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Canadian federal election, 1867



The 1867 federal election, held on September 20th, was the first election for the new nation of Canada. The Conservative Party of Sir John A. Macdonald won a majority of seats and votes in Ontario and Quebec. (Its candidates ran either as Conservatives or Liberal-Conseratives.) Quebec and Ontario had previously been united as The Province of Canada with Macdonald and George-Etienne Cartier's Liberal-Conservative coalition forming the government.

Officially, the Liberal Party of Canada had no leader, however while George Brown did not hold an official position in the party, he was generally considered the party's leader in the election campaign, and would have likely been Prime Minister in the unlikely event that the Liberals prevailed over Macdonald in the election. As it was, Brown ran concurrently for seats in the Ontario legislature and the Canadian House of Commons and hoped to become Premier of Ontario. However, he failed to win a seat in either body, and the Liberals remained officially leaderless until 1873.

Prior to Confederation, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick did not have formalized Liberal and Conservative parties. Political groups in those two provinces joined one of the two Province of Canada parties. Both provinces had weak Conservative parties. Opponents of the Conservatives joined the Liberal Party of Canada, which took the majority of seats and votes in both provinces. In Nova Scotia, opponents of the Conservatives (and of Confederation itself) ran as Anti-Confederates, but later sat with the Liberal Caucus.

Elections held in the previous year in the Provinces of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia focussed on the issue of whether or not to form a confederation.

For a list of candidates elected in the 1867 election, and in by-elections prior to 1872, see 1st Canadian parliament.

Election results

National

Party Party Leader # of
candidates
Seats Popular Vote
# % Conservative Sir John A. Macdonald 80 71 62,992 23.45%
     Liberal-Conservative 32 29 29,730 11.08% Liberal George Brown (unofficial) 65 62 60,818 22.67% Anti-Confederate Joseph Howe 20 18 21,239 7.92% Independents 1 0 1,756 0.65%
     Liberal-Independent 1 0 1,048 0.39%
     Unknown 142 0 90,804 33.84%
Total 341 180 268,317 100%
Source: History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Acclamations
The following MPs were acclaimed:

  • Ontario: 3 Conservative, 3 Liberal-Conservatives, 9 Liberals
  • Quebec: 14 Conservatives, 5 Liberal-Conservatives, 4 Liberals
  • New Brunswick: 1 Conservative, 3 Liberals
  • Nova Scotia: 4 Anti-Confedrates

Results by province

Party Name Ont Que NB NS Canada/Total
     Conservative Seats 33 36 1 1 71
     Pop Vote 26.2% 28.5%   13.8% 23.2%
     Liberal-Conservative Seats 16 11 2   29
     Pop Vote 12.5% 12.3% 11.1% 3.5% 11.1%
     Liberal Seats 33 17 12   62
     Pop Vote 23.7% 25.2% 49.5%   22.7%
     Anti-Confederate Seats       18 18
     Pop Vote       58.2% 7.9%
     Unknown Seats          
     Unknown Pop Vote 35.6% 34.1% 39.3% 24.4% 34.0%
     Independent Seats          
     Independent Pop Vote 1.3%       0.7%
     Independent Liberal Seats          
     Independent Liberal Pop Vote 0.7%       0.4%
Total Seats 82 64 15 19 180
Party Name Ont Que NB NS Canada/Total
  • Liberal-Conservatives sat with the Conservative Party
  • Anti-Confederates sat with the Liberal Party
Last updated: 05-13-2005 18:33:27
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04