CANADIAN FEDERAL ELECTION, 1911

The 'Canadian federal election of 1911' was held on September 21 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 12th Parliament of Canada. It brought an end to fifteen years of government by the Liberal Party of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. The election was fought over the issues of free trade with the United States, and the creation of a Canadian navy. The Conservatives formed a majority government under Robert Borden.
The Laurier Liberals, after many years in office, had run into important problems in their last term. The most important of these was the debate over the Canadian Navy. Laurier failed in his usually masterful balancing between French and English Canada and ended up annoying both groups.
The Quebec nationalist Henri Bourassa had quit the Liberal Party in disgust with what he considered the government's pro-British policies. Many English-Canadians in Ontario, and the Maritimes felt that Laurier was abandoning Canada's traditional links to the United Kingdom.
The base of Liberal support shifted to Western Canada. The West, seeking markets for its agricultural products, had long been a proponent of free trade with the United States. The protected manufacturing businesses of Central Canada were strongly against it. The Liberals, who by ideology and history were strongly in favour of free trade, decided to make the issue the central plank of their re-election strategy, and negotiated a free trade agreement in natural products with the United States.
The campaign went badly for the Liberals, however. The powerful manufacturing interests of Toronto and Montreal switched their allegiance and financing to the Conservatives. The Tories argued that free trade would undermine Canadian sovereignty and lead to a slow annexation of Canada by the U.S.
The election is often compared to the 1988 federal election, which was also fought over free trade. Ironically, in that later election, the positions of the two parties were reversed: the Liberals fought against the Tories' free trade proposal.
Voter turn-out: 70.2%

Contents

National results

Results by province

References

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1908	'Elected'	Change	#	%	Change	Conservative 1	Robert Borden	208	82	'131 '	+59.8%	625,697	48.03%	+3.08%	Liberal-Conservative	2	3	'1'	-66.7%	6,842	0.53%	-0.74%	Liberal 2	Wilfrid Laurier	214	133	'85 '	-36.1%	596,871	45.82%	-3.05%	Independent Conservative		3	-	' 3'		12,499	0.96%	+0.50%	Labour		3	1	'1'	-	12,101	0.93%	+0.04%	Unknown		10	-	-	-	25,857	1.98%	+0.83%	Independent		12	1	-	-100%	10,346	0.79%	-0.65%	Socialist		6	-	-	-	4,574	0.35%	-0.17%	Nationalist Conservative 3		2	★	-	★	4,399	0.34%	★	Nationalist		1	★	-	★	3,533	0.27%	★
'Total'			461	220	221	+0.5%	1,302,719	100%
'Sources:' http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

'Notes:'

★ Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.
¹ One Conservative candidate was acclaimed in Ontario.
² One Liberal candidate was acclaimed in Ontario, and two Liberals were acclaimed in Québec.
³ Two candidates sought election unsuccessfully as 'Nationalist Conservatives'. In both cases, they were the only opponents of the Liberal candidates, and therefore would appear to have been the Conservative Party candidates.

Results by province

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	YK	Total	Conservative	Seats:	7	1	1	8	71	26	5	9	2	1	131	Popular vote (%):	58.7	38.5	39.0	51.9	53.5	44.1	43.6	44.5	51.1	60.8	48.0	Liberal	Seats:	-	6	9	2	13	36	8	9	2	-	85	Vote (%):	37.7	53.3	59.4	44.8	41.2	44.6	47.7	55.2	48.9	39.2	45.8	Independent Conservative	Seats:					1	2					3	Vote (%):					1.5	1.6					1.0	Labour	Seats:					-	1					1	Vote (%):					0.1	3.6					0.9	Liberal-Conservative	Seats:		-			1						1	Vote (%):		4.1			0.8						0.5
'Total Seats'			'7'	'7'	'10'	'10'	'86'	'65'	'13'	'18'	'4'	'1'	'221'
'Parties that won no seats:'														Unknown	Vote (%):		1.0			2.1	2.6	8.7				2.0	Independent	Vote (%):		3.1	1.6	0.3	0.5	1.2		0.3			0.8	Socialist	Vote (%):	3.7			3.0	0.2	0.1					0.4	Nationalist Conservative	Vote (%):					0.3	1.0					0.3	Nationalist	Vote (%):						1.1					0.3

References

★ Borden, Henry (ed.), ''Robert Laird Borden: His Memoirs'' 1938. 2 vols.

★ Dafoe John W., C''lifford Sifton in Relation to His Times''. Toronto, 1931.

★ Dafoe John W., ''Laurier: a Study in Canadian Politics''. Toronto, 1922.

★ L. Ethan Ellis, ''Reciprocity, 1911: A Study in Canadian-American Relations'' (1939)

★ Harpell James J., ''Canadian National Economy: the Cause of High Prices and Their Effect upon the Country''. Toronto, 1911.

★ Hopkins J. Castell (Comp.), ''The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs''. Toronto, 1901- annual

★ H. Blair Neatby. ''Laurier and a Liberal Quebec: A Study in Political Management'' (1973)

★ Porritt Edward, ''Sixty Years of Protection in Canada, 1846-1907: Where Industry Leans on the Politicians''. London, 1908.