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2014 Ontario general election

2014 Canadian provincial general election

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ2816781 ↗
Source-derived summary

General elections were held in Ontario, Canada on June 12, 2014, to elect the members of the 41st Parliament of Ontario. The Liberal Party won a majority of seats in the legislature, allowing its leader, Kathleen Wynne, to continue as premier, moving from a minority to majority government. This was the Liberals' fourth consecutive win since 2003 and an improvement from their performance in the 2011 election. The Progressive Conservatives under Tim Hudak were returned to the official opposition; following the election loss, Hudak announced his resignation as Progressive Conservative leader. The New Democratic Party under Andrea Horwath remained in third place, albeit with an improved share of the popular vote.

The election was called on May 2, 2014, by Lieutenant Governor David Onley, upon the recommendation of Wynne following the announcement that the NDP, whose support was critical to the survival of the Liberals' minority government in the Legislative Assembly, would vote against the Liberals' proposed budget.

With the election, Wynne became the first woman and the first openly gay person to lead a party to a majority victory in an Ontario general election.

Context - 40th Parliament

The preceding election held in October 2011 reduce the incumbent Liberal ministry led by Dalton McGuinty from a government with a comfortable 35-seat majority to a minority government that was one seat short, the first minority government in almost a quarter-century.

One of the most contentious issues during that election campaign was a mid-campaign decision to scrap unpopular gas plants being constructed in Mississauga and Oakville. The move was viewed by many as cynically made to improve the Liberal Party's chances of retaining the five ridings it held in the area.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “2014 Ontario general election” is 2014 Canadian provincial general election. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ontario, general and election, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2014, 2003, 2011—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Ontario, general and election is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2014 Canadian provincial general election” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2816781. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2014, 2003 and 2011.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “2014 Ontario general election”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 2014 Ontario general election primary sources, 2014 Ontario general election archive and Ontario research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “2014 Ontario general election”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “2014 Ontario general election” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.