The Canadian federal election of 1874 was held on January 22, 1874. Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservative government was defeated by the Liberal Party under their new leader 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 an interim 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.

National results

3rd Parliament
Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
				Before	After	Change	#	%	Change	Liberal	Alexander Mackenzie	140	95	129	+35.8%	128,455	39.49%	+4.77%	Conservative	John A. Macdonald	65	63	39	-38.1%	57,691	17.74%	-8.02%
	Liberal-Conservative	38	36	26	-27.8%	40,234	12.37%	-0.53%
	Conservative Labour		1	1	0	-100%	1,515	0.47%	+0.02%	Independents		7	1	4	+300%	10,453	3.21%	+1.58%
	Independent Liberal		5	2	5	+300%	6,541	2.01%	+0.37%
	Independent Conservative		3	2	3	+50%	2,360	0.73%	+0.03%
	Unknown		104	-	-	-	78,008	23.98%	+1.78%
Total			355	200	206	+3.0%	325,247	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 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	Man	Ont	Que	NB	NS	PEI	Canada/Total
	Liberal Seats	3	1	61	34	10	15	5	129
	Pop 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
	Pop 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
	Pop Vote	16.9		10.4	14.9	8.6	19.2	15.4	12.4
	Conservative Labour			-
	Pop Vote			0.9					0.5
	Unknown Seats
	Unknown Pop Vote	29.2	13.8	27.2	27.5	19.9	9.0	10.3	24.0
	Independent Seats		1	-	-	2	1		4
	Independent Pop Vote		9.5	0.8	2.3	17.6	7.7		3.2
	Independent Liberal Seats	1		2		1	1		5
	Independent Liberal Pop Vote	15.4		1.7			8.2		2.0
	Independent Conservative Seats		1		2				3
	Independent Conservative Pop Vote		15.9		2.9				0.7
Total Seats		6	4	88	65	16	21	6	206
Party Name		BC	Man	Ont	Que	NB	NS	PEI	Canada/Total

• Liberal-Conservatives sat with the Conservative Party

Related Entries

For a list of candidates elected in the 1874 election, see 3rd Canadian parliament . For changes between the 1874 and 1878 elections, see By-elections of the 3rd Canadian Parliament .