In the 1930 Canadian federal election, R.B. Bennett's Conservative Party won a majority government, defeating the Liberal Party led by William Lyon Mackenzie King.

The first signs of the Great Depression were clearly evident by the 1930 election, and Conservative party leader Richard Bedford Bennett campaigned on a platform of aggressive measures in order to combat it.

"I propose that any government of which I am the head will at the first session of parliament initiate whatever action is necessary to that end, or perish in the attempt." - R.B. Bennett, June 9, 1930.

Canadian voters agreed with Bennett and the Conservatives were elected with a majority of 137 seats in the House Of Commons. The incumbent Liberals under William Lyon Mackenzie King became the official opposition after being reduced to 88, with the Progressives taking the remaining 2.

"R. B. Bennett leads the Tories to a smashing federal victory, defeating Mackenzie King's Liberals as voters vent their anger over the depression." - Newspaper headline from July 28, 1930

Unfortunately for Bennett and the Conservatives, the Depression brought complex problems to politicians and extreme hardship for most Canadians. Bennett and the Conservatives lost the 1935 election to the Liberals under the previous Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

National results

Party	Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
			Before	After	% Change	#	%	Change
Conservative	R.B. Bennett	229	91	134	+69.6%	1,863,115	47.79%	+3.07%
Liberal	Mackenzie King	226	116	90	-21.1%	1,716,798	44.03%	+1.29%
United Farmers of Alberta		10	11	9	-18.2%	56,968	1.46%	-0.55%
Progressive		15	11	3	-72.7%	70,822	1.82%	-2.41%
Liberal-Progressive		8	8	3	-62.5%	44,822	1.15%	-0.94%
Labour	J.S. Woodsworth	8	4	2	-50.0%	26,548	0.68%	-0.95%
Independent		11	2	2	-	21,608	0.55%	-0.30%
Progressive-Conservative		2	-	1		15,996	0.41%	+0.18%
Independent Labour		2	n.a.	1	n.a.	15,988	0.41%	n.a.
Independent Liberal		8	1	-	-100%	14,426	0.37%	-0.25%
Farmer		5	n.a.	-	n.a.	11,999	0.31%	n.a.
Independent Conservative		6	-	-		10,360	0.27%	-0.07%
Unknown		2	-	-		7,441	0.19%	+0.08%
Liberal-Labour		1	-	-		7,195	0.18%	+0.05%
Communist	Tim Buck	6	n.a.	-	n.a.	4,557	0.12%	n.a.
Labour-Farmer		2	-	-		3,276	0.08%	+0.04%
Liberal-Protectionist		1	n.a.	-	n.a.	2,723	0.07%	n.a.
Farmer-Labour		1	n.a.	-	n.a.	2,091	0.05%	n.a.
Independent Progressive		1	n.a.	-	n.a.	1,294	0.03%	n.a.
Franc Lib		1	n.a.	-	n.a.	429	0.01%	n.a.
Prohibitionist		1	n.a.	-	n.a.	266	0.01%	n.a.
Total		546	245	245	-	3,898,722	100.00%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

"Previous" refers to the results from the previous election, and not to the standings in the House of Commons at dissolution.

n.a. - not applicable - party was not recognized at last election.

Results by province

Party Name		BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	YK	Total
Conservative	Seats:	7	4	6	10	59	24	10	10	3	1	134
	Popular Vote (%):	49.3%	35.0%	33.6%	44.1%	53.9%	43.7%	59.3%	52.5%	50.0%	60.3%	47.8%
Liberal	Seats:	5	3	13	1	22	40	1	4	1	-	90
	Vote:	40.9%	30.0%	48.4%	19.6%	42.4%	53.2%	40.7%	47.5%	50.0%	39.7%	44.0%
UF Alberta	Seats:		9									9
	Vote:		28.4%									1.5%
Progressive	Seats:		-	2	-	1						3
	Vote:		1.9%	8.1%	6.4%	1.8%						1.8%
Liberal-Progressive	Seats:			-	3							3
	Vote:			2.1%	16.2%							1.2%
Labour	Seats:		-		2	-
	Vote:		3.0		8.4	0.1						0.7
Independent	Seats:	1		-		-	1					2
	Vote:	2.6		3.5		0.1	0.3					0.6
Progressive-Conservative	Seats:				1		-					1
	Vote:				2.7		1.0					0.4
Independent Labour	Seats:	1			-							1
	Vote:	6.5			0.1							0.4
Total Seats		14	16	21	17	82	65	11	14	4	1	245
Parties that won no seats:
Independent Liberal	Vote:				0.4		1.3					0.4
Farmer	Vote:			3.6								0.3
Independent Conservative	Vote:				1.2	0.5	0.1
Unknown	Vote:					0.5						0.2
Liberal-Labour	Vote:					0.5						0.2
Communist	Vote:	0.4			0.9	0.1						0.1
Labour-Farmer	Vote :		0.6									0.1
Liberal-Protectionist	Vote:						0.3					0.1
Farmer-Labour	Vote:			0.6								0.1
Independent Progressive	Vote:						0.1					xx
Franc Lib	Vote:	0.2										xx
Prohibitionist	Vote:	0.1										xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote