1981 Ontario general election

The 1981 Ontario general election was held on March 19, 1981, to elect members of the 32nd Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada.

The governing Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by Bill Davis, was re-elected for a twelfth consecutive term in office. The PCs finally won a majority government after winning only minorities in the 1975 and 1977 elections. The Liberal Party, led by Stuart Smith, was able to maintain its standing in the Legislature, while the New Democratic Party, led by Michael Cassidy, lost a significant number of seats, allowing the Tories to win a majority.

Opinion polls

During campaign period

During the 31st Parliament of Ontario

Campaign

A number of unregistered parties also fielded candidates in this election.

There were a number of Rhinoceros Party candidates in the Toronto area, and the party may have also fielded candidates elsewhere in the province. The Workers Communist Party (MarxistÃ¢ÂÂLeninist) a single candidate, Judy Darcy. Ronald G. Rodgers, founder of the DÃÂ©tente Party of Canada, contested a Toronto constituency.

Social Credit leader Reg Gervais announced prior to the election that he planned to run in Nickel Belt, but could not follow through and resigned at a meeting of nominated candidates where John Turmel was appointed interim leader of the Ontario Social Credit Party during the campaign, though there has never been independent confirmation of this (nor is it clear if the Ottawa-area candidacies of Turmel and Raymond Turmel and Serge Girard and Dale Alkerton and Andrew Dynowski were approved by the remaining few members of the official Social Credit Party of Ontario).

Results

|style="text-align:left;"|Bill Davis | 125 || 58 || 70 || 12 || 1,412,488 || 89,765 || 44.38% || 4.80

|rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Stuart Smith | 123 || 33 || 33 || || 1,065,569 || 23,115 || 33.48% || 2.29

| 2 || 1 || 1 || || 7,111 || 1,131 || 0.22% || 0.03

|style="text-align:left;"|Michael Cassidy | 125 || 33 || 21 || 12 || 672,824 || 268,137 || 21.14% || 7.02

| || 27 || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || 10,585 || 3,171 || 0.33% || 0.11

|style="text-align:left;"|Scott Bell | 12 || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || 7,087 || 2,874 || 0.22% || 0.08

|style="text-align:left;"|Mel Doig | 18 || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || 5,306 || 2,831 || 0.17% || 0.07

|style="text-align:left;"|Reg Gervais|| 3 || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || 1,054 || 644 || 0.03% || 0.02 |- || |style="text-align:left;"|Unparty | || 1 || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || Ã¢ÂÂ || 460 || 460 || 0.01% ||New |- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total |436||125 ! " colspan="2"|125 ! " colspan="2"|3,182,484 ! " colspan="2"| 100.00% |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Rejected ballots | 20,797 | 1,197 | colspan="2"| |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Voter turnout | 3,203,281 | 158,152 | 58.04 | 7.56 |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Registered electors | 5,519,204 | 395,436 | colspan="2"|