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> Canada > Prime Minister
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| Office | Prime Minister |
| Honorific | Prime Minister - Abbr: PM |
| Type | General Election |
| Filing Deadline | 00, 1917 - 12:00pm Central |
| Polls Open | December 17, 1917 - 08:00am Central |
| Polls Close | December 17, 1917 - 08:55pm Central |
| Term Start | December 18, 1917 - 09:00pm |
| Term End | July 10, 1920 - 12:00pm |
| Contributor | Monsieur |
| Last Modified | Politicoomer November 20, 2023 12:55pm |
| Data Sources | |
| Description |
"The most bitter election in Canadian history." - Michael Bliss, historian
Under the elections law, Canada should have had an election in 1916. However citing the emergency of the First World War, the government postponed the election, largely in hope that a coalition government could be formed, as was the case in Britain.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, head of the Liberal Party of Canada, refused to join the coalition over the issue of conscription. Conscription was strongly opposed in the Liberal heartland of Quebec. Laurier worried that agreeing to Borden's coalition offer would cause that province to abandon the Liberals, and perhaps Canada as well. Borden proceeded to form a "Unionist" government, and the Liberal Party split over the issue. Many English Canadian Liberal MPs and provincial Liberal parties in English Canada supported the new Unionist government.
Borden convinced a faction of Liberals to join with them, forming the Unionist government in October 1917. He then dissolved parliament to seek a mandate in the election which pitted "Government" candidates, running as the Unionist Party, against the anti-Conscription faction of the Liberal Party which ran under the name Laurier Liberals.
The divisive debate ended with the country divided on linguistic lines. The Liberals won 82 seats, 62 of which were in Quebec. The Unionists won 153, the three seats they won in Quebec were all in mainly anglophone ridings.
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