1964 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election

The Ontario Liberal Party leadership election, 1964, held on September 17–19, 1964 elected Andy Thompson as the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. Thompson replace John Wintermeyer who resigned after losing his seat in the 1963 provincial election. Thompson won after six ballots against a field of seven other candidates.

1964 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election

Date	September 17–19, 1964
Convention	Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ontario
Resigning leader	John Wintermeyer
Won by	Andy Thompson
Ballots	6
Candidates	7
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Background

The leadership convention was held to replace John Wintermeyer who resigned after losing his seat in the 1963 provincial election. Four caucus members entered the race. They were Andy Thompson, Robert Nixon, Eddie Sargent, and Joseph Gould. In addition Victor Copps, the mayor of Hamilton, Ontario, Joe Greene a federal MP and Charles Templeton, a popular Toronto evangelist and preacher also entered the race.

Andy Thompson had recently attained notoriety for speaking out against Attorney General Fred Cass's "police bill" and was seen as a leading candidate. The convention was held at the Royal York Hotel from September 17–19. Thompson emerged as the winner on the sixth ballot. While the leadership race generated some enthusiasm, prospects for the party were not good. The Liberals had held office only three times for a total of 13 years since 1900. The party caucus had not changed much since the last leadership election and they had recently lost a by-election. They also failed to elect populist Charles Templeton to office. Thompson would last only two years as leader before resigning due to stress induced health problems.^[1]

Ballot results

Delegate support by ballot

Candidate	1st ballot		2nd ballot		3rd ballot		4th ballot		5th ballot		6th ballot
Name	Votes cast	%	Votes cast	%	Votes cast	%	Votes cast	%	Votes cast	%	Votes cast	%
Andy Thompson	379	27.7	408	29.7	462	33.6	520	38.1	539	39.9	772	58.8
Charles Templeton	317	23.1	356	25.9	396	28.8	422	30.9	419	31.0	540	41.2
Robert Nixon	313	22.8	351	25.6	356	25.9	387	28.3	392	29.0
Joe Greene	236	17.2	211	15.4	149	10.9	37	2.7
Victor Copps	61	4.5	27	2.0	10	0.7
Eddie Sargent	51	3.7	20	1.5
Joseph Gould	13	0.9
Total	1,370	100.0	1,373	100.0	1,373	100.0	1,366	100.0	1,350	100.0	1,312	100.0

References

1. Fred Schindler (1965). John Saywell (ed.). Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs for 1964. University of Toronto Press. pp. 115–116.