1896 Canadian federal election

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox 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, led by Prime Minister Charles Tupper, won a plurality of the popular vote, the Liberal Party, led by Wilfrid Laurier, won the majority of seats (with only 41 percent of the vote) to form the next government. The election ended 18 years of Conservative rule.

This was first election in Canada to produce a House of Commons with elected members of four parties. The Liberals and Conservative shared the chamber with elected members of the farmer-based Patrons of Industry and McCarthyites.

DescriptionEdit

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 McGreevy-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 the McCarthyites, 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.

The Conservatives won more votes in the 1896 election than the Liberals (48.2% of the votes in comparison to 41.4% for the Liberals). However, the Liberals took more seats. The Conservatives 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 the most seats that province. Meanwhile, Laurier's Liberals won a landslide victory in Quebec, as well as getting some seats in English Canada (especially in the Maritimes and the West).

Tupper initially refused to resign as Prime Minister, insisting that Laurier would be unable to form a government. 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 resultsEdit

File:1896 Canadian parliament.svg

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

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