Electoral history of Arthur Meighen

The article is the electoral history of Arthur Meighen, the ninth prime minister of Canada.

His defeat in his constituency in the 1921 election was the first time in Canada that a sitting prime minister lost his seat.

Meighen ranks seventeenth out of twenty-three prime ministers for time in office, serving two short terms.

[1] Meighen was the second of four prime ministers to serve non-consecutive terms, the others being Sir John A. Macdonald, King, and Pierre Trudeau.

[2] As leader of the majority party in the Commons, Meighen automatically became prime minister, and did not call a general election immediately on taking office in 1920.

Four years later, in the general election of October 1925, Meighen again led the Conservatives and was again defeated by Mackenzie King.

Byng's refusal to call the election on King's request triggered a constitutional crisis, the King-Byng affair.

The Meighen government fell shortly afterwards his appointment on a motion of non-confidence and the Governor-General then called an election, which King won by a majority.

For the second time, Meighen did not win his seat in the general election and resigned immediately as leader of the Conservatives.

He stood for election to the House of Commons of Canada nine times (1908, 1911 1913, 1917, 1921, 1922, 1925, 1926, and 1942), primarily in the constituency of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

Meighen and the Liberal-Conservatives won more seats than King and the Liberals in the election, but did not win a majority.

King was able to form a minority government with the support of the Progressives and Meighen remained Leader of the Opposition.

The Governor-General, Lord Byng, refused King's request for a dissolution of Parliament and instead appointed Meighen as prime minister.

When Meighen's government fell on a non-confidence motion shortly after being appointed, the Governor-General granted his request for a dissolution and called the 1926 general election.

Meighen stood for election to the House of Commons nine times, in two different provinces (Manitoba and Ontario), in three different ridings.

At this time, Members of Parliament who took a position with the Government had to stand for re-election, but it was customary for the other political party not to oppose the election.