The 1905 Ontario general election was the 11th general election held in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on January 25, 1905, to elect the 98 Members of the 11th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs").
The Ontario Conservative Party, led by Sir James P. Whitney, defeated the Ontario Liberal Party, led by Sir George William Ross, bringing to an end the control of the government that the Liberal Party had exercised power for the previous 34 years.
The Liberal Party had been in power in Ontario for the last 34 years. 24 of these were under Oliver Mowat, who was seen as a popular, moderate leader. The Liberals had been able to stay dominant elections due to Mowat's willingness to compromise and his support from farmers. In 1896, Mowat resigned the position of premier to join the cabinet of Wilfrid Laurier. He was replaced by Arthur Hardy, who resigned 3 years later due to poor health, and was replaced by George William Ross, the former Minister of Education.
The Liberals had declined significantly since the retirement of Mowat, losing the popular vote and winning only a small majority in the 1902 election. Demographic factors had hurt the party. Industrial cities that typically voted Conservative were growing while farmers - a core constituency of the Liberals - were on decline. The dominant Liberal government was also strongly criticised for corruption. In one case, Francis Clergue, a supporter of the Liberal government, was accused of bringing over Americans in Michigan and handing out drinks to get them to vote for Liberals in Sault Ste. Marie. Ross did not have Mowat's reputation of being seen as an "honest Christian man" and so found it harder to defend against the allegations.
Prohibition was also an issue after the British Privy Council declared that provinces had the right to restrict alcohol. Unlike Mowat, Ross was a much more hesitant supporter of Prohibition, believing it would be unpopular. Instead, Ross held a referendum on Prohibition in 1902, in which the motion failed despite "Yes" winning a majority of the vote, due to a 2/3rds majority being needed for it to pass. This angered pro-Prohibition Liberals and divided the party that already held a small majority. Division in the party lead to Ross calling an election in 1905.
The main focus of the campaign was on the Conservatives attacking the Liberal "machine" which had dominated elections in the Province, especially between 1898 and 1904, and was involved in numerous instances of bribery and other corrupt practices. This was further highlighted by the fact that no Liberals were prosecuted for this, while Conservatives were involved in fewer such matters but faced numerous convictions. By 1905, this had led to widespread disgust, and one Tory candidate, P.D. Ross in Ottawa, declared upon his nomination that every honest man should be a Conservative. The Globe, a newspaper founded by Liberal George Brown, endorsed the Conservatives.
The ensuing Conservative victory was overwhelming. Six constituencies returned Tory members for the first time ever since Confederation, plus eight others which had only done so once before. Most cities, other than Ottawa and Kingston, voted Conservative.
Ottawa had two seats, and plurality block voting was used. Elsewhere the first-past-the-post election system was used.
|- ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party ! rowspan=2 | Party leader ! colspan=5 | MPPs ! colspan=3 | Votes |- ! Candidates !1902 !<small>Dissol.</small> !1905 !ñ !# !% ! ñ (pp)
|style="text-align:left;"|James P. Whitney |98 |48 | |69 |21 |237,612 |53.37% |5.83
|style="text-align:left;"|George William Ross |95 |50 | |28 |22 |198,595 |44.61% |5.04
|style="text-align:left;"| |3 |– | |1 |1 |5,362 |1.20% |
|style="text-align:left;"| |1 |– |– |– | |95 |0.02% |0.36
|style="text-align:left;"| |2 |– |– |– | |100 |0.02% |1.16
|style="text-align:left;"| |2 |– |– |– | |1,906 |0.43% |0.29
|style="text-align:left;"| |7 |– |– |– | |1,273 |0.29% |0.17
|style="text-align:left;"| |2 |– |– |– | |250 |0.06% |
|style="text-align:left;"| |– |– |– |– | |colspan="3"|Did not campaign
|colspan="3"| | |colspan="5"| |-style="background:#E9E9E9;" |colspan="3" style="text-align:left;"|Total |210 |98 |98 |98 | |445,193 |100.00% | |- |colspan="8" style="text-align:left;"|Blank and invalid ballots |align="right"|3,254 |style="background:#E9E9E9;" colspan="2"| |-style="background:#E9E9E9;" |colspan="8" style="text-align:left;"|Registered voters / turnout |616,996 |72.68% |1.87
|- ! colspan=2 | Political party ! Candidate ! Votes ! % ! Elected ! Incumbent |-
|style="text-align:left;"|Donald Joseph McDougal |6,053 ||26.06 |style="text-align:center;"| |-
|style="text-align:left;"|George Samuel May |5,904 ||25.42 |style="text-align:center;"| |-
|style="text-align:left;"|Dennis Murphy |5,675 ||24.43 |style="text-align:center;"| |style="text-align:center;"| |-
|style="text-align:left;"|P.D. Ross |5,596 ||24.09 |- !colspan="3" style="text-align:right;"|Majority |229 ||0.99 |- !colspan="3" style="text-align:right;"|Turnout |11,726 ||74.01 |- !colspan="3" style="text-align:right;"|Registered voters |15,844
Party designations are as follows:
Northern Ontario
Ottawa Valley
Saint Lawrence Valley
Central Ontario
Georgian Bay
Wentworth/Halton/Niagara
Midwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario
Peel/York/Ontario
Toronto
There were 32 seats that changed allegiance in the election:
Liberal to Conservative
Liberal to Independent-Liberal
Conservative to Liberal