electionstracker

Canada 1940 federal election

What was the result of the 1940 federal election in Canada?

Liberal Party of Canada won 181 of 245 seats with 51.5% of the vote. 70.9% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Canada
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Liberal Party of Canada won 181 of 245 seats with 51.5% of the vote; 70.9% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Liberal Party of Canada 181 51.5%
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Canada 40 30.6%
  • Co-operative Commonwealth Federation / New Democratic Party 8 8.5%
  • Social Credit Party of Canada 10 2.7%
  • Seats won
  • Share of the vote
123 of 245 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 51.5%

    Share of the vote won by Liberal Party of Canada

    Liberal Party of Canada won 181 of 245 seats. A majority needs 123.

  2. 70.9%

    Voter turnout

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats%Votes
Liberal Party of Canada18151.52,381,443
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada4030.61,416,230
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation / New Democratic Party88.5393,230
Social Credit Party of Canada102.7123,033
Independents11.254,852
Other parties (seats only)5
Votes by party
  • Liberal Party of Canada 2,381,443
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Canada 1,416,230
  • Co-operative Commonwealth Federation / New Democratic Party 393,230
  • Social Credit Party of Canada 123,033
  • Independents 54,852
  • Other parties (seats only)

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

ParlGov marks results before 1945 as experimental: they may need revision, so we compare them with no other election.

How many people voted?

70.9% of the 6,588,888 registered voters cast a ballot (4,672,531 ballots). 4,620,260 of them were valid votes.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Liberal Party of Canada51.5% of votes73.9% of seats
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Canada30.6% of votes16.3% of seats
  • Social Credit Party of Canada2.7% of votes4.1% of seats
  • Co-operative Commonwealth Federation / New Democratic Party8.5% of votes3.3% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 19.2 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 2.7 by votes and 1.7 by seats; Liberal Party of Canada led Progressive Conservative Party of Canada by 20.9 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of