1896 Canadian federal election

The 1896 Canadian federal election was held on June 23, 1896, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 8th Parliament of Canada. Though the Conservative Party won a plurality of the popular vote, the Liberal Party, led by Wilfrid Laurier, won the majority of seats to form the next government.

1896 Canadian federal election

June 23, 1896
213 seats in the House of Commons 107 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	62.9%[1] (1.5pp)
Leader Wilfrid Laurier Charles Tupper Party Liberal Conservative Leader since 1887 1896 Leader's seat Quebec East Cape Breton Last election 90 seats, 45.2% 117 seats, 48.6% Seats won 117 86 Seat change 27 31 Popular vote 401,425 467,415 Percentage 41.4% 48.2% Swing 3.8% 0.4%
1896 Canadian electoral map
The Canadian parliament after the 1896 election
Prime Minister before election Charles Tupper Conservative Prime Minister after election Wilfrid Laurier Liberal

Description

The governing Conservative Party, since the death of John A. Macdonald in 1891, was disorganized. Following Macdonald's death, John Abbott spent a year as Prime Minister before handing over to John Thompson. Thompson proved a relatively popular Prime Minister, but his sudden death in December 1894 resulted in his replacement by Mackenzie Bowell, whose tenure as Prime Minister proved a disaster. The Conservatives soon became viewed as corrupt and wasteful of public funds, partially due to the McGreecy-Langevin Scandal. Issues like the Manitoba Schools Question had cost the party support in both French and English Canada.

Though Bowell nominally remained Prime Minister until the election was called, leadership of the Conservative Party had been functionally taken over by Sir Charles Tupper, a Father of Confederation and former Premier of Nova Scotia. Earlier, in February 1896, Tupper introduced remedial legislation to settle the Manitoba dispute, but it was filibustered by an alliance of extreme Protestants led by Dalton McCarthy and the Liberals. This filibuster resulted in Tupper abandoning the bill and asking for a dissolution. Parliament was dissolved on April 24, 1896, and, in accordance with an agreement between Bowell and Tupper that the latter would become Prime Minister following the election call, he became prime minister on May 1, 1896, thus forming the 7th Canadian Ministry.

Tupper argued that the real issue of the election was the future of Canadian industry, and he insisted that Conservatives needed to unite to defeat the Patrons of Industry. However, the Conservatives were so bitterly divided over the Manitoba Schools Question that wherever he spoke, he was faced with a barrage of criticism, most notably at a two-hour address he gave at Massey Hall in Toronto, which was constantly interrupted by the crowd.

The election saw a great change in the Liberal Party. While the Liberals had traditionally been the party for radical change and free trade, in the 1896 election, they embraced a much more conservative platform. That helped many of the traditional supporters of the Conservative Party move to the Liberals. The most important change was Laurier's support of the National Policy, an important cause to the powerful business interests of Montreal and Toronto. The Liberal campaign was directed by an ex-Conservative, Joseph Israël Tarte. Laurier was also a strong supporter of provincial rights, and a number of powerful Liberal premiers supported the campaign, such as Ontario's Oliver Mowat and Nova Scotia's W. S. Fielding, both of whom who won seats in the House and were appointed to cabinet after the election.

Ending up, the Conservatives won the most votes in the 1896 election (48.2% of the votes, in comparison to 41.4% for the Liberals). However, while they captured about half of the seats in English Canada, they suffered losses in Quebec, where Tupper's reputation as an ardent imperialist was a major handicap. Tupper's inability to persuade Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau to return to active politics as his Quebec lieutenant ended any chances of the Conservatives winning that province. Laurier's Liberals won a landslide victory in Quebec.

Although Laurier had won the election on June 24, Tupper initially refused to cede power, insisting that Laurier would be unable to form a government even if the Liberal Party won 55% of the seats in the House of Commons. However, when Tupper attempted to make appointments as prime minister, Governor General Lord Aberdeen refused. Tupper resigned, and the governor general invited Laurier to form a government.

National results

↓
117	86	10
Liberal	Conservative	O

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1891	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Wilfrid Laurier	190	90	117	+30.0%	401,425	41.37%	-3.85pp
	Conservative	Charles Tupper	190	97	71	-16.9%	430,874	44.40%	+1.44pp
	Liberal-Conservative		17	20	15	-25%	36,541	3.77%	-1.85pp
	Nationalist		5	1	-	-100%	14,121	1.46%	+1.46pp
	Independent Conservative		4	3	4	+33.3%	12,209	1.26%	-0.68pp
	Patrons of Industry		31	*	2	*	38,275	3.94%	*
	McCarthyite	Dalton McCarthy	11	*	2	*	12,861	1.33%	*
	Independent		18	2	1	-50%	13,870	1.43%	+0.61pp
	Independent Liberal		1	1	1	-	2,353	0.24%	-0.48pp
	Nationalist Conservative		-	1	-	-100%	-	-	-
	Protestant Protective		5	*	-	*	6,233	0.64%	*
	Unknown		1	-	-	-	1,622	0.17%	-2.01pp
Total			473	215	213	+7.0%	970,384	100%
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;

• Ontario: 1 Patron of Industry
• Quebec: 1 Conservative, 2 Liberals

Results by province

Party name			BC	NW	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	3	3	2	43	49	4	10	2	117
		Popular vote (%):	51.2	46.0	31.0	40.5	53.8	42.5	31.9	51.0	41.4
	Conservative	Seats:	2	1	3	34	16	4	9	2	71
		Vote (%):	48.8	43.9	45.1	40.9	45.2	31.5	65.4	40.5	44.4
	Liberal-Conservative	Seats:			1	7	-	5	1	1	15
		Vote (%):			8.0	4.0	0.4	17.5	2.2	8.5	2.2
	Nationalist	Seats:	1*			-	-				-
		Vote (%):				3.2	0.5				1.5
	Independent Conservative	Seats:				4					4
		Vote (%):				3.0					1.3
	Patrons of Industry	Seats:				2					2
		Vote (%):			7.6	8.3	0.7				3.9
	McCarthyite	Seats:			1	1					2
		Vote (%):			8.3	2.4					1.3
	Independent	Seats:		-		-		1	-		1
		Vote (%):		10.0		1.4		8.6	0.5		1.4
	Independent Liberal	Seats:				1					1
		Vote (%):				0.6					0.2
Total seats			6	4	7	92	65	14	20	5	213
Parties that won no seats:
	Protestant Protective	Vote (%):				1.5					0.6
	Unknown	Vote (%):				0.4					0.2

• George Ritchie Maxwell elected in Burrard.

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote Conservative   48.17% Liberal   41.37% Others   10.46%

Seat totals Liberal   54.93% Conservative   40.38% Others   4.69%

Further reading

• Argyle, Ray. Turning Points: The Campaigns That Changed Canada - 2011 and Before (2011) excerpt and text search ch 4
• Blake, Donald E. "1896 and All That: Critical Elections in Canada", Canadian Journal of Political Science, June 1979, Vol. 12 Issue 2, pp. 259–280
• Crunican, Paul. Priests and Politicians: Manitoba Schools and the Election of 1896 (1975)

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 8th Canadian Parliament

References

1. "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Elections Canada. Retrieved 10 March 2019.

External links

• Election 1896, by Stephen Azzi