Prime Minister Louis St.-Laurent and his Liberals crushed their opponents in the general election that closed exactly 75-years-ago this evening. St.-Laurent, who had taken over the leadership of the Liberal party from Mackenzie King and became Canada’s 12th PM only a few months before, led his party to convincing victory, earning almost 50 per cent of the vote and more than 70 percent of the seats in the Commons.
Canada’s federal Tories, who were led into the campaign by former Ontario Premier George Drew, lost 24 seats, meaning they were only victorious in 41 seats as compared to the 191 won by St.-Laurent. The CCF also didn’t fare very well, dropping 15 seats and only receiving 13 percent of the popular vote.
Prime Minister St.-Laurent would remain as PM until his defeat in 1957, becoming one of Canada’s greatest modern-era leaders along the way.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.