Manitoba general election, 1953

Manitoba's general election of June 8, 1953 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. This was the first election held in Manitoba after the breakup of a ten-year coalition government led by the Liberal-Progressives and Progressive Conservatives. The coalition, which began in 1940, was ended in 1950 when the Progressive Conservatives crossed to the opposition side.

This was also the last provincial election in Manitoba to feature multi-member constituencies and election by the single transferable ballot. Winnipeg Centre, Winnipeg North and Winnipeg South elected four members each, while St. Boniface elected two members. All other constituencies elected one member by instant runoff voting.

The result of the election was a convincing victory for the Liberal-Progressive government of Premier Douglas Campbell, which won thirty-two of fifty-seven seats. Three Independent Liberal-Progressives were also elected. The Progressive Conservatives, led by Errick Willis, saw their representation in the legislature increase from nine to twelve members. This was a disappointing result for many in the party. Willis had been a prominent cabinet minister in the coalition government, and many questioned the sincerity of his new-found opposition to Campbell's ministry. The following year, he lost the leadership of the party to Dufferin Roblin.

The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) suffered a disappointing loss under new leader Lloyd Stinson, falling from seven seats to five.

During the campaign, the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper devoted considerable attention to the return of the Social Credit Party in Manitoba. The party had not contested the previous provincial election, but was buoyed by the recent Social Credit victory in British Columbia and ran several candidates. The Free Press, which supported the Liberal-Progressives, and played up the threat of a Social Credit victory to rally popular support for the government. The actual threat posed by Social Credit was minimal: only two of its candidates were elected.

The Communist Labour Progressive Party also won representation in the legislature, with party incumbent William A. Kardash taking one of the four constituency seats in Winnipeg North. This was the last time that a Communist candidate won election to the Manitoba legislature, or indeed to any provincial legislature in Canada.

Two independent candidates were also elected, in addition to the three Independent Liberal-Progressives.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1949	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change	Liberal-Progressive	Douglas Campbell	50		32		104,976	39.22		colspan="2"|Independent Liberal-Progressive	7		3		12,911	4.82		colspan="2"|Total Government	57		35		117,887	44.05		Progressive Conservative	Errick Willis	38		12		56,278	21.03		Co-operative Commonwealth	Lloyd Stinson	25		5		44,332	16.56		Social Credit	none	43		2		35,750	13.36		Labour Progressive	William Cecil Ross	1		1		3,812	1.42		colspan="2"|Independent	11		2		9,577	3.58
Total			175		57		267,636	100