Conservative Party of Canada

Many Canadians began to question not just what the war had been fought for, but the whole system by which Canadian leaders were chosen.

It was a sign that the political landscape had been fundamentally altered that disillusionment with the government of Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden did not discernibly benefit the Liberal opposition.

It seemed as though Canadians didn't trust either of the parties that had dominated the political world since Confederation.

In a sense, Borden had himself contributed to that outcome.

I just referred to him as the Conservative Prime Minister, but that's not strictly accurate.

In 1917, Borden formed a new Union government, which consisted of Conservatives and dissident Liberals who disagreed with Wilfrid Laurier's stance on conscription.

Although the so-called Laurier Liberals contested the federal election of December 1917, the Union government effectively blurred the lines of the long-standing two-party system in Canada.

But if Borden's Union experiment opened the door to a new kind of politics, the Prime Minister quickly lost control over what lay on the other side of that threshold.

The result was that Thérèse Casgrain, along with two other Liberals, ran as independent Liberals in the by-election.

With three Liberals on the ballot, the Liberal vote split three ways, and the Conservatives ended up winning the riding.

The most logical path to follow for Casgrain would've been to bide her time and wait for the next opportunity to run for the Liberals to present itself.

Considering the large number of Liberals who were getting elected both federally and provincially in Quebec in this time period, this would've surely been the best option for her to become either an MP in Ottawa or win a seat in the Quebec legislature.

They said they wanted to be free to support or to oppose, depending on the merits of legislation under consideration.

The Conservatives had 50 seats, labor two, and other three.

So that was our result in 1921.

And that was

Not necessarily.

This is where it gets tricky.

Incidentally, the Conservatives also had a higher popular vote, if that matters.

And technically, it doesn't exactly, but it's interesting to know.

So we've got William Lyon Mackenzie King has been leader of the Liberals for about a year and a half now.

And Arthur Meehan has been the leader of the Conservatives for about a year.

And as you said, we have Thomas Crerar, who is leading the Progressive Party.

One thing I was interested in in your book is that it seems that Arthur Meehan called the election almost a month before he actually went to the Governor General, which I don't think that's something that happens anymore.

65 seats.

And, you know, in thinking about the campaign, I think that was pretty much predictable.

Well, not necessarily that every single seat would go liberal, but the fact that the Conservatives didn't have a hope in hell in Quebec.

So I think that was already understood.