1917 Canadian federal election

none September 2023 1917 Canadian federal election Canada 1907 parliamentary no no 1911 Canadian federal election 1911 1921 Canadian federal election 1921 235 seats in the House of Commons 118 75.0%Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index&lang=e 10 March 2019 ( 4.8 pp) December 17, 1917 13th Canadian Parliament 12th Canadian Parliament 200x200px CA Unionist nohash Robert Borden February 6, 1901Unionist: October 10, 1917 CA Unionist name Kings 132 seats, 48.56%seats won by the Conservative Party. 153 21 1,070,694 56.93% 8.38 pp 200x200px CA Laurier Liberals nohash Wilfrid Laurier June 2, 1887Laurier Liberals: 1917 CA Laurier Liberals name Quebec EastLaurier also ran in Ottawa (City of), where he was defeated. 85 seats, 45.82%seats won by the Liberal Party. 82 3 729,756 38.80% 7.02 pp 350px Results by electoral district 350px Results by province and territory Prime Minister Prime Minister after election Robert Borden CA Unionist name Robert Borden CA Unionist name Chambre des Communes 1917.png 380px The Canadian parliament after the 1917 election The 1917 Canadian federal election was held on December 17, 1917, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 13th Parliament of Canada. Described by historian Michael Bliss as the "most bitter election in Canadian history", it was fought mainly over the issue of conscription (see Conscription Crisis of 1917). The election resulted in Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden's Unionist government elected with a strong majority and the largest percentage of the popular vote for any party in Canadian history.Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs 1917 pp. 587–643. online This election is known as a "khaki election" as it was held on a period of wartime sentiment. The previous election of 1911 was won by Borden's Conservatives. Normally, there is a constitutional requirement that Parliament last no longer than five years, which would have resulted in an election in 1916. However, citing the wartime emergency, the Parliament of Canada approved a one-year extension, which was implemented by the British Parliament.see British North America Act, 1916. The Borden government hoped that the delay would allow the formation of a "grand coalition" government, encompassing all the parties, such as existed in Britain. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, head of the Liberal Party of Canada, refused to join the coalition over the issue of conscription, which was strongly opposed in the French heartland of Quebec. Laurier worried that agreeing to Borden's coalition offer would cause that province to abandon the Liberals and perhaps even Canada. Borden proceeded to form a "Unionist" government, and the Liberal Party split over the issue. Many English Canadian Liberal MPs and provincial Liberal parties in English Canada supported the new Unionist government. To ensure victory for conscription, Borden introduced two laws to skew the voting towards the government. The first, the Wartime Elections Act, disenfranchised conscientious objectors and Canadian citizens if they were born in enemy countries and had arrived after 1902. The law also gave wives and female relatives of servicemen the vote.Wartime Elections Act https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wartime-elections-act 2025-11-13 thecanadianencyclopedia.ca en Thus, the 1917 election was the first federal election in which some women were allowed to vote. The other new law was the Military Voters Act, which allowed soldiers serving abroad to choose which riding their vote would be counted in or to allow the party for which they voted to select the riding in which the vote would be counted. That allowed government officials to guide the strongly pro-conscription soldiers into voting in those ridings where they would be more useful. Servicemen were given a ballot with the simple choice of "Government" or "Opposition". It is calculated that the Unionist government took 14 seats from the Opposition due to its use of Army votes.A History of the Vote in Canada, p. 60 Soon after these measures were passed, Borden convinced a faction of Liberals (using the name Liberal-Unionists) along with Gideon Decker Robertson, who was described as a "Labour" Senator (but was unaffiliated with any Labour Party) to join with them, forming the Unionist government in October 1917. He then dissolved parliament to seek a mandate