Electoral history of Wilfrid Laurier
This article is the Electoral history of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the seventh Prime Minister of Canada.
A Liberal, he was Canada's fourth longest-serving Prime Minister, with the longest consecutive time in office (over fifteen years, from 1896 to 1911).
He is in a three-way tie with Sir John A. Macdonald and Mackenzie King for the number of general elections he contested as leader of a party.
Laurier was the second of eight prime ministers from Quebec, the others being Sir John Abbott, Louis St. Laurent, Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau.
He served in the Commons for a total of 44 years, 10 months, 17 days, continuously from the 3rd Parliament, elected in 1874, to his death in 1919.
[2] Laurier served briefly in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1871 to 1874, when he resigned to enter federal politics in the general election of 1874.
Laurier led the Liberals in seven general elections, winning four (1896, 1900, 1904, and 1908) and losing three (1891, 1911, 1917).
Macdonald, aged 76, again led the Conservatives to victory, albeit with a reduced majority.
4 Election returns in 1887 did not require candidates to declare party affiliation.
Laurier won his second general election, defeating the Conservatives led by Prime Minister Charles Tupper.
The main issue was the Manitoba Schools Question, which had divided the country on linguistic and religious lines.
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.
3 Election returns in 1896 did not require candidates to declare party affiliation.
Laurier and the Liberals increased both their popular vote and seats won.
Tupper retired from public life, the last of the Fathers of Confederation to leave Canadian politics.
His opponent this time was Robert Laird Borden, who had replaced Tupper as leader of the Conservatives.
Laurier again led the Liberals in the 1911 general election, which was fought on the issue of reciprocity (lowered trade barriers) with the United States.
The loss ended Laurier's streak of four electoral victories and fifteen years as prime minister.
The election was fought entirely on the issue of conscription and Canada's role in World War I.
The election badly divided the country between English-Canadians, who tended to support conscription, and French-Canadians, who opposed it.
Laurier remained as Leader of the Opposition, but died in 1919, ending one of the longest careers in the Parliament of Canada, almost 45 years since he was first elected in 1874.
[2] In the 1896 general election, Laurier stood in two constituencies, as was permitted at that time: Quebec East and Saskatchewan (Provisional District), North-West Territories.
