Canadian federal election, 1874

Canadian federal election, 1874

January 22, 1874

206 seats in the 3rd Canadian Parliament 104 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party   Leader Alexander Mackenzie John A. Macdonald Party Liberal Conservative Leader since March 6, 1873 July 1, 1867 Leader's seat Lambton Kingston Last election 95 seats, 34.7% 100 seats, 38.7% Seats won 129 65 Seat change 34 35 Popular vote 128,455 97,925 Percentage 39.5% 30.1% Swing 4.8% 8.6%

Prime Minister before election Alexander Mackenzie Liberal Prime Minister-designate Alexander Mackenzie Liberal

The Canadian federal election of 1874 was held on January 22, 1874, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 3rd Parliament of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald, who had recently been forced out of office as prime minister, and his Conservatives were defeated by the Liberal Party under their new leader Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie.

Macdonald's government had been forced to resign on November 5, 1873, because of allegations of corruption relating to the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (see the Pacific Scandal). The Liberals under Mackenzie formed a government two days later with an election called for January. The Tories were unable to recover from the scandal and lost the election as a result.

The election was the first to occur following Prince Edward Island's entry into Confederation, and the first to use secret ballots in Canada. Voter turn-out: 69.6%

National results

The Canadian parliament after the 1874 election

↓
129	65	12
Liberal	Conservative	O

3rd Parliament
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1872	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Alexander Mackenzie	140	95	129	+35.8%	128,455	39.49%	+4.77pp
	Conservative	John A. Macdonald	65	63	39	-38.1%	57,691	17.74%	-8.02pp
	Liberal-Conservative^1		38	36	26	-27.8%	40,234	12.37%	-0.53pp
	Conservative Labour		1	1	-	-100%	1,515	0.47%	+0.02pp
	Independents		7	1	4	+300%	10,453	3.21%	+1.58pp
	Independent Liberal		5	2	5	+300%	6,541	2.01%	+0.37pp
	Independent Conservative		3	2	3	+50%	2,360	0.73%	+0.03pp
	Unknown		104	-	-	-	78,008	23.98%	+1.78pp
Total			355	200	206	+3.0%	325,247	100%
Source: Parliamentary website, Detailed riding results

Notes:

¹ Liberal-Conservatives sat with the Conservative caucus in the House of Commons.

Acclamations

The following Members of Parliament were elected by acclamation;

• Ontario: 1 Liberal-Conservative, 13 Liberals
• Quebec: 10 Conservatives, 4 Liberal-Conservatives, 15 Liberals
• New Brunswick: 1 Conservative, 3 Liberals, 1 Independent Liberal
• Nova Scotia: 5 Liberals
• Prince Edward Island: 2 Liberals

Results by province

Party name			BC	MB	ON	QU	NB	NS	PEI	Total
	Liberal	Seats	3	1	61	34	10	15	5	129
		Popular vote	34.1	47.0	39.6	34.8	47.1	38.1	56.8	39.5
	Conservative	Seats	1	1	15	17	2	2	1	39
		Vote	4.5	13.8	19.5	17.6	6.8	17.8	17.5	17.7
	Liberal-Conservative	Seats	1		10	12	1	2	-	26
		Vote	16.9		10.4	14.9	8.6	19.2	15.4	12.4
	Conservative Labour	Seats			-					-
		Vote			0.9					0.5
	Unknown	Seats
		Vote	29.2	13.8	27.2	27.5	19.9	9.0	10.3	24.0
	Independent	Seats		1	-	-	2	1		4
		Vote		9.5	0.8	2.3	17.6	7.7		3.2
	Independent Liberal	Seats	1		2		1	1		5
		Vote	15.4		1.7			8.2		2.0
	Independent Conservative	Seats		1		2				3
		Vote		15.9		2.9				0.7
Total seats			6	4	88	65	16	21	6	206

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
Liberal			39.49%
Conservative			30.11%
Others			30.40%

Seat totals
Liberal			62.62%
Conservative			31.55%
Others			5.83%

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections