1908 Canadian federal election

1908 Canadian federal election

October 26, 1908
221 seats in the House of Commons 111 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	70.3% (1.3pp)
First party Second party   Leader Wilfrid Laurier Robert Borden Party Liberal Conservative Leader since 1887 1901 Leader's seat Quebec East Halifax Last election 137 seats, 50.9% 75 seats, 45.9% Seats won 133 85 Seat change 4 10 Popular vote 570,311 539,374 Percentage 48.9% 46.2% Swing 2.0% 0.3%
The Canadian parliament after the 1908 election
Prime Minister before election Wilfrid Laurier Liberal Prime Minister after election Wilfrid Laurier Liberal

The 1908 Canadian federal election was held on Monday October 26, 1908 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 11th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Liberal Party of Canada was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term in government with a majority government. The Liberals lost four seats and a small share of the popular vote.

Sir Robert Borden's Conservatives and Liberal-Conservatives won ten additional seats.

This was the first election in which Alberta and Saskatchewan voted as provinces. Following their creation in 1905, the two new provinces continued to be represented by MP's initially elected under the old Northwest Territories riding boundaries, some of which straddled the new provincial border. The remainder of the Northwest Territories that previously had Parliamentary representation lost it, although parts of the NWT would gain or re-gain representation after being added to Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec in 1912. A seat would not be created for the NWT itself again (which then contained the modern NWT and Nunavut) until 1949.

This is the most recent election in which a prime minister was able to lead their party to a fourth consecutive mandate.

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1904	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Wilfrid Laurier	213	137	133	-2.9%	570,311	48.87%	-2.01pp
	Conservative	Robert Borden	207	70	82	+17.1%	524,641	44.95%	+0.55pp
	Liberal-Conservative		4	5	3	-40.0%	14,733	1.26%	-0.27pp
	Independent		15	1	1	-	16,903	1.45%	+0.45pp
	Labour		3	-	1		10,400	0.89%	+0.68pp
	Unknown		7	-	-	-	13,478	1.15%	+0.02pp
	Socialist		5	-	-	-	6,071	0.52%	+0.35pp
	Independent Conservative		2	1	1	-100%	5,314	0.46%	-0.04pp
	Independent Liberal		5	-	-	-	5,191	0.44%	+0.41pp
Total			461	214	221	+2.8%	1,167,042	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867 Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine

Results by province

Party			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	YK	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	2	4	9	2	37	52	11	12	3	1	133
		Popular vote (%):	35.9	50.2	56.6	45.4	45.0	53.0	56.2	51.0	50.4	40.2	48.9
	Conservative	Seats:	5	2	1	8	46	12	2	5	1	-	82
		Vote (%):	46.8	38.1	36.8	51.5	49.2	39.5	43.8	44.5	49.6	10.8	45.0
	Liberal-Conservative	Seats:		1			1			1			3
		Vote (%):		6.4			1.5			4.5			1.3
	Independent	Seats:	-	-	-	-	1	-					1
		Vote (%):	8.9	3.7	0.6	0.1	1.8	1.1					1.5
	Labour	Seats:					-	1					1
		Vote (%):					0.7	2.6					0.9
	Independent Conservative	Seats:			-		1						1
		Vote (%):			5.9		0.4						0.5
Total seats			7	7	10	10	86	65	13	18	4	1	221
Parties that won no seats:
	Unknown	Vote (%):	1.3				1.4	1.9				49.0	1.2
	Socialist	Vote (%):	7.1	1.6		2.9	0.2						0.5
	Independent Liberal	Vote (%):			0.1			1.8					0.4

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 11th Canadian Parliament

Further reading

• Hopkins, J. Castell (1909). The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1908. Toronto: The Annual Review Publishing Company.