1953 Nova Scotia general election explained

The 1953 Nova Scotia general election was held on 26 May 1953 to elect members of the 45th House of Assembly of the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was won by the Liberal party.

Results

Results by party

↓

23	12	2
Liberal	Progressive Conservative	CCF

Party!rowspan="2"

Party leader	of candidates	Seats				Popular vote
1949		Dissolution	Elected	Change		%	Change (pp)	Liberal	Angus Lewis Macdonald	37	27	27	23	align="right"	-4	169,894	48.92%	–2.05%	Progressive Conservative	Robert Stanfield	37	8	8	12	+4	149,973	43.18%	+3.97%	Co-operative Commonwealth	Russell Cunningham	16	2	2	2	0	23,700	6.82%	–2.78%	Independent		1	0	0	0	0	2,065	0.59%	+0.37%
	Vacant				0
Total valid votes								345,632	99.52%	+0.06%
Blank and invalid ballots								1,658	0.48%	–0.06%
Total			91	37	37	37	–	347,290	100.00%	–
Registered voters / turnout								370,293	75.79%[2]	align="right"	-1.88%

Results by region

Party name			HRM	Cape Breton	Annapolis Valley	South Shore	Fundy-Northeast	Central Nova	Total
Parties winning seats in the legislature										Liberal	Seats:	5	7	3	1	2	5	23	Popular vote:	55.44%	46.98%	49.91%	45.58%	47.95%	49.25%	48.92%	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	0	0	3	5	4	0	12	Popular vote:	40.96%	30.13%	50.09%	53.49%	49.56%	39.00%	43.18%	Co-operative Commonwealth	Seats:	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	Popular vote:	3.60%	22.89%	–	0.93%	2.49%	5.61%	6.82%
Parties not winning seats in the legislature											Popular vote:	–	–	–	–	–	6.14%	0.59%
Total seats:			5	9	6	6	6	5	37

Retiring incumbents

Progressive Conservative

• E. Keith Potter, Digby

Nominated candidates

Legend
bold denotes party leader
† denotes an incumbent who is not running for re-election or was defeated in nomination contest

Valley

|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Annapolis|||Henry Hicks
5,006
51.55%||Charles F. LeBrun
4,705
48.45%|||||||Henry Hicks|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Clare|||Pierre E. Belliveau
2,307
58.46%||Desire J. Comeau
1,639
41.54%|||||||Desire J. Comeau|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Digby|||Victor Cardoza
2,770
52.40%||Malcolm Stewart Leonard
2,516
47.60%|||||||E. Keith Potter†|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Hants West||Ken Eisner
3,120
46.37%|||George Henry Wilson
3,608
53.63%|||||||George Henry Wilson|-|rowspan=2 bgcolor=whitesmoke|Kings||David Durell Sutton
7,245
24.63%|||George Arthur Boggs
7,481
25.43%|||||||David Durell Sutton|-||William H. Pipe
7,047
23.96%|||Edward Haliburton
7,642
25.98%|||||||William H. Pipe|}

South Shore

|-|rowspan=2 bgcolor=whitesmoke|Lunenburg||Arthur L. Thurlow
6,940
21.53%|||R. Clifford Levy
8,727
27.07%||Winfred Llewellyn
204
0.63%|||||Arthur L. Thurlow|-||Gordon E. Romkey
7,381
22.90%|||Harley J. Spence
8,741
27.12%||G. Boyd Crouse
241
0.75%|||||Gordon E. Romkey|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Queens||Merrill D. Rawding
2,838
45.77%|||W. S. Kennedy Jones
3,230
52.09%||Claude VanBuskirk
133
2.14%|||||Merrill D. Rawding|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Shelburne|||Wilfred Dauphinee
3,256
51.20%||James McKay Harding
3,103
48.80%|||||||Wilfred Dauphinee|-|rowspan=2 bgcolor=whitesmoke|Yarmouth ||Allan d'Entremont
4,067
23.59%|||William Heartz Brown
4,859
28.18%|||||||William Heartz Brown|-||Donald J. Fraser
3,790
21.98%|||Raymond Z. Bourque
4,524
26.24%|||||||Donald J. Fraser|}

