Ontario general elections

Before Confederation

Since its formal formation at Canadian confederation in 1867, Ontario has held forty-four general elections. Elections for local legislative assembly members however started a few decades earlier. Soon after Upper Canada was made a separate British Colony from the British Province of Quebec, the first election for the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada was held in 1792. Upper Canada held thirteen elections between 1792 and 1836 before being merged back with Lower Canada to form the Province of Canada in 1840. Eight elections were held between 1841 and 1863 to elect members to its Legislative Assembly.

However, some of the earlier elections were not determinant of the colonial government of the day. The first election that meaningfully determine the executive leadership of the colonial government was held in 1848, when the principle of responsible government was formally implemented in the Province of Canada.

Evolution of election procedure and eligibility

Ontario held its first provincial election, then called "local election", in conjunction with Canada's first federal election, then called "dominion election" in late summer of 1867. The election was held on different days in different districts over August and September. Balloting was not done in secret, but was recorded orally in front of election officials and representatives of candidates. Candidates were allowed to run for and to hold seats in the Canadian Parliament and the Ontario legislature simultaneously, or to contest multiple districts in the same election. A number of prominent political figures were members of both the first Canadian parliament and the first Ontario parliament. Though only one person, Liberal Premier Edward Blake, had ever been returned to the legislature by more than one district in a Ontario general election.^[d]

To be eligible to vote, one must be a male British subject twenty-one or older. A voter must meet a property qualification of being an owner or tenant with a property valued with a certain minimum value^[6][7][8][e], and an urban voter must further meet an annual income requirement. An estimated 16.5% of Ontario 1.6 million residents were eligible to vote in the first election.^[8]

Election laws received a great deal of attention from Ontario political leaders in the early years of the provinces, and improvements were made rapidly. By the second election held in 1871, elections in all electoral district were held on the same day. By the third election held in 1875, Ontario elections were conducted with secret ballots.

By the end of 1872, it was no longer possible for an individual to be an MP and MPP simultaneously, though one could be a candidate in multiple electoral districts for many more decades. While few people have done so in the twentieth century, it remained technically possible and lawful for an individual to stand for elections in multiple districts in Ontario until 1984.^[10]

Voting franchise in Ontario elections was expanded to include women in 1917.^[11] Their eligibility to stand for office in the subsequent election however remained uncertain in absence of specific legislation until Edwards v Canada (AG) (the Persons Case launch by the Famous Five) was decided in 1929. In the final legislative sittings month prior to the 1919 election, the Women's Assembly Qualification Act, 1919 was enacted to specifically state that women were qualified to be elected to the Legislative Assembly.^[12] Liberal Henrietta Bundy Independent Justerna Sears contested that year's election, but it would be more than 20 years later when a was elected to the legislature.