The Canadian federal election of 1926 was held on September 14 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 of the 16th Parliament

16th Canadian Parliament

The 16th Canadian Parliament was in session from December 9, 1926 until May 30, 1930. The membership was set by the 1926 federal election on September 14, 1926, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1930 election.It was controlled by a...

 of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The election was called following an event known as the King-Byng Affair

King-Byng Affair

The King–Byng Affair was a Canadian constitutional crisis that occurred in 1926, when the Governor General of Canada, the Lord Byng of Vimy, refused a request by his prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, to dissolve parliament and call a general election....

. In the 1925 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1925

The Canadian federal election of 1925 was held on October 29 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 15th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party formed a minority government. This precipitated the "King-Byng Affair".The Liberals under...

, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...

's Liberal Party of Canada

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 won fewer seats in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 than the Conservative Party

Conservative Party of Canada (historical)

The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...

 of Arthur Meighen

Arthur Meighen

Arthur Meighen, PC, QC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served two terms as the ninth Prime Minister of Canada: from July 10, 1920 to December 29, 1921; and from June 29 to September 25, 1926. He was the first Prime Minister born after Confederation, and the only one to represent a riding...

. Mackenzie King, however, was determined to continue to govern with the support of the Progressive Party

Progressive Party of Canada

The Progressive Party of Canada was a political party in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces and, in Manitoba, ran candidates and formed governments as the Progressive Party of Manitoba...

. The combined Liberal and Progressive caucuses gave Mackenzie King a majority in the House of Commons.

The coalition collapsed, however, following a scandal, and Mackenzie King approached the Governor-General

Governor-General

A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...

, Baron Byng of Vimy, to seek dissolution of the Parliament. Byng refused on the basis that the Conservatives had won the largest number of seats in the prior election, and called upon Meighen to form a government.

Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

 Meighen's government was soon defeated in a vote of non-confidence, and Byng agreed to dissolve Parliament and call new elections. Mackenzie King effectively campaigned against Byng in the election instead of against Meighen, and won the largest number of seats in the House of Commons despite receiving a smaller proportion of the popular vote than the Tories. The Liberals did not run candidates in all ridings, having an informal electoral pact with the Progressives and Liberal-Progressives. Note in particular the election results in Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, where Meighen's party captured almost 40 percent of the vote, twice the vote share of any other party, but no seats. Thus, Mackenzie King's Liberals were able to govern with the support of Liberal-Progressive

Liberal-Progressive

Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1926 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics, there was no formal Liberal-Progressive party, but it was an alliance between two separate parties...

 Members of Parliament.

Byng returned to Britain at the end of the year and was raised to the rank of Viscount

Viscount

A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...

 as an expression of confidence in him.

After his party's defeat and the loss of his own seat, Meighen resigned as Conservative leader.

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1925 Canadian federal election, 1925 The Canadian federal election of 1925 was held on October 29 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 15th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party formed a minority government. This precipitated the "King-Byng Affair".The Liberals under...	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change	Liberal Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...	Mackenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...	203	100	116	+16.0%	1,397,031	42.90%	+3.06%	Conservative Conservative Party of Canada (historical) The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...	Arthur Meighen Arthur Meighen Arthur Meighen, PC, QC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served two terms as the ninth Prime Minister of Canada: from July 10, 1920 to December 29, 1921; and from June 29 to September 25, 1926. He was the first Prime Minister born after Confederation, and the only one to represent a riding...	232	115	91	-20.2%	1,476,834	45.35%	-0.78%	Progressive Progressive Party of Canada The Progressive Party of Canada was a political party in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces and, in Manitoba, ran candidates and formed governments as the Progressive Party of Manitoba...		28	22	11	-50.0%	128,060	3.93%	-4.52%	United Farmers of Alberta United Farmers of Alberta The United Farmers of Alberta is an association of Alberta farmers that has served many different roles throughout its history as a lobby group, a political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. Since 1934 it has primarily been an agricultural supply cooperative headquartered in Calgary...		12	2	11	+450%	60,740	1.87%	+1.61%	Liberal-Progressive Liberal-Progressive Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1926 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics, there was no formal Liberal-Progressive party, but it was an alliance between two separate parties...	Robert Forke Robert Forke Robert Forke, PC was a Canadian politician. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Brandon in 1921. In 1922, he replaced Thomas Crerar as leader of the Progressive Party of Canada...	12	-	8		63,144	1.94%	+1.83%	Labour		18	2	4	+100%	55,661	1.71%	-0.10%	Independent		10	2	2	-	25,821	0.79%	+0.28%	Independent Liberal		5	1	1	-	18,627	0.57%	-0.42%	United Farmers of Ontario United Farmers of Ontario The United Farmers of Ontario was a political party in Ontario, Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers movement of the early part of the 20th century.- Foundation and rise :...		1	*	1	*	6,909	0.21%	*	Independent Conservative		3	1	-	-100%	10,164	0.31%	-0.23%	Progressive-Conservative Progressive-Conservative (candidate) The label Progressive-Conservative was used by some candidates for the Canadian House of Commons in the 1925, 1926, 1930 and 1935 federal elections...		2	-	-	-	7,088	0.22%	+0.18%	Liberal-Labour Liberal-Labour (Canada) The Liberal-Labour banner has also been used several times by candidates in Canadian elections:In the early twentieth century when the idea of trade unionists running for elected office under their own banner gained ground, several working class candidates on the provincial or federal level were...		1	*	-	*	4,187	0.13%	*	Labour-Farmer		1	-	-	-	1,441	0.04%	-0.11%	Socialist Socialist Party of Canada There have been two different but related political parties in Canada that called themselves the Socialist Party of Canada . The current Socialist Party is an electorally inactive and unregistered federal political party in Canada...		1	-	-	-	672	0.02%	-0.04%	Protectionist		1	*	-	*	129	x	*
Total			530	245	245	-	3,256,508	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

