1925 Canadian federal election

The 1925 Canadian federal election was held on October 29 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 15th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party formed a minority government. However when the government fell, the Conservatives under Meighen were given the chance to form government. This precipitated the "King–Byng Affair", which became the main issue of the 1926 election.

1925 Canadian federal election

October 29, 1925

245 seats in the House of Commons
123 seats needed for a majority
Turnout66.4%[1] (1.3pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Arthur Meighen W. L. Mackenzie King Robert Forke
Party Conservative Liberal Progressive
Leader since 1920 1919 1922
Leader's seat Grenville
candidate in Portage la Prairie
York North (lost re-election) Brandon
Last election 49 118 58
Seats won 115 100 22
Seat change 66 18 36
Popular vote 1,454,253 1,252,684 266,319
Percentage 46.13% 39.74% 8.45%
Swing 16.18pp 1.41pp 12.65pp


The Canadian parliament after the 1925 election

Prime Minister before election

William Lyon Mackenzie King
Liberal

Prime Minister after election

William Lyon Mackenzie King
Liberal

Background

The previous federal election in 1921 had seen Mackenzie King's Liberals fall narrowly short of winning a parliamentary majority, with Arthur Meighen's Conservatives falling to being the third-largest party, and the new Progressive Party, which had nominated candidates for the first time that year, held the balance of power. King was able to rule with the tacit support of the Progressives, and was not facing a statutory federal election until December 1926; however, a budget proposed in the summer of 1925 by finance minister William Stevens Fielding was unexpectedly voted down in parliament, obligating Mackenzie King to resign as Prime Minister and recommend to the Governor General, Baron Byng of Vimy to hold a new election (theoretically King could have recommended that Byng allow either Meighen or Progressive leader Robert Forke to form a government, but the Conservatives were far short of the number of MPs required to form a stable government, and Forke had no interest in being Prime Minister).

Aftermath and the King-Byng Affair

The Liberals won fewer seats than the Conservatives, who were left eight seats short of a majority. While the Progressives lost almost two-thirds of their seats from the previous election, they still held enough seats to control the balance of power. King decided to hold on to power with the help of the Progressives. The Progressives were closely aligned with the Liberals, and enabled King to form a minority government.

This plan was complicated by the fact that his party won fewer seats than the Conservatives, and that King himself had lost his seat in the House of Commons. Meighen was outraged by King's move, and demanded that King resign from the Prime Minister's office, with Byng privately agreeing that the Conservatives should be allowed to form the next government and feeling that the Liberal-Progressive pact was a corrupt bargain, but finding that there were no valid legal grounds for refusing to allow King to continue in office. King asked a Liberal Member of Parliament from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to resign so that he could run in the resulting by-election. Prince Albert was one of the safest seats in Canada for the Liberals, and King won easily.

With King back in Parliament, a huge scandal rocked the King cabinet when one of his appointees was discovered to be accepting bribes from a male lover. Anticipating a vote of censure by the Commons, King asked Byng, to call an election. The Governor General refused, and King resigned on June 28, 1926. Meighen was then invited to form a government.

King claimed this was interference in Canadian politics by an official appointed by a foreign power. King showed rare fire, and rallied the Progressives back into his camp. He defeated Meighen on a vote of confidence after only three days, making the Meighen government of 1926 the shortest lived government in Canadian history. This time, Byng called an election.

National results

115 100 22 8
Conservative Liberal Progressive O
Party Party leader # of
candidates
Seats Popular vote
1921 Elected % Change # % pp Change
  Conservative Arthur Meighen 232 49 115 +132.7% 1,454,253 46.13% +16.18
  Liberal W. L. Mackenzie King 216 118 100 -15.3% 1,252,684 39.74% -1.41
Progressive Robert Forke 68 58 22 -62.1% 266,319 8.45% -12.65
Labour J.S. Woodsworth 20 3 2 -33.3% 56,987 1.81% -0.93
  Independent 8 2 2 - 16,212 0.51% -2.52
United Farmers of Alberta   2 2 2 - 8,053 0.26% -0.46
  Independent Liberal 10 - 1   31,140 0.99% +0.90
  Independent Conservative 6 1 1 - 16,759 0.53% +0.14
  Unknown 5 - - - 20,583 0.65% +0.16
Liberal-Protectionist   2 * - * 6,915 0.22% *
  Independent Liberal-Progressive 1 * - * 4,958 0.16% *
Labour-Farmer   2 * - * 4,774 0.15% *
Liberal–Progressive   1 * - * 3,319 0.11% *
Independent Labour 1 * - * 2,901 0.09% *
Socialist   1 - - - 1,888 0.06% -0.04
  Independent Progressive 1 1 - -100% 1,768 0.06% -0.05
Farmer   1 * - * 1,130 0.04% *
  Progressive-Conservative   1 * - * 1,120 0.04% *
Farmer Labour   1 * - * 762 0.02% *
Total 579 235 245 +3.8% 3,152,525 100%  
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

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

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
Conservative
46.13%
Liberal
39.74%
Progressive
8.45%
Others
5.68%
Seat totals
Conservative
46.94%
Liberal
40.82%
Progressive
8.98%
Others
3.27%

Results by province

Party name BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE YK Total
  Conservative Seats: 10 3 - 7 67 4 10 11 2 1 115
  Popular Vote (%): 49.3 31.8 25.4 41.3 56.3 34.2 59.7 56.4 33.1 59.4 46.1
  Liberal Seats: 3 4 15 1 12 59 1 3 2 - 100
  Vote (%): 34.7 27.6 41.9 20.3 30.9 59.6 37.0 41.9 52.0 40.6 39.7
  Progressive Seats: - 7 6 7 2           22
  Vote (%): 6.1 26.5 31.8 25.1 8.8           8.5
  Labour Seats: - -   2 - -   -     2
  Vote: 6.3 6.1   9.6 1.2 0.2   1.6     1.8
  Independent Seats: 1       - 1 -       2
  Vote (%): 2.6       0.6 1.4 0.8       0.5
  United Farmers of Alberta Seats:   2                 2
  Vote (%):   5.0                 0.3
  Independent Liberal Seats:           1         1
  Vote (%):           3.8         1.0
  Independent Conservative Seats:         1           1
  Vote (%):         1.4           0.5
Total seats 14 16 21 17 82 65 11 14 4 1 245
Parties that won no seats:
  Unknown Vote (%):     0.1   0.9 0.2     15.0   0.7
Liberal-Protectionist Vote (%):           0.9         0.2
  Independent Liberal-Progressive Vote (%):             3.3       0.2
Labour-Farmer Vote (%):   3.0                 0.2
Liberal–Progressive Vote (%):       1.9             0.1
Independent Labour Vote (%):       1.7             0.1
  Socialist Vote (%): 1.0                   0.1
  Independent Progressive Vote (%):     0.9               0.1
Farmer Vote (%):           0.1         xx
  Progressive-Conservative Vote (%):           0.1         xx
Farmer Labour Vote (%):         0.1           xx

See also

References

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