Canadian federal election, 1891

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The Canadian parliament after the 1891 election

The Canadian federal election of 1891 was held on March 5 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 7th Parliament of Canada. It was won by the Conservative Party of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald.

A Conservative election poster from 1891.

The main issue of the 1891 campaign was Macdonald's National Policy, a policy of protective tariffs. The Liberals supported reciprocity (free trade) with the United States.

Macdonald led a conservative campaign emphasizing stability, and retained the Conservatives' majority in the House of Commons. It was a close election and he campaigned hard. Macdonald died a few months after the election.

John Abbott succeeded Macdonald as Conservative leader and Prime Minister. Abbott's most famous political comment was "I hate politics."

This was Wilfrid Laurier's first election as leader of the Liberals. Although he lost this election, he increased the Liberals' support and returned in 1896 to win a solid majority.

Voter turn-out: 64.4%

Canadian voters would return to the issue of free trade 20 years later during the 1911 federal election.

1 National results
2 Results by province
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1887	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Conservative	John A. Macdonald	187	87	97	+11.5%	332,961	42.96%	+2.80 %
	Liberal-Conservative	John A. Macdonald	25	24	20	-16.7%	43,557	5.62%	1.64%
	Liberal	Wilfrid Laurier	194	79	90	+13.9%	350,512	45.22%	+2.09%
	Independent Conservative		4	3	3	-	15,045	1.94%	+0.38%
	Independent		4	3	2	-66.7%	6,357	0.82%	-0.42%
	Nationalist		1	1	1	-	-¹	0.00%	-0.66%
	Independent Liberal		2	5	1	-80%	5,573	0.72%	-1.45%
	Nationalist Conservative		1	2	1	-50%	1,271	0.16%	-0.32%
	Unknown		14	1	-	-100%	16,890	2.18%	-1.15%
	Equal Rights		2	*	-	*	2,455	0.32%	*
	Progressive²		2	*	-	*	468	0.06%	*
Total			436	205	215	+4.9%	775,089	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

¹ One Nationalist candidate was elected by acclamation.

² The Parliamentary website identifies two candidates in Nova Scotia as being “Progressives”. This may be an error.

Acclamations:

The following Members of Parliament were elected by acclamation;

British Columbia: 1 Conservative, 1 Liberal-Conservative
Manitoba: 1 Conservative
Ontario: 1 Conservative
Quebec: 1 Conservative, 2 Liberal, 1 Nationalist

[edit] Results by province

Party name			BC	NW	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	Total
	Conservative	Seats:	5	4	1	39	24	10	12	2	97
	Conservative	Popular vote (%):	71.6	81.0	12.6	42.2	45.4	48.9	41.9	48.5	43.0
	Liberal-Conservative	Seats:	1		3	7	3	2	4		20
	Liberal-Conservative	Vote (%):			40.5	5.3	3.0	3.7	10.8		5.6
	Liberal	Seats:	-	-	1	44	33	4	5	3	90
	Liberal	Vote (%):	28.4	19.0	46.9	49.1	45.9	41.3	43.6	41.0	45.2
	Independent Conservative	Seats:				1	2				3
	Independent Conservative	Vote (%):				1.3	5.9				1.9
	Independent	Seats:				1	1	-			2
	Independent	Vote (%):				0.7	1.2	3.2			0.8
	Nationalist	Seats:					1				1
	Nationalist	Vote (%):					-				-
	Independent Liberal	Seats:						-		1	1
	Independent Liberal	Vote (%):						2.9		10.5	0.7
	Nationalist Conservative	Seats:					1				1
	Nationalist Conservative	Vote (%):					0.7				0.2
Total seats			6	4	5	92	65	16	21	6	215
Parties that won no seats:
	Unknown	Vote (%):				2.0	3.8		3.1		2.2
	Equal Rights	Vote (%):				0.7					0.3
	Progressive	Vote (%):							0.5		0.1

[edit] See also

7th Canadian Parliament

[edit] External link

The Election of 1891: A Question of Loyalty, by James Marsh

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