1915 Manitoba general election

The 1915 Manitoba general election was held August 6, 1915 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. Liberals under Norris took a slight majority of votes and won a landslide majority in the Legislature. They replaced the Conservative government that had ruled the province since 1899 but had lost power after investigation for corruption.

This election was held only one year after the previous general election of 1914. In that election, the governing Conservatives of premier Rodmond Roblin were confirmed in office with 28 seats out of 49. In early 1915, a commission appointed by the Lieutenant Governor found the government guilty of corruption in the tending of contracts for new legislative buildings.

Roblin denied the charges, but resigned as premier on May 12. Three days later, the lieutenant-governor called upon Tobias Norris, leader of the official opposition Liberals, to form a new administration. The house was quickly adjourned, and new elections were scheduled for August.

The primary issue of the campaign was corruption of the Roblin government. The pro-Liberal Manitoba Free Press ran numerous articles criticizing the practices of the Roblin government, and alleging that the "Roblin machine" still controlled the Conservative Party.

Liberals claimed they would manage the province's affairs in a businesslike rather than a partisan manner, an approach typified by Provincial Treasurer Edward Brown call for the province to "forget party for five years and get down to business".

Female suffrage was an issue in the campaign. Norris's Liberals promised they would enact female adult suffrage if elected to office. Due to this, Nellie McClung, who had returned to Manitoba from her home in Alberta, campaigned on behalf of Liberal candidates. The government gave votes to women in 1916, becoming the first province in Canada where women could vote. (Treaty Indians were still barred from voting until 1952.) The Liberal party's platform also promised direct legislation and plebiscites on public issues.

The question of prohibition was an issue at the time. The Liberal Party promised to hold a provincial referendum on the question. A referendum was held on March 3, 1916, and a majority voted in favour.

Facing unpopularity due to the corruption scandal, the Manitoba Conservatives chose federal Member of Parliament (MP) James Albert Manning Aikins as their new leader on July 15. Aikins had never served in the Roblin government and was regarded by many as free from the controversy that had forced the Conservatives to resign. In a further effort to separate themselves from the Roblin government, the Conservative party tried to change its name, referring to itself as the "Independent-Liberal-Conservative" party for this election. Liberals ridiculed this name change and sarcastically described the "new" Conservatives as the "Purity Party". The "Independent-Liberal-Conservative" name seems to have been dropped shortly after the election.

The election results were a disaster for Conservatives. They won only five seats out of 47, and Aikins lost by a considerable margin in Brandon City. The Liberals under Norris won a landslide majority with 40 seats, the largest victory in Manitoba history, although with barely more than half the vote.

Labourites made advances in the legislature. In the Winnipeg Centre district, Fred Dixon was re-elected, this time as an independent candidate with support from both Liberals and the Labour Representation Committee. The Social Democratic Party also won its first seat in the province, electing Richard Rigg to one of the two seats in north-end Winnipeg. The other seat was taken by Solomon Hart Green, the first Jew to serve in the Manitoba Legislature.

For this election (like the previous one in 1914) Winnipeg was divided into three districts, each having used two members, with each seat being filled in separate contests.

The Manitoba francophone-dominated constituencies continued to support candidates of the Conservative party. Four of the five Conservative MLAs were from francophone areas. Many francophone voters opposed Norris's plans to end provincial funding for denominational Catholic schools. Many also opposed Norris's plans for Prohibition and equal suffrage.

This was the last election before Winnipeg was made into a single ten-seat district, and Single transferable voting was brought into use.