McCarthyites (Canada)

The McCarthyites were a short-lived anti-Catholic and anti-French Canadian political movement which contested the 23 June 1896 federal election in Canada.

[1] Dalton McCarthy was the only "McCarthyite" to win election (he contested and won two seats), and the movement disbanded in 1898, not long after his death.

McCarthyite candidates polled second in three other Ontario ridings, Lanark South, Hastings North and Durham East, scoring over 40% of the vote in each case.

In Muskoka and Parry Sound, McCarthyite candidate William Edward O'Brien, who had previously served as a Tory MP, won 20.1% of the vote in a three-way race.

This alliance began during the election, as the McCarthyites made arrangements with the Liberal Party and the Patrons of Industry in some Southern Ontario ridings to avoid vote splitting among anti-Conservative voters.