The Reconstruction Party (1934–1938)

by Maurice Y. Michaud (he/him)

Despite clear evidence that unemployment was rising sharply by the time the 1930 general election was called, the Liberal prime minister at the time, Mackenzie King, seemed to be in denial about it. As a result, when the Conservative party leader, Richard Bennett, campaigned on a platform of undertaking aggressive measures in order to combat it, his message resonated among voters and his party formed a majority government. However, massive government intervention in the economy going against the DNA of the Conservatives, a key minister and long-time Conservative who was in favour of such measures, Henry Stevens, left the party in 1934 and formed his own for the 1935 general election: the Reconstruction Party.

Let's begin by looking at the final results. Of the 388,746 votes shown here as "Other," the vast majority — 384,957 — had gone to the Reconstruction Party, giving it an 8.75% vote share nationwide. But only Stevens won his seat of Kootenay East in British Columbia.

Canada

18 → 1935 :: 14 Oct 1935 — 25 Mar 1940 — Majority  LIB  Summary Government Opposition Unproductive votes Party Votes Seats Party Votes Seats Party Votes # % % # # % % # # % Parliament: 18    Majority Majority=123  Ab.Maj.: +55  G.Maj.: +109 Population [1931]: 10,367,470 Eligible: 5,897,376  Particip.: 74.63% Votes: 4,400,960  Unproductive: 138,554 Seats: 245   1 seat = 0.41% ↳ Elec.Sys.:  FPTP: 241  PAL: 4   ↳ By acclamation: 0 (0.00%) Plurality: Votes  LIB  Seats  LIB  Plurality: ↳ +712,995 (+15.85%) Plurality: ↳ Seats: +138 (+56.32%) Position2: Votes  LC  Seats  LC  Candidacies: 889 (✓ 245)   m: 873 (✓ 243)   f: 16 (✓ 2)  LIB  254   LC  228   SC  46   CCF  116   OTH  228   IND  16   PROG  1   LIB 2,005,791 45.58 72.24 177 LC SC CCF OTH PROG IND 1,292,796 180,679 382,687 388,746 7,210 4,497 29.38 4.11 8.70 8.83 0.16 0.10 15.92 6.94 2.86 1.22 0.41 0.41 39 17 7 3 1 1 OTH IND REJ ABS 122,437 16,117 —— 1,496,416 2.78 0.37 —— ——  LIB  →  LIB  246 (✓ 173)   LLAB  3 (✓ 0)   LIBP  5 (✓ 4)  PROG  →  UFOL  1 (✓ 1)  REC  Ephemeral party of dissident Conservatives led by Henry H. Stevens and dissolved by 1938.  OTH  →  REC  171 (✓ 1)   ILIB  24 (✓ 1)   ICON  4 (✓ 1)   COMM  15   LAB  5  OTH  →  PRCO  2   VERD  1   NUPC  1   IREC  1   TECH  1   SOC  1   ILAB  1   ILAB  1  !!!  44 (17.96%)

However, this summary does not show that 13 Reconstructionists finished in second place, and 96 in third. Therefore, it behooves us to find out how many seats, if any, Stevens' party robbed from the Conservatives by allowing a Liberal to be the first past the post. Would the Liberals still have had a majority, which, at the time, was 123 seats?

To find the answer, let's:

Thus we could conclude that there would have been 42 differences.

So yes, the Liberals would still have had a majority, but it would have been of +10 instead of +55. For their part, the Reconstructionists returned to the Conservative fold in 1938.