List of Nova Scotia general elections 

Number of seats won by major parties at each election

Conservative Liberal NDP Other

This article provides a summary of results for the general elections to the Canadian province of Nova Scotia's unicameral legislative body, the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. The number of seats has varied over time, from a low of thirty during the 1930s and early 1940s, to the current high of fifty-two. This article only covers elections since Nova Scotia became part of the newly-formed Canadian Confederation in 1867. Prior to that, Nova Scotia was a British colony. The Nova Scotia House of Assembly dates back to 1758, and Nova Scotia became the first British colony to be achieve responsible government in 1848.

The chart on the right provides a graphical summary of the results, with the most recent elections on the right. It shows how the Liberal party (red) dominated the province's early political history, winning nineteen of the first twenty-two elections from 1867 to 1953; and that since 1953, the Conservatives (blue) have been the most successful party, winning eleven of the fifteen elections since then. The New Democratic Party (orange) have never won an election, but have had Official Opposition status after each of the past four elections.

Contents

Summary of results

The table below shows the total number of seats won by the major political parties at each election. It also shows the percentage of the vote obtained by the major political parties at each election, if greater than 0.1%. The winning party's totals are shown in bold. To date, no party has formed a government that did not have the largest share of the vote. Full details on any election are linked via the year of the election at the start of the row.

Year Conservative [A] NDP [B] Liberal Other Total
seats
Seats Vote (%) Seats Vote (%) Seats Vote (%) Seats Seat-wining party Vote (%)
2006 23 39.6 20 34.6 9 23.4 2.4 52
2003 25 36.3 15 31.0 12 31.5 1.2 52
1999 30 39.2 11 30.0 11 29.8 1.1 52
1998 14 29.8 19 34.6 19 35.3 2.4 52
1993 9 31.1 3 17.7 40 49.7 0.9 52
1988 28 43.4 2 15.8 21 39.6 1 Cape Breton Labour 1.1 52
1984 42 50.6 3 15.9 6 31.3 1 Cape Breton Labour 2.2 [E] 52
1981 37 47.5 1 18.1 13 33.2 1 Cape Breton Labour 1.2 52
1978 31 45.8 4 14.4 17 39.4 0.4 52
1974 12 38.6 3 13.0 31 47.9 0.5 46
1970 21 46.9 2 6.7 23 46.1 0.2 46
1967 40 52.8 5.2 6 41.8 0.2 46
1963 39 56.2 4.1 4 39.7 43
1960 27 48.3 1 8.9 15 42.6 0.2 43
1956 24 48.6 1 3.0 18 48.2 0.1 43
1953 13 43.6 2 6.9 22 49.0 0.5 37
1949 8 39.2 2 9.6 27 51.0 0.1 37
1945 0 33.5 2 13.6 28 52.7 0.1 30
1941 5 40.3 3 7.0 22 52.7 30
1937 5 46.0 1.1 25 52.9 30
1933 8 45.9 1.5 22 52.6 30
1928 24 51.7 1 1.1 18 47.2 43
1925 40 60.9 2.8 3 36.3 43
1920 3 24.7 5 16.9 29 44.4 6 United Farmers 14.0 43
1916 12 48.8 31 50.4 0.8 43
1911 12 45.4 26 51.1 3.5 38
1906 4 42.1 32 53.2 2 Independents 4.6 38
1901 2 41.7 36 56.7 1.5 38
1897 3 44.4 34 55.0 1 Independent 0.5 38
1894 13 47.3 25 51.9 0.8 37
1890 9 46.7 29 52.2 1.0 38
1886 10 43.6 28 54.7 1.6 37
1882 14 46.9 24 51.8 1.3 38
1878 32 51.7 6 45.1 3.1 38
1874 12 43.6 22 55.0 4 Independents 1.4 38
1871 14 43.7 24 52.2 4.0 38
1867 2 [C] 38.5 [C] 36 [D] 58.6 [D] 2.9 38

Notes

A  Includes results for Progressive Conservatives.
B  Includes results for Co-operative Commonwealth Federation prior to 1963; and also results for the Labour party prior to 1937.
C  Includes Pro Confederation.
D  Includes Anti-Confederates.
E  Includes 2.0% for Cape Breton Labour Party.

References

See also

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