Canada's electoral history from 1867 to today
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
|
|
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:
- Consider REC the party causing the vote splitting and LC the one affected by it.
- Set aside the 141 ridings where the person elected:
- had a clear majority (50%+1) and represented neither REC nor LC
- or represented LC and thus wasn't affected by vote splitting,
which leaves us with 104 ridings.
- Transfer the votes received by REC to LC if the latter did not already win the riding.
- Recalculate the results in each of those 104 ridings to find the ones where the winning party would have been different.
Thus we could conclude that there would have been 42 differences.
Seats won due to vote splitting
LIB 41 |
Seats won by the spoiler party REC 1 |
Riding |
Alternative |
LIB |
LC |
SC |
CCF |
PROG |
ILIB |
ICON |
REC |
IND |
Election →
| 173 |
39 |
17 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Details
BC |
Transfer |
REC |
→ |
LC |
|
40 |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
|
BC |
LC REC +464 (52.81%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
172 |
41 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MB |
LC REC +247 (51.21%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
171 |
42 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MB |
LC REC +454 (27.79%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
170 |
43 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MB |
LC REC +760 (38.82%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
169 |
44 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NB |
LC REC +612 (49.90%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
168 |
45 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NB |
LC REC +696 (52.22%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
167 |
46 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NB |
LC REC +1,252 (53.16%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
166 |
47 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NS |
LC REC +987 (53.55%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
165 |
48 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NS |
LC REC +1,954 (43.94%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
164 |
49 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NS |
LC REC +1,717 (54.10%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
163 |
50 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NS |
LC REC +2,154 (56.30%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
162 |
51 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NS |
LC REC +2,299 (56.00%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
161 |
52 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +570 (50.39%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
160 |
53 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +330 (46.15%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
159 |
54 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +1,291 (54.31%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
158 |
55 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +58 (48.41%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
157 |
56 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +6 (50.02%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
156 |
57 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +33 (39.43%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
155 |
58 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +1,114 (47.83%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
154 |
59 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +472 (47.90%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
153 |
60 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +845 (53.20%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
152 |
61 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +469 (51.15%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
151 |
62 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +1,500 (55.84%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
150 |
63 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +989 (53.53%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
149 |
64 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +1,669 (55.51%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
148 |
65 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +278 (46.76%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
147 |
66 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +358 (49.26%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
146 |
67 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +990 (50.88%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
145 |
68 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +170 (48.50%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
144 |
69 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +1,386 (49.72%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
143 |
70 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +31 (50.13%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
142 |
71 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +2,401 (48.36%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
141 |
72 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +498 (51.47%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
140 |
73 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON |
LC REC +4,259 (48.46%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
139 |
74 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
QC |
LC REC +1,359 (54.26%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
138 |
75 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
QC |
LC REC +499 (49.89%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
137 |
76 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
QC |
LC REC +2,877 (53.25%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
136 |
77 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
QC |
LC REC +4,323 (65.12%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
135 |
78 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
QC |
LC REC +1,220 (37.93%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
134 |
79 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
QC |
LC REC +311 (51.33%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
133 |
80 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
QC |
LC REC +683 (33.44%) |
LIB |
→ |
LC |
132 |
81 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Redistribution → |
132 |
81 |
17 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
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.
© 2019, 2024 :: PoliCan.ca (
Maurice Y. Michaud)
Pub.: 21 May 2023 10:03
Rev.: 4 Nov 2023 09:38 (but data presented dynamically)