Canadian federal election, 1925

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Canadian parliament after the 1925 election
Enlarge
The Canadian parliament after the 1925 election

The Canadian federal election of 1925 was held on October 29 to elect members of the 15th Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party formed a minority government. This precipitated the "King-Byng Affair".

The Liberals under Mackenzie King won fewer seats than Arthur Meighen's Conservatives. A third party, the Progressives, which had nominated candidates for the first time in the 1921 election, held the balance of the seats. King decided to hold onto power with the help of the Progressives. The Progressives were closely aligned with the Liberals, and enabled King to form a minority government.

This plan was complicated by the fact that his party lost the election, and that King himself had lost his seat in the House of Commons. Meighen was outraged by King's move, and demanded that King resign from the Prime Minister's office. King asked a Liberal Member of Parliament for Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to resign so that he could run in the resulting by-election. Prince Albert was one of the safest seats in Canada for the Liberals, and King won easily.

An interesting side-note is that his Conservative opponent was John Diefenbaker. While Diefenbaker stood no chance against King in 1925, he would later win both the riding of Prince Albert and the Prime Minister's office.

With King back in Parliament, a huge scandal rocked the King cabinet when one of his appointees was discovered to be accepting bribes. Anticipating a defeat in the Commons, King asked the Governor General, Viscount Byng of Vimy, to call an election. The Governor General refused, and King resigned.

King was not a crusader, or a polemicist, or a debater, but he saw this as interference in Canadian politics by an official appointed by a foreign power. King showed rare fire, and rallied the Progressives back into his camp. He defeated Meighen on a vote of confidence after only a few months. This time, Byng called an election.

King formed a majority government as a result of the 1926 election. After his defeat, Meighen resigned as Conservative leader.

[edit] National results

Party Party leader # of
candidates
Seats Popular vote
1921 Elected % Change # % % Change
     Conservative Arthur Meighen 232 49 115 +132.7% 1,454,253 46.13% +16.18%
     Liberal Mackenzie King 216 118 100 -15.3% 1,252,684 39.74% -1.41%
     Progressive Robert Forke 68 58 22 -62.1% 266,319 8.45% -12.65%
     Labour J.S. Woodsworth 20 3 2 -33.3% 56,987 1.81% -0.93%
     Independent 8 2 2 - 16,212 0.51% -2.52%
     United Farmers of Alberta   2 2 2 - 8,053 0.26% -0.46%
     Independent Liberal 10 - 1   31,140 0.99% +0.90%
     Independent Conservative 6 1 1 - 16,759 0.53% +0.14%
     Unknown 5 - - - 20,583 0.65% +0.16%
     Liberal-Protectionist   2 * - * 6,915 0.22% *
     Independent Liberal-Progressive 1 * - * 4,958 0.16% *
     Labour-Farmer   2 * - * 4,774 0.15% *
     Liberal-Progressive   1 * - * 3,319 0.11% *
     Independent Labour 1 * - * 2,901 0.09% *
     Socialist   1 - - - 1,888 0.06% -0.04%
     Independent Progressive 1 - - - 1,768 0.06% -0.05%
     Farmer   1 * - * 1,130 0.04% *
     Progressive-Conservative   1 * - * 1,120 0.04% *
     Farmer-Labour   1 * - * 762 0.02% *
Total 579 235 245 +3.8% 3,152,525 100%  
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

* 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
     Conservative Seats: 10 3 - 7 67 4 10 11 2 1 115
     Popular Vote (%): 49.3 31.8 25.4 41.3 56.3 34.2 59.7 56.4 33.1 59.4 46.1
     Liberal Seats: 3 4 15 1 12 59 1 3 2 - 100
     Vote (%): 34.7 27.6 41.9 20.3 30.9 59.6 37.0 41.9 52.0 40.6 39.7
     Progressive Seats: - 7 6 7 2           22
     Vote (%): 6.1 26.5 31.8 25.1 8.8           8.5
     Labour Seats: - -   2 - -   -     2
     Vote: 6.3 6.1   9.6 1.2 0.2   1.6     1.8
     Independent Seats: 1       - 1 -       2
     Vote (%): 2.6       0.6 1.4 0.8       0.5
     United Farmers of Alberta Seats:   2                 2
     Vote (%):   5.0                 0.3
     Independent Liberal Seats:           1         1
     Vote (%):           3.8         1.0
     Independent Conservative Seats:         1           1
     Vote (%):         1.4           0.5
Total seats 14 16 21 17 82 65 11 14 4 1 245
Parties that won no seats:
     Unknown Vote (%):     0.1   0.9 0.2     15.0   0.7
     Liberal-Protectionist Vote (%):           0.9         0.2
     Independent Liberal-Progressive Vote (%):             3.3       0.2
     Labour-Farmer Vote (%):   3.0                 0.2
     Liberal-Progressive Vote (%):       1.9             0.1
     Independent Labour Vote (%):       1.7             0.1
     Socialist Vote (%): 1.0                   0.1
     Independent Progressive Vote (%):     0.9               0.1
     Farmer Vote (%):           0.1         xx
     Progressive-Conservative Vote (%):           0.1         xx
     Farmer-Labour Vote (%):         0.1           xx


Flag of Canada
Federal Elections and Parliaments in Canada
v  d  e
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
1960-1979 · 1980-1999 · 2000-

Federal parliaments (Summary List)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th | 15th
16th | 17th | 18th | 19th | 20th | 21st | 22nd | 23rd | 24th | 25th | 26th | 27th | 28th | 29th | 30th
31st | 32nd | 33rd | 34th | 35th | 36th | 37th | 38th | 39th
Federal political parties | Federal electoral districts


Preceded by
1921 federal election
Canadian federal elections Succeeded by
1926 federal election
In other languages