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1977 Ontario general election

The 1977 Ontario general election was held on June 9, 1977, to elect the 125 members of the 31st Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by Premier Bill Davis, was re-elected for an eleventh consecutive term in office, again with a minority in the legislature. The PCs won an additional seven seats, but were not able to win a majority. The Liberal Party, led by Dr. Stuart Smith, lost one seat compared to its result in the previous election, but formed the Official Opposition because the NDP lost more seats. The New Democratic Party, led by Stephen Lewis, lost five seats, losing the status of Official Opposition to the Liberals.

Sheila Copps, future federal cabinet minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, made her political debut in this election, finishing second in the riding of Hamilton Centre. This was the first election in which Jim Bradley, the second-longest serving MPP in Ontario history, was elected.

Renaming of ridings

A 1976 Act made changes to the names of two ridings:

Campaign

A number of unregistered parties also contested this election. The North American Labour Party, consisting of Lyndon LaRouche supporters, ran three candidates in Toronto and three elsewhere in the province. The Revolutionary Marxist Group and League for Socialist Action fielded one candidate apiece; soon after the election, both groups merged into the Revolutionary Workers League.

Some members of the Social Credit Party also ran in the election, although it is not clear if they were formally endorsed by the party.

Results

|- ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party ! rowspan=2 | Party leader ! colspan=4 | MPPs ! colspan=4 | Votes |- ! Candidates !1975 !1977 !± !# ! ± !% ! ± (pp)

|style="text-align:left;"|Bill Davis | 125 || 51 || 58 || 7 || 1,322,723 || 129,771 || 39.58% || 3.51

|rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Stuart Smith | 123 || 35 || 33 || 2 || 1,042,464 || 83,151 || 31.19% || 2.85

| 2 || 1 || 1 || || 8,242 || 824 || 0.25% || 0.02

|style="text-align:left;"|Stephen Lewis | 125 || 38 || 33 || 5 || 940,961 || 15,943 || 28.16% || 0.78

|style="text-align:left;"|Paul Mollon | 31 || – || – || – || 9,961 || 5,524 || 0.30% || 0.17

|style="text-align:left;"|William Stewart | 33 || – || – || – || 8,137 || 983 || 0.24% || 0.04

| || 25 || – || – || – || 7,414 || 3,321 || 0.22% || 0.10

| || 7 || – || – || – || 1,698 || 2,448 || 0.05% || 0.08

| || 1 || – || – || – || 233 || 233 || 0.01% ||New |- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total |472||125 ! " colspan="2"|125 ! " colspan="2"|3,341,833 ! " colspan="2"| 100.00% |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Rejected ballots | 19,600 | 1,663 | colspan="2"| |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Voter turnout | 3,361,433 | 50,657 | 65.60 | 2.22 |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Registered electors | 5,123,768 | 620,626 | colspan="2"|

Vote and seat summaries

Synopsis of results

= open seat
= turnout is above provincial average
= winning candidate was in previous Legislature
= not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature
= incumbent had switched allegiance
= incumbency arose from byelection gain
= previously incumbent in another riding
= Liberal-Labour candidate
= other incumbents renominated
= multiple candidates

Analysis

Seats changing hands

Eleven seats changed allegiance in this election:

PC to NDP
PC to Liberal
Liberal to PC
NDP to PC

MPPs elected by region and riding

Party designations are as follows:

Northern Ontario
Ottawa Valley
Saint Lawrence Valley
Central Ontario
Georgian Bay
Hamilton/Halton/Niagara
Midwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario
Peel/York/Durham
Metropolitan Toronto

See also

References

Further reading