Canadian federal election, 1899

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Canadian federal election, 1899

« on: June 25, 2013, 11:28:09 AM »

The results of the 1895 election proved to be the most surprising, and interesting in Canadian history.

The Liberals, led by Wilfrid Laurier won a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. The governing Tories however were decimated, winning just one seat, thanks only to an acclamation. This seat (Bagot, QC) was won by Flavien Dupont. Due to this fact, Dupont would then become leader of the party. However, Dupont would die in 1898. This meant that the Tories would remain seat less in the House of Commons. When this happened, the Tory caucus in the Senate chose their Senate leader James Alexander Lougheed of the Northwest Territories to be their new leader.

With the Tories winning just one seat, the official opposition turned to the new upstart Patrons of Industry who won every single riding they ran a candidate in, for a total of 31. Most of their seats were in Ontario, but they also won one in Quebec and 3 in Manitoba. The party lacked a leader or any formalized structure going into the election, and at first wished to not become official opposition. However, with the lack of any other parties with more than a handfull of members, the party reluctantly formed the official opposition. David Dickson Rogers of Frontenac, ON would be named the leader of the opposition. As opposition, the party would seek more rights for farmers, and pushed the Liberals into having a prohibition plebiscite in 1897. After the plebiscite was defeated, many of MPs left the party to join the Liberals or sit as independents. One MP, Charles Jonas Thornton joined the Tories and became their only MP.

The next largest party was the McCarthyites, who won 5 seats, all in Ontario. That party also died out, with the party also forming an alliance with the Liberals. This was a bit surprising due to the party being anti-French and anti-Catholic while the Liberals were led by a French Catholic. But, hey it happened in real life too! Their leader, Dalton McCarthy would die in 1898.

As for the Liberals, they swept the country, winning all of the seats in BC, PEI and Nova Scotia, and all but one in New Brunswick and the NWT, and all but 2 in Quebec.

As Prime Minister, Laurier "solved" the Manitoba Schools Quebec by fufilling his campaign promise: "Catholics in Manitoba could have a Catholic education if there were enough students to warrant it, on a school-by-school basis. This was seen by many as the best possible solution in the circumstances, making both the French and English equally satisfied."

The big issue of the 1899 election is the Boer War in South Africa. Britain is expecting Canada to be a good little dominion and fight with them against the Boers, but the issue is dividing the nation. French Canadians are against supporting the British, while English Canadians support sending troops. Laurier is proposing sending a volunteer force, but even that is opposed by many in his own party. The Tories under Lougheed support sending troops to South Africa. This debate was one of many between two philosophies: The Liberals believed in more of a focus on "contententalism", looking to be more friendly with the US, while the Tories wanted Canada to remain more loyal to Britain. Another issue of the election is what to do with the NWT. The Tories under Lougheed want to keep the area as one territory, while the Liberals want to open the west up to immigration and create provinces.

So, now we're back to the old 2 party system.

Leaders:

Laurier

Lougheed

Poll will last 4 days.

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