Canadian federal election, 1949

← 1945

June 27, 1949

1953 →

262 seats in the 21st Canadian Parliament
132 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party

Leader	Louis St. Laurent	George A. Drew
Party	Liberal	Progressive Conservative
Leader since	August 7, 1948	October 2, 1948
Leader's seat	Quebec East	Carleton
Last election	117	65
Seats won	191	41
Seat change	74	24
Popular vote	2,874,813	1,734,261
Percentage	49.15%	29.65%
Swing	9.37pp	2.03pp

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Major James Coldwell	Solon Earl Low
Party	Co-operative Commonwealth	Social Credit
Leader since	March 22, 1942	April 6, 1944
Leader's seat	Rosetown—Biggar	Peace River
Last election	28	13
Seats won	13	10
Seat change	15	3
Popular vote	784,770	135,217
Percentage	13.42%	2.31%
Swing	2.13pp	1.74%pp

Prime Minister before election

Louis St. Laurent
Liberal

Prime Minister-designate

Louis St. Laurent
Liberal

The Canadian federal election of 1949 was held on June 27 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 21st Parliament of Canada. It was the first election in Canada in almost thirty years in which the Liberal Party of Canada was not led by William Lyon Mackenzie King. King had retired in 1948, and was replaced as Liberal leader and Prime Minister by Louis St. Laurent. It was also the first federal election with Newfoundland voting, having joined Canada in March of that year. The Liberal Party was re-elected with its fourth consecutive government, winning just under 50% of the vote. This victory was the third largest majority government in Canadian History.

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by former Premier of Ontario George Drew, gained little ground in this election.

Smaller parties, such as the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and Social Credit, a party that advocated monetary reform, lost support to the Liberals, and to a lesser extent, the Conservatives.

Voter turn-out: 73.8%

Notes:

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