by Maurice Y. Michaud (he/him)
In 2023, there are far fewer by-elections than there were a century ago. Seats just don't seem to become vacant as frequently as they used to. A few factors might explain why.
All jurisdictions combined, there have been 3,164 by-elections since 1866. However, what the table below strikingly illustrates is that their frequency dropped significantly after 1925. In fact, 1,817 (or 57.43%) of all by-elections were held in the first 34 years of the Confederation era (1866 to 1924).
However, starting in 1950, the frequency of by-elections stabilized to more or less what is it today.
By-Elections, 1866–2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
F: Federal P/T: Provincial/Territorial | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | AB | BC | MB | NB | NL | NS | NT | NU | NW | ON | PE | QC | SK | YT | Total | |||||||||||||||
F | P | F | P | F | P | F | P | F | P | F | P | F | T | F | T | F | T | F | P | F | P | F | P | F | P | F | T | F | P | |
1866—1874 | – | – | 6 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 47 | – | – | 15 | 17 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 36 | 42 | 7 | 10 | 28 | 31 | – | – | – | – | 108 | 161 |
1875—1899 | – | – | 10 | 56 | 11 | 59 | 23 | 69 | – | – | 39 | 37 | – | – | – | – | 3 | 13 | 123 | 120 | 9 | 42 | 107 | 109 | – | – | – | – | 325 | 505 |
1900—1924 | 3 | 43 | 10 | 53 | 8 | 41 | 15 | 57 | – | – | 15 | 42 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 8 | 68 | 96 | 4 | 37 | 78 | 100 | 6 | 32 | 1 | – | 209 | 509 |
1925—1949 | 6 | 19 | 8 | 37 | 8 | 19 | 9 | 21 | – | – | 7 | 20 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 45 | 40 | 2 | 27 | 43 | 40 | 13 | 37 | – | – | 141 | 260 |
1950—1974 | 3 | 19 | 4 | 21 | 6 | 25 | 6 | 20 | 3 | 10 | 4 | 15 | – | 6 | – | – | – | – | 25 | 35 | 2 | 12 | 29 | 39 | 2 | 16 | 1 | – | 85 | 218 |
1975—1999 | 2 | 13 | 3 | 17 | 2 | 17 | 3 | 17 | 6 | 26 | 2 | 21 | – | 7 | – | – | – | – | 22 | 27 | 2 | 16 | 23 | 51 | 2 | 20 | 1 | 10 | 68 | 242 |
2000—2023 | 9 | 17 | 7 | 13 | 5 | 18 | – | 14 | 6 | 33 | 2 | 22 | – | 4 | – | 14 | – | – | 20 | 40 | – | 7 | 17 | 57 | 2 | 23 | – | 3 | 68 | 265 |
Total | 23 | 111 | 48 | 209 | 48 | 181 | 64 | 245 | 15 | 69 | 84 | 174 | – | 17 | – | 14 | 4 | 21 | 339 | 400 | 26 | 151 | 325 | 427 | 25 | 128 | 3 | 13 | 1,004 | 2,160 |
Greyed out cells indicate the absence of the jurisdiction. | 3,164 |