Elections to Remember | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Elections to Remember

We love them and we hate them.

They bring out the best in us, and the worst.

They frequently divide us, and sometimes — as with John Diefenbaker's thunderous victory in 1958 — federal elections succeed in uniting the country behind a single impulse, or a single voice.

One thing's for sure: amid all the change that has swept across Canada since Confederation, there has remained one steadfast certainty — that every few years, we ordinary citizens have the right to collectively choose who should govern us. Today, this privilege is not shared by billions of the world's people. How lucky that our democracy endures.

When Canadians return to the polls, not only will we be carrying out the business of voting, we'll be writing a new chapter in Canada's rich electoral history. It's an intriguing story, filled with high stakes, hijinks and high passions, not to mention a colourful cast of political characters.

Here are some famous elections from the past, and how they changed Canada . . .

1891

"I am a good deal discouraged as to our future," wrote Sir John A. Macdonald. "Not that the country has gone or is going against us, but because our ministry is too old and too long in office."

By 1890, Macdonald’s Conservatives had been in power for 18 of Canada’s 23 years in existence, and the Prime Minister, dubbed the “old chieftain,” was 75 years old. But it was less the weariness of age and more the rumblings of scandal — what had also thrown the Tories from government in 1873 — that pushed Macdonald to dissolve Parliament and call an early election in 1891.

In his first campaign as Liberal leader, Wilfrid Laurier found his wedge in Macdonald's longstanding National Policy — which levied tariffs on imported goods to protect Canadian manufacturers from American competitors — and ran on a policy of unrestricted reciprocity (free trade) with the US.

An inveterate politician, Macdonald turned the Liberals' plank into a question of national survival, arguing that free trade with the Americans was the definition of treason, a sure way to sell out the country. He rode that stance along a gruelling campaign trail, rallying voters behind "The Old Flag, The Old Policy, The Old Leader" and won a majority of seats in the House.

Though it would not be the last time an election hinged on free trade, it would, however, be Macdonald’s last political outing. He died that June — bringing one era to a close and ushering in a new one.

Reciprocity or the National Policy?

Macdonald convinced voters in 1891 that Wilfrid Laurier's offer of reciprocity with the Americans would undermine Canadian sovereignty. He attacked Laurier and the Liberals as economic sellouts and branded himself as the defender of Canada. It worked.

1896

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

The election of 1896 divided the country — this time, along linguistic lines. It also ended 18 straight years of Tory rule and brought Wilfrid Laurier to power.

In the four years following Sir John A. Macdonald’s death, the ruling Conservatives had gone through three leaders before settling on Sir Charles Tupper. Inheriting a crumbling party and the divisive Manitoba schools question, which centred on linguistic and religious minority education rights, Tupper took on a very tall task.

Surefooted and charismatic, Laurier had reformed the Liberal party during the Tories’ years of decline. In the 1896 campaign, he enjoyed a luxury held by all opposition leaders: there was no need to enunciate his position on the Manitoba schools issue; he could simply attack the weaknesses in the government's policy.

The Liberals won a majority government on election day, Laurier's home province making the difference; in Québec, the result was 49–16 in seats for the Liberals.

Laurier would go on to head the government for the next 15 years, the longest uninterrupted term for a Canadian prime minister. Tupper also holds a record: at 68 days, the shortest term of any prime minister in our history.

1917

Election of 1917

The election of 1917 was the ugliest in Canadian history. It was fought and won over the issue of conscription.

Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden believed conscription was the only way for Canada to continue its commitment to the First World War. Knowing the matter would split the country and cost him support in Québec, Borden forged the Union Government. A coalition of like-minded Conservatives, Liberals and independents, the Unionists pushed through partisan legislation that gave soldiers and their female relatives the right to vote — extending the Union support base — while removing the vote from immigrants who had come to Canada since 1902 from enemy nations, and from conscientious objectors.

The election campaign was nasty. Unionists attacked the Liberals' patriotism, while pro-conscription newspapers thundered, "Every vote cast for a Laurier candidate is a vote cast for the [German] Kaiser." Meanwhile in Québec, the Union Government struggled to find candidates; and those brave enough to run under the conscription banner were threatened and attacked.

Borden's Unionists swept the English-speaking regions, returning to Parliament with a majority of 153 seats, including only three from Québec. A lasting consequence of the election was the political isolation felt by Québec, a fact that would hurt Conservative fortunes there, and haunt Canadian unity, for generations.