The Canadian federal election, 1872 was held on July 20, 1872. Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservatives remained in power, defeating the Liberals.

Edward Blake, who had a seat in both the Canadian House of Commons and the Ontario legislature, resigned as Premier of Ontario in order to run in the 1872 federal election as dual mandates had been abolished. Had the Liberals won the election, he likely would have been offered the position of Prime Minister of Canada. The party had no formal leader as such until 1873 when Alexander Mackenzie was given the title after Blake declined due to ill health. Blake was ill during much of the 1872 campaign, and it was Mackenzie who essentially led the Liberal campaign in Ontario, though not outside of the province.

Results

National

2nd Parliament
Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
				Before	After	Change	#	%	Change	Conservative	Sir John A. Macdonald	92	71	63	-11.3%	82,024	25.76%	+2.31%
	Liberal-Conservative	48	29	36	+24.1%	41,076	12.90%	+1.82%	Liberal	Edward Blake, Alexander Mackenzie Antoine Dorion		111	62	95	+53.2%	110,556	34.72%	+12.05%	Independents		4	-	1		5,213	1.64%	+1.25%
	Independent Conservative		3	-	2		2,220	0.70%	+0.70%
	Independent Liberal		4	-	2		5,232	1.64%	+0.98%
	Conservative Labour		1	-	1		1,422	0.45%	+0.45%
	Unknown		104	-	-	-	70,704	22.20%	-11.64%
			367	180	200	+11.1%	320,037	100%
Source: http://www.parl.gc.ca

Notes:

"Before" refers to standings in the House of Commons at the last election, and not standings at dissolution.

Acclamations
The following MPs were acclaimed:

• British Columbia: 3 Liberal-Conservatives
• Manitoba: 1 Liberal-Conservative
• Ontario: 3 Conservatives, 3 Liberal-Conservatives, 10 Liberals
• Quebec: 9 Conservatives, 5 Liberal-Conservatives, 5 Liberals
• New Brunswick: 6 Liberals
• Nova Scotia: 1 Conservative, 4 Liberal-Conservatives, 2 Liberals

Results by province

Party Name		BC	Man	Ont	Que	NB	NS	Canada/Total
	Conservative Seats	1	1	26	26	2	7	63
	Pop Vote	4.5	29.7	25.9	31.5	8.4	23.5	25.8
	Liberal-Conservative Seats	3	1	12	11	3	6	36
	Pop Vote			11.9	10.5	17.8	19.8	12.9
	Liberal Seats	2	1	48	27	9	8	95
	Pop Vote	83.7	35.6	35.3	32.6	46.8	28.1	34.7
	Conservative Labour			1				1
	Pop Vote			0.9				0.4
	Unknown Seats
	Unknown Pop Vote	11.8	14.9	23.4	21.5	26.9	16.4	22.2
	Independent Seats			-	-	1	-	1
	Independent Pop Vote			0.8	1.7		6.1	1.6
	Independent Liberal Seats			1		1		2
	Independent Liberal Pop Vote			1.7			6.1	1.6
	Independent Conservative Seats		1		1			2
	Independent Conservative Pop Vote		19.8		2.2			0.7
Total Seats		6	4	88	65	16	21	200
Party Name		BC	Man	Ont	Que	NB	NS	Canada/Total

• Liberal-Conservatives sat with the Conservative Party

For a list of candidates elected in the 1872 election, including by-elections held before 1874, see 2nd Canadian parliament.