliminated.

Independent candidate John Edmison was re-elected in Brandon.

The proportion of the vote received by the Progressive Party (based on first-preference votes) was enough to assure a functioning government, but it was one of lowest in Canadian history.^[1]

The Legislature experienced a significant turnover of members, with 23 seats electing new MLAs. Twelve incumbents (one in Winnipeg, and 11 more in other ridings) went down in defeat, six failed to be renominated, and five chose not to stand for reelection.^[2]

Under the instant-runoff voting used to elect 45 MLAs, the leader in the first count of the district's votes was the one elected in all but three districts,so the final results in the districts outside Winnipeg were almost the same as under First-past-the-post voting .

Of the 45 single-member ridings, two MLAs were returned by acclamation. Twenty-one were decided solely on first-preference votes, with no vote transfers conducted. The remainder (22) went to runoff counts. There were only three "turn-overs" where the first count leader did not win due to vote transfers - in Minnedosa, Morden & Rhineland and Springfield. The Progressive candidate was leading on the first count in all three districts but after vote transfers, Conservatives won two of them and Liberals won one.

Seventeen seats in the single-member districts went to parties different from the previous election. Eleven rural incumbents running for re-election under their old party label were defeated. Three other incumbents changed their party label and were re-elected. Three open seats flipped to another party.

Results

Manitoba general election (June 29, 1927)^[3]

Party		Leader	First-preference votes		Seats
			Votes	% FPv	Cand.	1922	Elected	Change
	Progressive[a 1]	John Bracken	52,423	32.12	44	28	26	2
	Conservative	Fawcett Taylor	44,320	27.15	40	7	15	8
	Liberal	Hugh Robson	33,852	20.74	40	8	7	1
	Independent Labour[a 2]	John Queen	15,987	9.80	10	6	3	3
	Independent		8,495	5.20	12	4	1	3
	Independent-Moderationist		3,200	1.96	2	1	–	1
	Communist		2,015	1.23	1	–	–	–
	Independent-Progressive		1,618	0.99	3	–	2	2
	Independent-Farmer		1,302	0.80	1	1	1
Valid			163,212	100.00	153	55	55	–
Rejected			n/a
Total votes cast			163,212
Registered voters/Turnout[a 3]			233,453	69.9

Seats changing hands

In the single-member ridings, 17 seats changed allegiance:

Progressive to Conservative Killarney Manitou Minnedosa Progressive to Liberal Mountain Springfield Progressive to Independent-Farmer Ethelbert

Progressive to Independent-Progressive Iberville Rupertsland Liberal to Progressive Fairford Gimli Liberal to Conservative Dauphin

ILP to Conservative Assiniboia Kildonan & St. Andrews Independent to Progressive St. Clements Ste. Rose Independent to Conservative St. Boniface Independent-Farmer to Progressive Emerson

(Italics indicate that incumbent changed allegiance)

In Winnipeg, the seat distribution was changed as follows:

Winnipeg - distribution of seats (1927 vs 1922)

Party		1922	1927	change
	Progressive	1	2	1
	Conservative	2	3	1
	Liberal	2	2
	ILP	4	3	1
	Independent-Moderationist	1	–	1
Total		10	10

Sources

The first ballot results for Winnipeg and results for all other constituencies are taken from an official Manitoba government publication entitled "Manitoba elections, 1920–1941", cross-referenced with the 1928 Canadian Parliamentary Guide, and an appendix to the Manitoba government's report of the 2003 provincial election.

All ballot results for Winnipeg after the first count are taken from reports in the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper. It is possible that some errors appeared in the original publication.

Post-election changes

Birtle (John Pratt leaves the government side, early in the parliament).

Lansdowne (res. Tobias Norris, 1928), 10 November 1928:

• Donald McKenzie (Liberal/Progressive) 1527
• Harvey Hicks (C) 1260

Morris (William Clubb to new cabinet post, 18 May 1929), 30 May 1929:

• William Clubb (P) accl.

Turtle Mountain (dec. Richard G. Willis, February 1929), 22 June 1929:

• Alexander Welch (C) 1327
• W.E. Campbell (P) 995

Winnipeg (res. Hugh Robson, January 1930)

Mountain (dec. Irving Cleghorn, 1930), 20 January 1930:

• Ivan Schultz (L [endorsed by Progressives]) accl.

The Liberals formed an alliance with the governing Progressives in 1932.

Brandon City (dec. John H. Edmison, 22 March 1932)

References

Further reading

• Hopkins, J. Castell, ed. (1927). The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1926–27. Toronto: The Annual Review Company.