Canadian federal election, 1878

September 17, 1878

206 seats in the 4th Canadian Parliament 104 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party

Leader	John A. Macdonald	Alexander Mackenzie
Party	Conservative	Liberal
Leader since	1867	1873
Leader's seat	Victoria	Lambton
Last election	65	129
Seats won	134	63
Seat change	69	66
Popular vote	229,151	180,074
Percentage	42.06%	33.05%
Swing	11.95%	7.74%

Prime Minister before election

Alexander Mackenzie
Liberal

Prime Minister-designate

John A. Macdonald
Conservative

The Canadian federal election of 1878 was held on September 17 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 4th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in the end of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie's Liberal government after only one term in office. Canada suffered an economic depression during Mackenzie's term, and his party was punished by the voters for it. The Liberals' policy of free trade also hurt their support with the business establishment in Toronto and Montreal.

Sir John A. Macdonald and his Conservative/Liberal-Conservative party was returned to office after having been defeated five years before amidst scandals over the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Voter turn-out: 69.1%

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1874	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Conservative	John A. Macdonald	101	38	85	+118.4%	143,192	26.28%	+7.80%
	Liberal-Conservative	John A. Macdonald	60	26	49	+76.9%	85,999	15.78%	+3.50%
	Liberal	Alexander Mackenzie	121	126	63	-54.8%	180,074	33.05%	-7.74%
	Independent		11	4	5	+25%	14,783	2.71%	-0.48%
	Independent Conservative		2	2	2	-	1,001	0.18%	-0.76%
	Unknown		117	-			114,043	20.93%	-1.93%
	Independent Liberal		4	1	1	+100%	5,388	0.99%	-
	Nationalist Conservative		1	*	1	*	401	0.07%	*
Total			417	197	206	+3.6%		100.0%	-
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Acclamations

The following Members of Parliament were elected by acclamation;

Party name			BC	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	Total
	Conservative	Seats:	1	2	37	33	1	8	3	85
	Conservative	Popular vote (%):	-	49.6	25.5	35.0	5.9	21.7	31.6	26.3
	Liberal-Conservative	Seats:	2	1	23	12	3	6	2	49
	Liberal-Conservative	Vote (%):	39.6	-	15.8	13.2	14.3	22.7	12.0	15.8
	Liberal	Seats:	2		27	17	9	7	1	63
	Liberal	Vote (%):	-		36.3	21.7	48.2	34.9	37.2	33.1
	Independent	Seats:	1		1	1	2	-		5
	Independent	Vote (%):	12.2		1.5	1.6	13.1	4.3		2.7
	Independent Conservative	Seats:		1		1				2
	Independent Conservative	Vote (%):		50.4		0.7				0.2
	Unknown	Seats:
	Unknown	Vote (%):	48.2		19.9	27.4	14.8	14.7	19.3	20.9
	Independent Liberal	Seats:					1	-		1
	Independent Liberal	Vote (%):			1.0		3.7	1.7		1.0
	Nationalist Conservative	Seats:				1		-		1
	Nationalist Conservative	Vote (%):				0.3				0.1
Total seats			6	4	88	65	16	21	6	206