Canadian federal election, 1867

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 Flag of Canada members • 1872
Canadian federal election, 1867
180 seats in the 1st Canadian Parliament
August 7 - September 20, 1867
Government Opposition
Leader Sir John A. Macdonald George Brown
Party Conservative Liberal
Leader's seat Kingston Oxford South
Last election - -
Seats won 100
(The Liberal-Conservative and Conservative caucuses put together.)
62
Seat change +100 +62
Popular vote 62,992 (Conservative)
29,730 (Liberal-Conservative)
60,818
Percentage 23.45% (Conservative)
11.08% (Liberal-Conservative)
22.67%
Canadian federal election, 1867

The Canadian parliament after the 1867 election

Incumbent PM

The Canadian federal election of 1867, held from August 7 to September 20, was the first election for the new nation of Canada. It was held to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 1st Parliament of Canada.

The Conservative Party of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald won a majority of seats and votes in Ontario and Quebec. (Its candidates ran either as "Conservatives" or "Liberal-Conservatives".) Quebec and Ontario had previously been united as The Province of Canada with Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier's Liberal-Conservative coalition forming the government.

Officially, the Liberal Party of Canada had no leader, however while George Brown did not hold an official position in the party, he was generally considered the party's leader in the election campaign, and would have likely been Prime Minister in the unlikely event that the Liberals prevailed over Macdonald in the election. As it was, Brown ran concurrently for seats in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and the Canadian House of Commons and hoped to become Premier of Ontario. However, he failed to win a seat in either body, and the Liberals remained officially leaderless until 1873.

Prior to Confederation, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick did not have formalized Liberal and Conservative parties. Political groups in those two provinces joined one of the two Province of Canada parties. Both provinces had weak Conservative parties. Opponents of the Conservatives joined the Liberal Party, which took the majority of seats and votes in both provinces. In Nova Scotia, opponents of the Conservatives (and of Confederation itself) ran as Anti-Confederates, but later sat with the Liberal Caucus.

Elections held in the previous year in the Provinces of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia focused on the issue of whether or not to form a confederation.

Voter turn-out: 73.1%

For a list of candidates elected in the 1867 election, and in by-elections prior to 1872, see 1st Canadian parliament.

Contents

[edit] Election results

[edit] National

Party Party leader # of
candidates
Elected Popular vote
# %
     Conservative Sir John A. Macdonald 80 71 62,992 23.45%
     Liberal-Conservative1 32 29 29,730 11.08%
     Liberal George Brown (unofficial) 65 62 60,818 22.67%
     Anti-Confederation2 Joseph Howe 20 18 21,239 7.92%
     Independents 1 - 1,756 0.65%
     Liberal-Independent 1 - 1,048 0.39%
     Unknown 142 - 90,804 33.84%
Total 341 180 268,317 100%
Source: History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

1 Liberal-Conservatives sat with the Conservative Party in the House of Commons. 2 Anti-Confederates sat with the Liberal Party in the House of Commons.

Acclamations
The following MPs were acclaimed:

  • Ontario: 3 Conservative, 3 Liberal-Conservatives, 9 Liberals
  • Quebec: 14 Conservatives, 5 Liberal-Conservatives, 4 Liberals
  • New Brunswick: 1 Conservative, 3 Liberals
  • Nova Scotia: 4 Anti-Confederates

[edit] Results by province

Party name Ontario Quebec  NB   NS  Total
     Conservative Seats 33 36 1 1 71
     Popular vote 26.2% 28.5%   13.8% 23.2%
     Liberal-Conservative Seats 16 11 2 - 29
     Vote 12.5% 12.3% 11.1% 3.5% 11.1%
     Liberal Seats 33 17 12   62
     Vote 23.7% 25.2% 49.5%   22.7%
     Anti-Confederation Seats       18 18
     Vote       58.2% 7.9%
     Unknown Seats - - - - -
     Vote 35.6% 34.1% 39.3% 24.4% 34.0%
     Independent Seats -       -
     Vote 1.3%       0.7%
     Independent Liberal Seats -       -
     Vote 0.7%       0.4%
Total seats 82 64 15 19 180

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Federal political parties | Federal electoral districts | Historical federal electoral districts
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