1908 Canadian federal election

1908 Canadian federal election
← 1904 October 26, 1908 1911 →
221 seats in the House of Commons
111 seats needed for a majority
Turnout70.3%[1] (Decrease1.3pp)
  First party Second party
 
Leader Wilfrid Laurier Robert Borden
Party Liberal Conservative
Leader since 1887 1901
Leader's seat Quebec East[a] Halifax[b]
Last election 137 seats, 50.9% 75 seats, 45.9%
Seats won 133 85
Seat change Decrease4 Increase10
Popular vote 570,311 539,374
Percentage 48.9% 46.2%
Swing Decrease2.0% Increase0.3%
The Canadian parliament after the 1908 election
Prime Minister before election

Wilfrid Laurier
Liberal

Prime Minister after election

Wilfrid Laurier
Liberal

The 1908 Canadian federal election was held on Monday October 26, 1908 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 11th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Liberal Party of Canada was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term in government with a majority government. The Liberals lost four seats and a small share of the popular vote.

Sir Robert Borden's Conservatives and Liberal-Conservatives won ten additional seats.

This was the first election in which Alberta and Saskatchewan voted as provinces. Following their creation in 1905, the two new provinces continued to be represented by MP's initially elected under the old Northwest Territories riding boundaries, some of which straddled the new provincial border. The remainder of the Northwest Territories that previously had Parliamentary representation lost it, although parts of the NWT would gain or re-gain representation after being added to Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec in 1912. A seat would not be created for the NWT itself again (which then contained the modern NWT and Nunavut) until 1949.

This is the most recent election in which a prime minister was able to lead their party to a fourth consecutive mandate.

National results

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Party Party leader # of
candidates 		Seats Popular vote
1904 Elected Change # % Change
  Liberal Wilfrid Laurier 213 137 133 -2.9% 570,311 48.87% -2.01pp
  Conservative Robert Borden 207 70 82 +17.1% 524,641 44.95% +0.55pp
  Liberal-Conservative 4 5 3 -40.0% 14,733 1.26% -0.27pp
  Independent 15 1 1 - 16,903 1.45% +0.45pp
Labour   3 - 1   10,400 0.89% +0.68pp
  Unknown 7 - - - 13,478 1.15% +0.02pp
Socialist   5 - - - 6,071 0.52% +0.35pp
  Independent Conservative 2 1 1 -100% 5,314 0.46% -0.04pp
  Independent Liberal 5 - - - 5,191 0.44% +0.41pp
Total 461 214 221 +2.8% 1,167,042 100%  
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867 Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine

Results by province

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Party BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE YK Total
  Liberal Seats: 2 4 9 2 37 52 11 12 3 1 133
  Popular vote (%): 35.9 50.2 56.6 45.4 45.0 53.0 56.2 51.0 50.4 40.2 48.9
  Conservative Seats: 5 2 1 8 46 12 2 5 1 - 82
  Vote (%): 46.8 38.1 36.8 51.5 49.2 39.5 43.8 44.5 49.6 10.8 45.0
  Liberal-Conservative Seats:   1     1     1     3
  Vote (%):   6.4     1.5     4.5     1.3
  Independent Seats: - - - - 1 -         1
  Vote (%): 8.9 3.7 0.6 0.1 1.8 1.1         1.5
  Labour Seats:         - 1         1
  Vote (%):         0.7 2.6         0.9
  Independent Conservative Seats:     -   1         1
  Vote (%):     5.9   0.4           0.5
Total seats 7 7 10 10 86 65 13 18 4 1 221
Parties that won no seats:
  Unknown Vote (%): 1.3       1.4 1.9       49.0 1.2
Socialist Vote (%): 7.1 1.6   2.9 0.2           0.5
  Independent Liberal Vote (%):     0.1     1.8         0.4

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Laurier was also elected in Ottawa (City of); he chose to sit for Quebec East instead, and resigned as the Member of Parliament for Ottawa (City of).
  2. ^ Borden was also elected in Carleton, which he represented during the previous Parliament; he chose to sit for Halifax instead, and resigned as the Member of Parliament for Carleton.

References

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  1. ^ "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Retrieved March 10, 2019.

Further reading

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