Canadian federal election, 1878
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The Canadian federal election of 1878 was held on September 17 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 4th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in the end of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie's Liberal government after only one term in office. Canada suffered an economic depression during Mackenzie's term, and his party was punished by the voters for it. The Liberals' policy of free trade also hurt their support with the business establishment in Toronto and Montreal.
Sir John A. Macdonald and his Conservative/Liberal-Conservative party was returned to office after having been defeated five years before amidst scandals over the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Voter turn-out: 69.1%
National results
| ↓ | ||||
| 134 | 63 | 9 | ||
| Conservative | Liberal | O | ||
| Party | Party leader | # of candidates | Seats | Popular vote | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1874 | Elected | Change | # | % | Change | ||||
| Conservative | John A. Macdonald | 101 | 38 | 85 | +118.4% | 143,192 | 26.28% | +7.80pp | |
| Liberal-Conservative | 60 | 26 | 49 | +76.9% | 85,999 | 15.78% | +3.50pp | ||
| Liberal | Alexander Mackenzie | 121 | 126 | 63 | -54.8% | 180,074 | 33.05% | -7.74pp | |
| Independent | 11 | 4 | 5 | +25% | 14,783 | 2.71% | -0.48pp | ||
| Independent Conservative | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | 1,001 | 0.18% | -0.76pp | ||
| Unknown | 117 | - | 114,043 | 20.93% | -1.93pp | ||||
| Independent Liberal | 4 | 1 | 1 | +100% | 5,388 | 0.99% | - | ||
| Nationalist Conservative | 1 | * | 1 | * | 401 | 0.07% | * | ||
| Total | 417 | 197 | 206 | +3.6% | 100.0% | - | |||
| 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;
- British Columbia: 1 Conservative, 1 Liberal-Conservative
- Manitoba: 2 Conservatives, 1 Liberal-Conservative
- Quebec: 1 Conservative, 2 Liberal-Conservatives, 1 Liberal
- New Brunswick: 1 Liberal, 1 Independent
Results by province
| Party name | BC | MB | ON | QC | NB | NS | PE | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Seats: | 1 | 2 | 37 | 33 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 85 | |
| Popular vote (%): | - | 49.6 | 25.5 | 35.0 | 5.9 | 21.7 | 31.6 | 26.3 | ||
| Liberal-Conservative | Seats: | 2 | 1 | 23 | 12 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 49 | |
| Vote (%): | 39.6 | - | 15.8 | 13.2 | 14.3 | 22.7 | 12.0 | 15.8 | ||
| Liberal | Seats: | 2 | 27 | 17 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 63 | ||
| Vote (%): | - | 36.3 | 21.7 | 48.2 | 34.9 | 37.2 | 33.1 | |||
| Independent | Seats: | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | 5 | |||
| Vote (%): | 12.2 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 13.1 | 4.3 | 2.7 | ||||
| Independent Conservative | Seats: | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| Vote (%): | 50.4 | 0.7 | 0.2 | |||||||
| Unknown | Seats: | |||||||||
| Vote (%): | 48.2 | 19.9 | 27.4 | 14.8 | 14.7 | 19.3 | 20.9 | |||
| Independent Liberal | Seats: | 1 | - | 1 | ||||||
| Vote (%): | 1.0 | 3.7 | 1.7 | 1.0 | ||||||
| Nationalist Conservative | Seats: | 1 | - | 1 | ||||||
| Vote (%): | 0.3 | 0.1 | ||||||||
| Total seats | 6 | 4 | 88 | 65 | 16 | 21 | 6 | 206 | ||
Vote and seat summaries
Further reading
- Argyle, Ray. Turning Points: The Campaigns That Changed Canada - 2011 and Before (2011) excerpt and text search ch 3
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