Fundy-Northeast

|-|rowspan=2 bgcolor=whitesmoke|Colchester||Gordon Purdy
7,255
24.20%|||Robert Stanfield
7,677
25.61%||Harvey Curtis
324
1.08%|||||Robert Stanfield|-||Hector Hill
6,963
23.23%|||George Isaac Smith
7,435
24.80%||Sydney Parker
326
1.09%|||||George Isaac Smith |-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cumberland Centre||Archibald J. Mason
2,012
40.65%|||Stephen T. Pyke
2,262
45.70%||Florence Welton
676
13.66%|||||Archibald J. Mason|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cumberland East||Martin J. Kaufman
4,214
48.96%|||James A. Langille
4,393
51.04%|||||||Martin J. Kaufman|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cumberland West|||Allison T. Smith
2,799
54.55%||Thomas A. Giles
2,332
45.45%|||||||Thomas A. Giles|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Hants East^[3] ||Alfred E. Reid
2,251
50.01%||Ernest M. Ettinger
2,250
49.99%|||||||Ernest M. Ettinger|}

Halifax/Dartmouth/Eastern Shore

|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Halifax Centre|||James Edward Rutledge
5,603
57.69%||R. Leo Simmonds
4,109
42.31%|||||||James Edward Rutledge|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Halifax East|||Geoffrey W. Stevens
8,436
50.83%||Lt. Col. R.D. King
7,196
43.36%||Harper Power
964
5.81%|||||Geoffrey W. Stevens|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Halifax North|||Harold Connolly
8,148
61.37%||Harold J. Bartlow
4,481
33.75%||Richard J. Hardiman
648
4.88%|||||Harold Connolly|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Halifax South|||Angus Lewis Macdonald
5,751
59.68%||John R. Milledge
3,885
40.32%|||||||Angus Lewis Macdonald|-

|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Halifax West|||Ronald Manning Fielding
8,061
51.31%||Earle Haverstock
6,927
44.09%||L.C. Wilson
723
4.60%|||||Ronald Manning Fielding |}

Central Nova

|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Antigonish |||Colin H. Chisholm
2,624
48.92%||Terrance Bernard Thompson
675
12.58%||||Vincent J. MacDonald
2,065
38.50%|||Colin H. Chisholm|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Guysborough|||Arthur W. MacKenzie
3,470
56.29%||A. Grant MacDonald
2,694
43.71%|||||||Arthur W. MacKenzie|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Pictou Centre|||Alfred B. DeWolfe
5,155
45.41%||Robert D. MacDonald
4,534
39.94%||Donald Nicholson
1,662
14.64%|||||Alfred B. DeWolfe|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Pictou East|||John W. MacDonald
2,681
48.78%||William A. MacLeod
2,592
47.16%||Joseph D. Ryan
223
4.06%|||||John W. MacDonald|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Pictou West|||Stewart W. Proudfoot
2,628
50.09%||Harvey Veniot
2,619
49.91%|||||||Stewart W. Proudfoot|}

Cape Breton

|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cape Breton Centre||Martin MacPherson
2,816
30.70%||Charles P. Miller
1,905
20.77%|||Michael James MacDonald
4,451
48.53%|||||Michael James MacDonald|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cape Breton East||Joseph McIntyre
3,934
37.88%||William Wilton
1,356
13.06%|||Russell Cunningham
5,096
49.07%|||||Russell Cunningham|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cape Breton North|||Alexander O'Handley
4,674
47.45%||John Norman MacAskill
3,115
31.62%||Daniel Joseph MacEachern
2,062
20.93%|||||Alexander O'Handley|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cape Breton South|||John Smith MacIvor
6,467
44.67%||A.O. Gunn
3,384
23.38%||Vincent Allan Morrison
4,625
31.95%|||||John Smith MacIvor|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cape Breton West|||Malcolm A. Patterson
3,730
48.86%||Edward Manson
2,562
33.56%||Harry Munroe
1,342
17.58%|||||Malcolm A. Patterson|-|rowspan=2 bgcolor=whitesmoke|Inverness|||Alexander H. McKinnon
4,725
29.17%||Leo P. Boudreau
3,585
22.13%|||||||Alexander H. McKinnon|-|||Roderick MacLean
4,513
27.86%||Alex A. MacInnis
3,374
20.83%|||||||Roderick MacLean|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Richmond|||Earl Wallace Urquhart
2,970
58.30%||Francis Whyte
2,124
41.70%|||||||Earl Wallace Urquhart|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Victoria|||Carleton L. MacMillan
2,247
56.47%||Joseph L. MacNeil
1,732
43.53%|||||||Carleton L. MacMillan|}

Notes and References

1. 16 November 1954 deferred by-election for Hants East seat, won by Liberal candidate
2. While 347,290 votes were cast, only 280,661 electors voted as electors in several districts voted for two candidates.
3. In the riding of Hants East, Progressive Conservative Ernest M. Ettinger's 1-vote lead on election lead became a 1-vote lead for the Liberal's Alfred E. Reid after a judicial recount. After an appeal, a judge then decided to throw out the results of the general election; a by-election was held several months later to fill the seat and was won by Reid.