* not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Results by province

The results in the province of Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

 are used by supporters of electoral reform as a reason to abolish the "First Past the Post" electoral system. Note that with 40% of the vote, the Conservatives did not win a single seat in the province. The explanation for this bizarre occurrence is that only three ridings in Manitoba were three-way races - Springfield, St. Boniface, and Winnipeg North - and one acclamation - Provencher. The other 13 ridings were two-way races between the Conservatives and either the Liberals, Progressives, Liberal-Progressives, or Labour Party. Thus, the main reason for the disproportionality is that parties other than the Conservatives simply chose not to field candidates in ridings where a non-conservative candidate was already running - thus uniting the vote against the Conservatives in those thirteen Manitoba ridings.

Party name			BC British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...	AB Alberta Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...	SK Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....	MB Manitoba Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...	ON Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....	QC Quebec Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....	NB New Brunswick New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...	NS Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...	PE Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...	YK Yukon Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....	Total	Liberal Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...	Seats:	1	3	16	4	24	59	4	2	3	-	116	Popular Vote (%):	37.0	24.5	51.3	18.4	35.3	61.3	46.1	43.5	52.7	44.1	42.8	Conservative Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...	Seats:	12	1	-	-	53	4	7	12	1	1	91	Vote:	54.2	31.5	27.5	39.7	54.9	34.0	53.9	53.7	47.3	55.9	45.4	Progressive Progressive Party of Canada The Progressive Party of Canada was a political party in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces and, in Manitoba, ran candidates and formed governments as the Progressive Party of Manitoba...	Seats:			4	4	3						11	Vote:			17.9	11.2	5.1						3.9	United Farmers of Alberta United Farmers of Alberta The United Farmers of Alberta is an association of Alberta farmers that has served many different roles throughout its history as a lobby group, a political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. Since 1934 it has primarily been an agricultural supply cooperative headquartered in Calgary...	Seats:		11									11	Vote:		38.7									1.9	Liberal-Progressive Liberal-Progressive Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1926 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics, there was no formal Liberal-Progressive party, but it was an alliance between two separate parties...	Seats:			1	7	-						8	Vote:			3.2	19.5	1.4						1.9	Labour	Seats:	-	1		2	1			-			4	Vote:	6.4	4.3		8.7	1.1			2.8			1.7	Independent	Seats:	1	-			-	1					2	Vote:	2.3	0.1			0.5	1.9					0.8	Independent Liberal	Seats:						1					1	Vote:						2.3					0.6	United Farmers of Ontario United Farmers of Ontario The United Farmers of Ontario was a political party in Ontario, Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers movement of the early part of the 20th century.- Foundation and rise :...	Seats:					1						1	Vote:					0.6						0.2
Total seats			14	16	21	17	82	65	11	14	4	1	245
Parties that won no seats:														Independent Conservative	Vote:					0.8	0.1					0.3	Progressive-Conservative Progressive-Conservative (candidate) The label Progressive-Conservative was used by some candidates for the Canadian House of Commons in the 1925, 1926, 1930 and 1935 federal elections...	Vote:				2.5		0.3					0.2	Liberal-Labour Liberal-Labour (Canada) The Liberal-Labour banner has also been used several times by candidates in Canadian elections:In the early twentieth century when the idea of trade unionists running for elected office under their own banner gained ground, several working class candidates on the provincial or federal level were...	Vote:					0.3						0.1	Labour-Farmer	Vote:		0.9									xx	Socialist Socialist Party of Canada There have been two different but related political parties in Canada that called themselves the Socialist Party of Canada . The current Socialist Party is an electorally inactive and unregistered federal political party in Canada...	Vote:						0.1					xx	Protectionist	Vote:						xx					xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 16th Canadian Parliament
  16th Canadian Parliament
  The 16th Canadian Parliament was in session from December 9, 1926 until May 30, 1930. The membership was set by the 1926 federal election on September 14, 1926, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1930 election.It was controlled by a...
  
  

External links

• Principles vs Puffiness, by J.L. Granatstein