1931 Quebec general election

The 1931 Quebec general election was held on August 24, 1931, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The incumbent Quebec Liberal Party, led by Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, was re-elected, defeating the Quebec Conservative Party, led by Camillien Houde.

It was the third general election victory in a row for Taschereau, who had held office since 1920.

Redistribution of ridings

An Act passed in 1930 increased the number of MLAs from 85 to 90 through the following changes:

Campaign

The Liberals and Conservatives contested all 90 ridings, with 74 being two-way contests, and the remainder were three-way affairs.

Aftermath

The Conservatives initiated proceedings to attempt to quash up to 63 of the Liberal wins. In one of the hearings, Houde confessed that he had personally furnished $60,000 towards the effort, but did not disclose where he had gotten the funds from. In response, the Taschereau government passed the "Dillon Act", which retroactively amended the laws governing the contesting of controverted elections, thus effectively gutting the ongoing actions. When the Union Nationale subsequently gained power after the 1936 election, one of its first measures was to repeal this Act and restore the law to what it was before its passage.

Results

This was the last election in which a candidate campaigned in multiple ridings. Camillien Houde was nominated in both MontrÃÂ©alÃ¢ÂÂSaint-Jacques and MontrÃÂ©alÃ¢ÂÂSainte-Marie, and he lost both contests.

|- ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party ! rowspan=2 | Party leader ! colspan=4 | MLAs ! colspan=4 | Votes |- ! Candidates !1927 !1931 !ÃÂ± !# ! ÃÂ± !% ! ÃÂ± (pp) |- |rowspan="4" |   |style="text-align:left;" colspan="10"|Government candidates |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|Louis-Alexandre Taschereau |90 |74 |79 |5 |268,732 |80,045 |54.88 |4.46 |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|– |2 |– |– |– |2,787 |1,422 |0.57 |0.14 |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|– |1 |– |– |– |711 | |0.15 | |- |rowspan="4" |   |style="text-align:left;" colspan="10"|Opposition candidates |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|Camillien Houde |90 |9 |11 |2 |213,223 |104,118 |43.54 |9.23 |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|– |2 |1 |– |1 |1,683 |2,749 |0.34 |1.05 |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|– |1 |– |– |– |106 |2,579 |0.02 |0.82 |- |rowspan="5" |   |style="text-align:left;" colspan="10"|Other candidates |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|– |2 |1 |– |1 |1,065 |8,280 |0.22 |2.72 |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|– |4 |– |– |– |584 | |0.12 | |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|– |2 |– |– |– |481 |1,861 |0.10 |0.64 |- |style="text-align:left;" | |style="text-align:left;"|– |2 |– |– |– |323 | |0.06 | |- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total | 196 | 85 ! " colspan="2"| 90 ! " colspan="2"| 489,695 ! " colspan="2"| 100% |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Rejected ballots | 4,190 | 1,347 | colspan="2"| |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Voter turnout | 493,885 | 173,081 | 77.01 | 14.10 |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Registered electors (contested ridings only) | 641,324 | 131,389 | colspan="2"| |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:left;" | Candidates returned by acclamation | – | 12 | colspan="4"|

Synopsis of results

= open seat

= turnout is above provincial average

= winning candidate was in previous Legislature

= incumbent had switched allegiance

= not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature

= incumbency arose from byelection gain

= previously incumbent in another riding

= other incumbents renominated

= multiple candidates

Analysis

None of the third parties achieved a 1st- or 2nd-place result.

References