Canadian federal election, 1921
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The Canadian federal election of 1921 was held on December 6, 1921 to elect members of the 14th Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons. The Union government that had governed Canada through the First World War was defeated, and replaced by a Liberal government under the young leader William Lyon Mackenzie King. A new third party, the Progressive Party of Canada, won the second most seats in the election.
Since the 1911 election, the country had been governed by the Conservatives, first under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Borden, and then under Prime Minister Arthur Meighen. During the war, the Conservatives had united with the pro-conscription Liberal-Unionists and formed a Union government. A number of Members of Parliament (MPs), mostly Quebecers, stayed loyal to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, however, and maintained their independence. When Laurier died, he was replaced as leader by the Ontarian Mackenzie King. After the 1919 federal budget, a number of western unionist MPs, who were former Liberals, left the Union government in protest against high tariffs on farm products imposed by the budget. Led by Thomas Alexander Crerar, this group became known as the Progressive Party. Also running were a number of Labour advocates, foremost amongst them J. S. Woodsworth of Winnipeg, who had organized their political movement after the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. Meighen had played a key role in violently suppressing the strikers and this earned him the animosity of organized labour.
Meighen attempted to make the "Unionist" party a permanent alliance of Tories and Liberals by renaming it the National Liberal and Conservative Party, but this name change failed, and most Unionist Liberals either returned to the Liberal fold or joined the new Progressive Party. Besides the labour strife and farm tariffs in the Prairie provinces, the Conscription Crisis of 1917 had a lasting effect on Tory fortunes by making the party virtually unelectable in Quebec.
The election was the first in which the majority of Canadian women were allowed to vote. Four women also ran for office. Agnes Macphail of the Progressive Party was elected as the first woman MP in Canada.
Parliament was split three ways by this election. King's Liberals won a majority government of just one seat: they won almost all of Quebec, much of the Maritimes, and a good portion of Ontario. The Progressive Party won the second largest number of seats, dominating the West, and winning almost a third of the seats in Ontario. The party won only one seat east of Ontario, however. Despite winning the second most seats, they declined to form the official opposition.
The Conservatives won only a few fewer seats than the Progressives and formed the official opposition. They also won a good section of Ontario and had some support in the Maritimes and British Columbia.
Two Independent Labour MPs were elected: J. S. Woodsworth won his seat, largely due to his role in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, and William Irvine was elected in Calgary.
[edit] Majority or minority?
The government that King formed in the parliament resulting from this election is often referred to as Canada's first minority government. Despite the fact that King's party won a bare majority of seats at the election, this is in fact correct as, due to the close numbers, resignations occasionally changed the parliament from a bare majority to bare minority. However, this was never permanent as the Liberals never lost a by-election which threatened their majority.
They did, in fact, lose 2 by-elections to Conservative candidates, however they had previously gained two seats from Progressives who crossed the floor so their majority was not affected by these losses. From November 25, 1924 to the dissolution of parliament they held a two seat majority thanks to their victory in a by-election in a seat previously held by the Conservatives on that date.
[edit] National results
| Party | Party leader | # of candidates |
Seats | Popular vote | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1917 | Elected | % Change | # | % | % Change | ||||
| Liberal | Mackenzie King | 204 | 82 | 118 | +43.9% | 1,285,998 | 41.15% | +2.34% | |
| Progressive | T.A. Crerar | 137 | * | 58 | * | 658,976 | 21.09% | * | |
| Conservative | Arthur Meighen | 204 | 152 | 49 | -67.8% | 935,651 | 29.95% | -26.98% | |
| Labour | J. S. Woodsworth | 28 | - | 3 | 85,388 | 2.73% | +0.90% | ||
| Independent | 45 | - | 2 | 94,901 | 3.04% | +2.40% | |||
| United Farmers of Alberta | 2 | * | 2 | * | 22,251 | 0.71% | * | ||
| Independent Conservative | 2 | * | 1 | * | 12,359 | 0.40% | * | ||
| United Farmers of Ontario | 1 | * | 1 | * | 3,919 | 0.13% | * | ||
| Independent Progressive | 1 | * | 1 | * | 3,309 | 0.115 | * | ||
| Unknown | 9 | - | - | - | 15,293 | 0.49% | +0.29% | ||
| Socialist | 1 | * | - | * | 3,094 | 0.10% | * | ||
| Independent Liberal | 1 | - | - | - | 2,764 | 0.09% | -0.32% | ||
| Total | 635 | 234 | 235 | +0.4% | 3,123,903 | 100% | |||
| Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867 | |||||||||
Note:
* not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election
[edit] Results by province
| Party name | BC | AB | SK | MB | ON | QC | NB | NS | PE | YK | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Seats: | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 21 | 65 | 5 | 16 | 4 | - | 118 | |
| Popular Vote (%): | 29.8 | 15.8 | 18.7 | 18.9 | 30.1 | 70.2 | 50.2 | 52.4 | 45.7 | 47.6 | 41.2 | ||
| Progressive | Seats: | 3 | 8 | 15 | 11 | 20 | - | 1 | - | - | 58 | ||
| Vote (%): | 11.7 | 39.6 | 61.7 | 41.9 | 25.6 | 3.1 | 8.7 | 10.2 | 12.3 | 21.1 | |||
| Conservative | Seats: | 7 | - | - | - | 36 | - | 5 | - | - | 1 | 49 | |
| Vote (%): | 47.9 | 20.3 | 16.3 | 24.4 | 38.8 | 18.5 | 39.4 | 32.3 | 37.2 | 51.1 | 30.0 | ||
| Labour | Seats: | - | 2 | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | 3 | |||
| Vote (%): | 6.8 | 11.1 | 0.8 | 5.7 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 3.5 | 4.8 | 2.7 | ||||
| Independent | Seats: | - | - | 2 | - | - | - | 2 | |||||
| Vote (%): | 3.5 | 7.4 | 1.9 | 6.6 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 3.0 | ||||||
| United Farmers of Alberta | Seats: | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Vote (%): | 12.9 | 0.7 | |||||||||||
| Independent Conservative | Seats: | 1 | - | 1 | |||||||||
| Vote (%): | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.4 | ||||||||||
| United Farmers of Ontario | Seats: | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Vote (%): | 0.3 | 0.1 | |||||||||||
| Independent Progressive | Seats: | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Vote (%): | 0.3 | 0.1 | |||||||||||
| Total seats | 13 | 12 | 16 | 15 | 82 | 65 | 11 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 235 | ||
| Parties that won no seats: | |||||||||||||
| Unknown | Vote (%): | 0.4 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 0.5 | ||||||
| Socialist | Vote (%): | 1.8 | 0.1 | ||||||||||
| Independent Liberal | Vote (%): | 0.2 | 0.1 | ||||||||||
| Federal elections (Summary) 1867 | 1872 | 1874 | 1878 | 1882 | 1887 | 1891 | 1896 | 1900 | 1904 | 1908 | 1911 | 1917 | 1921 | 1925 1926 | 1930 | 1935 | 1940 | 1945 | 1949 | 1953 | 1957 | 1958 | 1962 | 1963 | 1965 | 1968 | 1972 | 1974 1979 | 1980 | 1984 | 1988 | 1993 | 1997 | 2000 | 2004 | 2006 | next Summaries: 1867-1879 · 1880-1899 · 1900-1919 · 1920-1939 · 1940-1959 |
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| Federal political parties | Federal electoral districts |
| Preceded by: 1917 federal election |
Canadian federal elections | Succeeded by: 1925 federal election |
