1926 Canadian federal election
September 14, 1926
245 seats in the House of Commons
123 seats needed for a majority
Turnout67.7%[1] (Increase1.3pp)
  First party Second party
 
Leader W. L. Mackenzie King Arthur Meighen
Party Liberal Conservative
Leader since 1919 1920
Leader's seat Prince Albert Portage la Prairie (lost re-election)
Last election 100 115
Seats won 116 91
Seat change Increase16 Decrease24
Popular vote 1,397,031 1,476,834
Percentage 42.90% 45.35%
Swing Increase3.06pp Decrease0.78pp
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader John E. Brownlee
Party Progressive United Farmers of Alberta
Leader's seat Did not run[2]
Last election 22 2
Seats won 11 11
Seat change Decrease11 Increase9
Popular vote 128,060 60,740
Percentage 3.93% 1.87%
Swing Decrease4.52pp Increase1.61pp
The Canadian parliament after the 1926 election
Prime Minister before election

Arthur Meighen
Conservative

 Prime Minister after election

William Lyon Mackenzie King
Liberal

The 1926 Canadian federal election was held on September 14, 1926, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 16th Parliament of Canada.[3] The election was called after an event known as the King–Byng affair.

In the 1925 federal election, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party of Canada had won fewer seats in the House of Commons of Canada than the Conservatives of Arthur Meighen. King, however, was determined to continue to govern with the support of the Progressive Party. The combined Liberal and Progressive caucuses gave Mackenzie King a plurality of seats in the House of Commons, and the ability to form a minority government. The agreement collapsed, however, after a scandal, and King approached the governor-general of Canada, Baron Byng of Vimy, to seek dissolution of the Parliament. Byng refused on the basis that the Conservatives had won the most seats in the prior election and so he called upon Meighen to form a government.

Prime Minister Meighen's government was soon defeated in a vote of non-confidence, and Byng agreed to Meighen's request to dissolve Parliament and call new elections. King effectively campaigned against Byng, instead of against Meighen, in the election and won the most seats in the House of Commons although his party won a smaller proportion of the popular vote than the Conservatives. However, this was largely because the Liberals did not run candidates in all ridings and had an informal electoral pact with the Progressives and Liberal-Progressives. In particular, the election results in Manitoba had Meighen's party capture almost 40 percent of the vote, twice the vote share of any other party, but no seats. Thus, King's Liberals were able to govern with the support of Liberal-Progressive Members of Parliament.

The Progressive Party's Albertan legislators left the party and instead sought re-election under the United Farmers of Alberta banner. At the time, the UFA formed the government in Alberta. They won eleven seats in Alberta, an increase of nine from the previous year and the same number the Progressives won elsewhere. The Progressives' seat count was halved compared to 1925, although when viewed in its totality the election result can also be regarded as a combined net decrease of two seats for the Progressives and UFA.

Byng returned to Britain at the end of the year and was raised to the rank of viscount as an expression of confidence in him. After his party's defeat and the loss of his own seat, Meighen resigned as Conservative leader.

National results

Party Party leader # of
candidates		 Seats Popular vote
1925 Elected % Change # % pp Change
  Liberal W. L. Mackenzie King 203 100 116 +16.0% 1,397,031 42.90% +3.06
  Conservative Arthur Meighen 232 115 91 -20.2% 1,476,834 45.35% -0.78
Progressive   28 22 11 -50.0% 128,060 3.93% -4.52
United Farmers of Alberta   12 2 11 +450% 60,740 1.87% +1.61
Liberal–Progressive Robert Forke 12 - 8   63,144 1.94% +1.83
Labour   18 2 4 +100% 55,661 1.71% -0.10
  Independent 10 2 2 - 25,821 0.79% +0.28
  Independent Liberal 5 1 1 - 18,627 0.57% -0.42
United Farmers of Ontario   1 * 1 * 6,909 0.21% *
  Independent Conservative 3 1 - -100% 10,164 0.31% -0.23
  Progressive-Conservative   2 - - - 7,088 0.22% +0.18
  Liberal-Labour   1 * - * 4,187 0.13% *
  Labour-Farmer   1 - - - 1,441 0.04% -0.11
Socialist   1 - - - 672 0.02% -0.04
  Protectionist   1 * - * 129 x *
Total 530 245 245 - 3,256,508 100%  
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867 Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine

Notes:

* not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
Conservative
 
 45.35%
Liberal
 
 42.90%
Progressive
 
 3.93%
United Farmers
 
 1.87%
Others
 
 5.95%
Seat totals
Liberal
 
 47.35%
Conservative
 
 37.14%
Progressive
 
 4.49%
United Farmers
 
 4.49%
Others
 
 6.53%

Results by province

The results in the province of Manitoba are used by supporters of electoral reform as a reason to abolish the "First Past the Post" electoral system. Note that with 40% of the vote, the Conservatives did not win a single seat in the province.

Party name BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE YK Total
  Liberal Seats: 1 3 16 4 24 59 4 2 3 - 116
  Popular Vote (%): 37.0 24.5 51.3 18.4 35.3 61.3 46.1 43.5 52.7 44.1 42.8
  Conservative Seats: 12 1 - - 53 4 7 12 1 1 91
  Vote: 54.2 31.5 27.5 39.7 54.9 34.0 53.9 53.7 47.3 55.9 45.4
  Progressive Seats:     4 4 3           11
  Vote:     17.9 11.2 5.1           3.9
  United Farmers of Alberta Seats:   11                 11
  Vote:   38.7                 1.9
  Liberal-Progressive Seats:     1 7 -           8
  Vote:     3.2 19.5 1.4           1.9
  Labour Seats: - 1   2 1     -     4
  Vote: 6.4 4.3   8.7 1.1     2.8     1.7
  Independent Seats: 1 -     - 1         2
  Vote: 2.3 0.1     0.5 1.9         0.8
  Independent Liberal Seats:           1         1
  Vote:           2.3         0.6
  United Farmers of Ontario Seats:         1           1
  Vote:         0.6           0.2
Total seats 14 16 21 17 82 65 11 14 4 1 245
Parties that won no seats:
  Independent Conservative Vote:         0.8 0.1         0.3
  Progressive-Conservative Vote:       2.5   0.3         0.2
  Liberal-Labour Vote:         0.3           0.1
  Labour-Farmer Vote:   0.9                 xx
  Socialist Vote:           0.1         xx
  Protectionist Vote:           xx         xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Elections Canada. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  2. ↑ The United Farmers of Alberta, which at the time formed the government in that province, did not have a separate party leader at the federal level. At the time of this election, party leader John E. Brownlee was the Premier of Alberta and the MLA for Ponoka in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.
  3. ↑ Sharp, Walter R. (1927). "The Canadian Election of 1926". American Political Science Review. 21 (1): 101–113. doi:10.2307/1945541. ISSN 0003-0554.

Further reading

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