Canadian federal election, 1917

Canadian federal election, 1917

December 17, 1917
235 seats in the 13th Canadian Parliament 118 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Robert Borden Wilfrid Laurier Party Government (Unionist) Opposition (Laurier Liberals) Leader since 1901 1887 Leader's seat Halifax candidate in Kings (electoral district) Quebec East Last election 132 85 Seats won 153 82 Seat change +21 -3 Popular vote 1,070,694 729,756 Percentage 56.93% 38.80% Swing +8.38pp -7.02pp
Prime Minister before election Robert Borden Government (Unionist) Prime Minister-designate Robert Borden Government (Unionist)

The 1917 Canadian federal election (sometimes referred to as the khaki election) was held on December 17, 1917, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons 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 percent share of the popular vote for a single party in Canadian history.

The previous election had been held in 1911, and was won by Borden's Conservatives. Under the elections law, Canada should have had an election in 1916. However citing the emergency of the First World War, the government postponed the election, largely in hope that a coalition government could be formed, as was the case in Britain.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier, head of the Liberal Party of Canada, refused to join the coalition over the issue of conscription. Conscription was strongly opposed in the Liberal heartland of Quebec. Laurier worried that agreeing to Borden's coalition offer would cause that province to abandon the Liberals, and perhaps Canada as well. 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 of these, the Wartime Elections Act, disenfranchised conscientious objectors and Canadian citizens who were born in enemy countries who had arrived after 1902. The law also gave female relatives of servicemen the vote. 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 that 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 the vote would be counted in. This allowed government officials to guide the strongly pro-conscription soldiers into voting in those ridings where the government felt they would be most useful. Servicemen were given a ballot with the simple choice of "Government" or "Opposition."

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.

The divisive debate ended with the country divided on linguistic lines. The Liberals won 82 seats, 62 of which were in Quebec, with many other seats won in provinces like Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Ontario in ridings with significant francophone populations. The Unionists won 153 seats. The three Unionist won seats in Quebec were all in mainly anglophone ridings. This fact led to the Francœur Motion in January 1918.

File:Chambre des Communes 1917.png

The Canadian parliament after the 1917 election

National results

↓
153	82
Government	Opposition

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1911	Elected	% Change	#	%	pp Change
	Government (Unionist)1	Robert Borden	211	132	153	+15.9%	1,070,694	56.93%	+8.38
	Opposition (Laurier Liberals)1	Wilfrid Laurier	213	85	82	-3.5%	729,756	38.80%	-7.02
	Labour		22	1	-	-100%	34,558	1.84%	+0.91
	Opposition-Labour		8	*	-	*	22,251	1.03%	*
	Independent		5	-	-	-	12,023	0.64%	-0.15
	Independent Liberal		2	*	-	*	7,753	0.41%	-
	Unknown		12	-	-	-	3,773	0.20%	-1.78
	Nonpartisan League		3	*	-	*	2,863	0.15%	-
Total			476	221	235	+5.9%	1,880,702	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

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.

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
Government			56.93%
Opposition			38.80%
Others			4.27%

Seat totals
Government			65.11%
Opposition			34.89%

Results by province

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	YK	Total
	Government	Seats:	13	11	16	14	74	3	7	12	2	1	153
		Popular Vote (%):	68.4	61.0	74.1	79.7	62.3	24.7	59.4	48.4	49.8	54.3	56.9
	Opposition	Seats:	-	1	-	1	8	62	4	4	2	-	82
		Vote (%):	25.6	30.6	23.4	20.3	32.1	73.4	40.6	45.5	50.2	45.7	38.8
Total seats			13	12	16	15	82	65	11	16	4	1	235
Parties that won no seats:
	Labour	Vote (%):	5.6	0.8			2.3	0.3		6.1			1.8
	Opposition-Labour	Vote (%):		5.0	2.6		1.2						1.0
	Independent	Vote (%):		0.5			1.2	0.5					0.6
	Independent Liberal	Vote (%):					0.8	0.5					0.4
	Unknown	Vote (%):	0.4				0.1	0.7					0.2
	Non-Partisan	Vote (%):		2.2									0.2

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 11th Canadian Parliament

Further reading

• Argyle, Ray. Turning Points: The Campaigns That Changed Canada - 2011 and Before (2011) excerpt and text search ch 6

See also

• 13th Canadian Parliament
• Conscription crisis of 1917
• Khaki election