1951 Ontario general election

The 1951 Ontario general election was held on November 22, 1951, to elect the 90 members of the 24th Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of the Province of Ontario.

Background
Because of Canada's participation in the Korean War, and because previous legislation governing the participation of active service voters stationed overseas had lapsed, new provision was made to enable the collection of votes of Ontario residents who had returned to active service because of the present conflict. Legislation governing the functioning of elections and the preparation of voters' lists was also revised.

Campaign
The majority of races were three-way contests between the major parties:

Outcome
The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by Leslie Frost, won a fourth consecutive term in office, increasing its caucus in the legislature from 53 in the previous election to 79—a solid majority.

The Ontario Liberal Party, led by Walter Thomson, lost six seats, but regained the role of official opposition because of the collapse of the CCF vote. Albert Wren was elected as a Liberal-Labour candidate and sat with the Liberal caucus.

The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), led by Ted Jolliffe, lost all but two of its previous 21 seats with Jolliffe himself being defeated in the riding of York South.

One seat was won by J.B. Salsberg of the Labor-Progressive Party (which was the Communist Party of Ontario). LPP leader A.A. MacLeod lost his downtown Toronto seat of Bellwoods in this election and three other LPP candidates were also defeated.

Results
! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party ! rowspan=2 | Party leader ! colspan=5 | MPPs ! colspan=3 | Votes ! Candidates !1948 ! Dissol. !1951 !± !# !% ! ± (pp)


 * style="text-align:left;"|Leslie Frost
 * 90 || 53 || 53 || 79 || 26 || 860,939 || 48.46 || 7.18


 * style="text-align:left;"|Walter Thomson
 * 88 || 13 || 13 || 7 || rowspan="2"|6 || 551,753 || 31.06 || rowspan="2"|1.72


 * style="text-align:left;"|
 * 2 || 1 || 1 || 1 || 7,939 || 0.45


 * style="text-align:left;"|Ted Jolliffe
 * 77 || 21 || 21 || 2 || 19 || 339,362 || 19.10 || 7.42


 * style="text-align:left;"|Stewart Smith
 * 6 || 2 || 2 || 1 || 1 || 11,914 || 0.67 || 0.33


 * style="text-align:left;"|
 * 4 || ||  ||  ||  || 1,869  || 0.11 || 0.01


 * style="text-align:left;"|
 * 1 || ||  ||  ||  || 1,375  || 0.08 || 0.07


 * style="text-align:left;"|
 * 2 || ||  ||  ||  || 1,094  || 0.06 || 0.13


 * style="text-align:left;"|
 * 1 || ||  ||  ||  || 371  || 0.02 || 0.03
 * -style="background:#E9E9E9;"
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:left;"|Total
 * 271
 * 90
 * 90
 * 90
 * 1,776,616
 * 100.00%
 * colspan="8" style="text-align:left;"|Blank and invalid ballots
 * align="right"|23,834
 * style="background:#E9E9E9;" colspan="2"|
 * -style="background:#E9E9E9;"
 * colspan="8" style="text-align:left;"|Registered voters / turnout
 * 2,745,709
 * 65.57%
 * 2.09
 * }
 * 65.57%
 * 2.09
 * }

Synopsis of results

 * = open seat
 * = turnout is above provincial average
 * = winning candidate was in previous Legislature
 * = incumbent had switched allegiance
 * = other incumbents renominated
 * = campaigned as a Liberal-Labour candidate

Seats that changed hands
There were 29 seats that changed allegiance in the election.


 * CCF to PC
 * Beaches
 * Bracondale
 * Dovercourt
 * Hamilton Centre
 * Hamilton East
 * High Park
 * Parkdale
 * Port Arthur
 * Riverdale
 * Sault Ste. Marie
 * St. David
 * Timiskaming
 * Waterloo South
 * Wentworth
 * Woodbine
 * York East
 * York South
 * York West


 * CCF to Liberal
 * Essex North


 * PC to Liberal
 * Stormont


 * PC to Liberal-Labour
 * Kenora


 * Liberal to PC
 * Bruce
 * Fort William
 * Kent East
 * London
 * Prince Edward—Lennox
 * Waterloo North
 * Welland
 * Wellington North


 * Labor-Progressive to PC
 * Bellwoods


 * Liberal-Labour to PC
 * Rainy River