Electoral history of Charles Tupper

This article is the Electoral history of Sir Charles Tupper, the sixth Prime Minister of Canada.

He led his party in two general elections (1896, 1900) and lost both, to Sir Wilfrid Laurier Prior to Confederation in 1867, Tupper was active in Nova Scotia politics, and was Premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, when he was elected to the first House of Commons of Canada.

Tupper had the shortest term in office of all twenty-three prime ministers, serving for just 68 days in the spring of 1896.

Tupper maintained the leadership of the Conservative Party and ran again in the general election of 1900.

Tupper became the formal leader of the Conservatives and was sworn in as prime minister shortly after the election was called.

Prior to the election, he had effectively led the government in the House of Commons on the Manitoba Schools Question, since Prime Minister Bowell was in the Senate and had suffered a Cabinet revolt on his handling of the issue.

His main opponent in the general election was Wilfrid Laurier, the leader of the Liberals.

Although Tupper and the Conservatives won the popular vote, Laurier and the Liberals won the majority of seats and formed the government, the first time at the federal level that the party with the greatest popular vote support did not form the government.

After four years as Leader of the Opposition, Tupper led the Conservatives in the general election of 1900.

He retired from public life, the last of the Fathers of Confederation to leave Canadian politics.

At this time, newly appointed Cabinet ministers had to stand for re-election, but it was customary for the other political party not to oppose the election.

1 Although Tupper had won the election in 1882, by 1887 he was no longer the incumbent, having been appointed the Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in 1884.

In the 1859 election, Tupper was re-elected in Cumberland, but the Liberals again won a majority of seats and the Conservative government resigned.