1925 Canadian federal election

The 1925 Canadian federal election was held on October 29, 1925, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 15th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative party took the most seats in the House of Commons, although not a majority. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party was invited to form a minority government. Unlike the Conservative party, King's Liberals had the conditional support of the many Farmer/Progressive MPs. As a result, this is the only election in which the party that won the most seats did not get to form a government afterward.

The government fell the following year. Governor General Baron Byng of Vimy offered the Conservatives under Meighen a chance to form government. This too fell in short order. Byng's action in refusing King's request became the main issue of the 1926 election under the name "King–Byng Affair".

Background The previous federal election in 1921 had seen Mackenzie King's Liberals fall narrowly short of winning a parliamentary majority, with Arthur Meighen's Conservatives falling to being the third-largest party, and the new Progressive Party, which had nominated candidates for the first time that year, held the balance of power. King was able to rule with the tacit support of the Progressives, and was not facing a statutory federal election until December 1926; however, a budget proposed in September 1925 by finance minister William Stevens Fielding was unexpectedly voted down in parliament, obligating Mackenzie King to resign as Prime Minister and recommend to the Governor General, Baron Byng of Vimy to hold a new election (theoretically King could have recommended that Byng allow either Meighen or Progressive leader Robert Forke to form a government, but the Conservatives were far short of the number of MPs required to form a stable government, and Forke had no interest in being Prime Minister).

Aftermath and the King–Byng Affair The Liberals won fewer seats than the Conservatives, who were left eight seats short of a majority. The Progressives lost almost two thirds of their seats from the previous election, but they still held enough seats to control the balance of power. King decided to hold on to power with the help of the Progressives. The Progressives were closely aligned with the Liberals and enabled King to form a minority government.

That plan was complicated by the fact that his party won fewer seats than the Conservatives and that King himself had lost his seat in the House of Commons. Meighen was outraged by King's move and demanded for King to resign from the Prime Minister's office. Byng privately agreed that the Conservatives should be allowed to form the next government and felt that the Liberal-Progressive pact was a corrupt bargain, but he found that there were no valid legal grounds for refusing to allow King to continue in office. King asked a Liberal Member of Parliament from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, to resign so that he could run in the resulting by-election. Prince Albert was one of the safest seats in Canada for the Liberals, and King won easily.

With King back in Parliament, a huge scandal rocked the King cabinet when one of his appointees was discovered to be accepting bribes from a male lover. Anticipating a vote of censure by the Commons, King asked Byng to call an election. The Governor General refused, and King resigned on June 28, 1926. Meighen was then invited to form a government.

King claimed that was interference in Canadian politics by an official appointed by a foreign power. King showed rare fire and rallied the Progressives back into his camp. He defeated Meighen on a vote of confidence after only three days, which made the Meighen government of 1926 the shortest-lasting government in Canadian history. This time, Byng called an election.

National results

PartyParty leader# of candidatesSeatsPopular vote1921Elected% Change#%pp Change Conservative Arthur Meighen 23249 115+132.7% 1,454,253 46.13%+16.18 Liberal W. L. Mackenzie King 217118 100-15.3% 1,259,279 39.94%-1.21 Robert Forke 6858 22-62.1% 266,319 8.45%-12.65 J.S. Woodsworth 203 2-33.3% 56,987 1.81%-0.93Independent 82 2- 16,212 0.51%-2.52 2 2 2- 8,053 0.26%-0.46Independent Liberal 10- 1 31,140 0.99%+0.90Independent Conservative 61 1- 16,759 0.53%+0.14 Unknown 4- -- 13, 998 0.65%+0.16 2* - * 6,915 0.22%* Independent Liberal-Progressive 1* -* 4,958 0.16%* 2* - * 4,774 0.15%* 1* -* 3,319 0.11%* 1* -* 2,901 0.09%* 1- -- 1,888 0.06%-0.04Independent Progressive 1 1 --100% 1,768 0.06%-0.05 1* -* 1,130 0.04%* Progressive-Conservative 1* -* 1,120 0.04%* 1* - * 762 0.02%*Total579235245+3.8%3,152,525 100% Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

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

Vote and seat summaries

Results by province

Party nameBCABSKMBONQCNBNSPEYKTotalConservative Seats: 10 3 - 7 67 4 10 11 2 1115 Popular Vote (%): 49.3 31.8 25.4 41.3 56.3 34.2 59.7 56.4 33.1 59.4 46.1Liberal Seats: 3 4 15 1 12 59 1 3 2 - 100 Vote (%): 34.7 27.6 41.9 20.3 30.9 59.6 37.0 41.9 52.0 40.6 39.7Progressive Seats: - 7 6 7 2 22 Vote (%): 6.1 26.5 31.8 25.1 8.8 8.5Labour Seats: - - 2 - - - 2 Vote:6.3 6.1 9.6 1.2 0.2 1.6 1.8 Independent Seats:1 - 1 - 2 Vote (%): 2.6 0.6 1.4 0.8 0.5 United Farmers of Alberta Seats: 2 2 Vote (%): 5.0 0.3Independent Liberal Seats: 1 1 Vote (%): 3.8 1.0 Independent Conservative Seats: 1 1 Vote (%): 1.4 0.5 Total seats14 16 21 17 8265 11 14 4 1 245Parties that won no seats: Unknown Vote (%): 0.1 0.9 0.2 15.0 0.7 Vote (%): 0.9 0.2 Independent Liberal-Progressive Vote (%): 3.3 0.2 Vote (%): 3.0 0.2 Vote (%): 1.9 0.1 Vote (%): 1.7 0.1Socialist Vote (%): 1.0 0.1 Independent Progressive Vote (%): 0.9 0.1 Vote (%): 0.1 xx Progressive-Conservative Vote (%): 0.1 xx Vote (%): 0.1 xx

1925 Canadian federal election

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