1874 Canadian federal election

The 1874 Canadian federal election was held on January 22, 1874, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 3rd Parliament of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald, who had recently been forced out of office as prime minister, and his Conservatives were defeated by the Liberal Party under their new leader Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie. Macdonald's government had been forced to resign on November 5, 1873, because of allegations of corruption relating to the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (see the Pacific Scandal). The Tories were unable to recover from the scandal and lost the next election.

1874 Canadian federal election

← 1872 January 22, 1874 1878 →
← outgoing members elected members →
206 seats in the House of Commons 104 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	69.6%[1] ( 0.7 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Alexander Mackenzie John A. Macdonald Party Liberal Conservative Leader since March 6, 1873 July 1, 1867 Leader's seat Lambton Kingston Last election 95 seats, 34.7% 100 seats, 38.7% Seats won 129 65 Seat change 35 35 Popular vote 128,455 97,925 Percentage 39.5% 30.1% Swing 4.8 pp 8.6 pp
1874 Canadian electoral map
The Canadian parliament after the 1874 election
Prime Minister before election Alexander Mackenzie Liberal Prime Minister after election Alexander Mackenzie Liberal

The Liberals under Mackenzie had formed a government on November 7 and then called an election for January.

The election was the first general election after Prince Edward Island's entry into Confederation.

Mackenzie was a reformer, and the 1874 election was the first Canadian election to use secret ballots. He promised to reform election laws in other ways too, including the introduction of simultaneous voting (all seats filled at once instead of successively in a long-drawn-out election period), judicial consideration of contested elections, and extension of the franchise. He also made most important pledges concerning railway projects.^[2]

Louis Riel, former leader of the Red River rebellion, was elected as an Independent in Manitoba in 1874 but never took his seat.

National results

3rd Parliament
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1872	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Alexander Mackenzie	140	95	129	+35.8%	128,455	39.49%	+4.77pp
	Conservative	John A. Macdonald	65	63	39	-38.1%	57,691	17.74%	-8.02pp
	Liberal-Conservative1		38	36	26	-27.8%	40,234	12.37%	-0.53pp
	Conservative Labour		1	1	-	-100%	1,515	0.47%	+0.02pp
	Independents		7	1	4	+300%	10,453	3.21%	+1.58pp
	Independent Liberal		5	2	5	+300%	6,541	2.01%	+0.37pp
	Independent Conservative		3	2	3	+50%	2,360	0.73%	+0.03pp
	Unknown		104	-	-	-	78,008	23.98%	+1.78pp
Total			355	200	206	+3.0%	325,247	100%
Source: Parliamentary website Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, Detailed riding results Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine

Notes:

¹ Liberal-Conservatives sat with the Conservative caucus in the House of Commons.

Acclamations

The following Members of Parliament were elected by acclamation;

• Ontario: 1 Liberal-Conservative, 13 Liberals
• Quebec: 10 Conservatives, 4 Liberal-Conservatives, 15 Liberals
• New Brunswick: 1 Conservative, 3 Liberals, 1 Independent Liberal
• Nova Scotia: 5 Liberals
• Prince Edward Island: 2 Liberals

Results by province

Party name			BC	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PEI	Total
	Liberal	Seats	3	1	61	34	10	15	5	129
		Popular vote	34.1	47.0	39.6	34.8	47.1	38.1	56.8	39.5
	Conservative	Seats	1	1	15	17	2	2	1	39
		Vote	4.5	13.8	19.5	17.6	6.8	17.8	17.5	17.7
	Liberal-Conservative	Seats	1		10	12	1	2	-	26
		Vote	16.9		10.4	14.9	8.6	19.2	15.4	12.4
	Conservative Labour	Seats			-					-
		Vote			0.9					0.5
	Unknown	Seats
		Vote	29.2	13.8	27.2	27.5	19.9	9.0	10.3	24.0
	Independent	Seats		1	-	-	2	1		4
		Vote		9.5	0.8	2.3	17.6	7.7		3.2
	Independent Liberal	Seats	1		2		1	1		5
		Vote	15.4		1.7			8.2		2.0
	Independent Conservative	Seats		1		2				3
		Vote		15.9		2.9				0.7
Total seats			6	4	88	65	16	21	6	206

See also

• Canada portal
• Politics portal

For a list of candidates elected in the 1874 election, see 3rd Canadian Parliament.

• List of Canadian federal general elections