in the election, which pitted "Government" candidates, running as the Unionist Party, against the anti-conscription faction of the Liberal Party, which ran under the name Laurier Liberals. As well, Independent, Labour and Socialist candidates ran in many ridings across the country.Parliamentary Guide The divisive debate ended with the country divided on linguistic lines. The Liberals won 82 seats, 62 in Quebec, with many other seats won in provinces such as Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Ontario in ridings with significant French Canadian populations. The Unionists won 153 seats. The three Unionist won seats in Quebec were all in mainly English-speaking ridings. That led to the Francœur Motion in January 1918. Out of 235 seats, 33 were won by acclamation—17 to the Laurier Liberals (all in Quebec) and 16 to the Unionists (all outside Quebec). Two of the Unionist acclamations were for the riding of Halifax, where the only candidates were two Unionists, and where, eleven days earlier, the tragic Halifax Explosion had taken place. The election was conducted mostly using First past the post in single-member ridings but Ottawa, Queens, and Halifax each had two members and each of the voters there cast up to two votes as per Plurality block voting.Parliamentary Guide 1969, p. 333-334 National results center|300px PartyParty leader# ofcandidatesSeatsPopular vote1911Elected% Change#%pp Change CA PC rowGovernment (Unionist)1Robert Borden211132153+15.9%1,070,69456.93%+8.38 CA Liberal rowOpposition (Laurier Liberals)1Wilfrid Laurier 2138582-3.5%729,75638.80%-7.02 CA Labour row-name 221--100%34,5581.84%+0.91 CA Independent rowOpposition-Labour 8*-*22,2511.03%* CA Independent rowIndependent 5---12,0230.64%-0.15 CA Independent rowIndependent Liberal 2*-*7,7530.41%- CA Independent rowUnknown 12---3,7730.20%-1.78 CA Non-Partisan League row-name 3*-*2,8630.15%-Total  476221235+5.9%1,880,702100% Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867 https://web.archive.org/web/20081204121507/http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/process/house/hfer/hfer.asp?Language=E 2008-12-04 Notes: * Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election. 1 % change for Government compared to Conservative Party (including Liberal-Conservatives) in 1911 election, and for Opposition to Liberal Party. Results by province Party nameBCABSKMBONQCNBNSPEYKTotal CA PC rowGovernment Seats: 13 11 16 14 743 7 12 2 1153 CA PC row Popular Vote (%): 68.4 61.0 74.1 79.7 62.3 24.7 59.4 48.4 49.8 54.3 56.9 CA Liberal rowOpposition Seats: - 1 - 1 8 62 4 4 2 - 82 CA Liberal row Vote (%): 25.6 30.6 23.4 20.3 32.1 73.4 40.6 45.5 50.2 45.7 38.8 Total seats13 12 16 15 8265 11 16 4 1 235Parties that won no seats: CA Labour row-name Vote (%):5.6 0.8     2.3 0.3   6.1     1.8 CA Independent rowOpposition-Labour Vote (%):   5.0 2.6   1.2         1.0 CA Independent rowIndependent Vote (%):   0.5     1.2 0.5         0.6 CA Independent rowIndependent Liberal Vote (%):         0.8 0.5         0.4 CA Independent row Unknown Vote (%): 0.4       0.1 0.7        0.2 CA Independent row Non-Partisan Vote (%):   2.2                0.2 See also Canada Politics List of Canadian federal general elections List of political parties in Canada 11th Canadian Parliament 13th Canadian Parliament Conscription crisis of 1917 Khaki election Notes References Primary sources Canada. Chief Electoral Officer Return of the Thirteenth General Election for the House of Commons of Canada, held on the 17th day of December 1917. 1920 Sessional Paper No. 13 https://archive.org/details/1920v56i4p13_1498 Ottawa Further reading Argyle Ray Turning points: the campaigns that changed Canada : 2004 and before 2004 White Knight Publications Toronto 978-0-9734186-6-8 https://archive.org/details/turningpointscam0000argy registration Dutil Patrice A. MacKenzie David Embattled nation: Canada's wartime election of 1917 2017 Dundurn Press Toronto 978-1-4597-3726-6 Hopkins J. Castell The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1917 1918 The Annual Review Toronto https://archive.org/details/canadianannualre0000unse_a4b9 Canada, Chief Electoral Officer Return of the Thirteenth General Election for the House of Commons of Canada, held on the 17th day of December 1917. 1920 King's Printer Ottawa https://archive.org/details/1920v56i4p13_1498 2027/mdp.39015024873302 free Federal election 1917 Category:December 1917 in Canada Category:Politics of World War I