| Ontario General Election, 1945 |
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The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party , led by George Drew , won a second consecutive term in office, winning a solid majority of seats in the legislature -- 66, up from 38 in the Previous Election . The Ontario Liberal Party , led by former premier Mitchell Hepburn , was returned to the role of Official Opposition with 11 seats, plus 3 Liberal-Labour seats that it won in coalition with the Labour-Progressive Party (which was, in fact, the Communist Party ). The three new Liberal-Labour MPPs are James Newman of Rainy River , Joseph Meinzinger of Waterloo North and Alexander Parent of Essex North . The Social Democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation , led by Ted Jolliffe , was reduced from 34 seats to only 8. Two seats were won by the Labour-Progressive Party on its own with the re-election of A.A. MacLeod and J.B. Salsberg . The Drew government called the election in an attempt to get a Majority Government . By exploiting increasing Cold War tensions, the PC Party was able to defeat Jolliffe's CCF by stoking fears about communism. Jolliffe replied by giving a radio speech (written by Lister Sinclair ) that accused Drew of running a political Gestapo in Ontario, alleging that a secret department of the Ontario Provincial Police was acting as a political police spying on the opposition and the media. This accusation led to a backlash, and loss of support for the CCF, including the loss of Jolliffe's own seat of York South . This probably helped Drew win his majority, although in the 1970s, archival evidence was discovered proving the charge. RESULTS SEE ALSO
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