1904 Canadian federal election

The 1904 Canadian federal election was held on November 3, 1904 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 10th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier led the Liberal Party of Canada to a third term in government, with an increased majority, and over half of the popular vote.

1904 Canadian federal election

November 3, 1904
214 seats in the House of Commons 108 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	71.6% (5.8pp)
First party Second party   Leader Wilfrid Laurier Robert Borden Party Liberal Conservative Leader since 1887 1901 Leader's seat Quebec East Halifax (lost re-election) Last election 128 seats, 50.3% 79 seats, 46.1% Seats won 137 75 Seat change 9 4 Popular vote 521,041 470,430 Percentage 50.9% 45.9% Swing 0.6% 0.2%
The Canadian parliament after the 1904 election
Prime Minister before election Wilfrid Laurier Liberal Prime Minister after election Wilfrid Laurier Liberal

Sir Robert Borden's Conservatives and Liberal-Conservatives were unable to challenge the Liberals effectively, and lost a small portion of their popular vote, along with four seats, including his own. Borden re-entered parliament the next year in a by-election.

This was the last election until 1949 in which parts of the Northwest Territories were granted representation. Most of the settled regions of the NWT entered Confederation as the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan on 1 September 1905, although its MP's continued to sit as representatives of the old ridings until the 10th Parliament's dissolution.

One of the key issues in the election was Imperial Preference.

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1900	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Wilfrid Laurier	208	128	137	+7.0%	521,041	50.88%	+0.63pp
	Conservative	Robert Borden	199	69	70	+1.4%	454693	44.40%	+1.18pp
	Liberal-Conservative		6	10	5	-50.0%	15,737	1.54%	-1.34pp
	Independent		6	3	1	-66.7%	10,205	1.00%	-0.40pp
	Independent Conservative		2	1	1	-	5,039	0.49%	-0.57pp
	Unknown		13	-	-	-	11,659	1.14%	+1.14pp
	Labour		2	-	-	-	2,159	0.21%	-0.10pp
	Socialist		3	*	-	*	1,794	0.18%	*
	Nationalist		1	*	-	*	1,429	0.14%	*
	Independent Liberal		3	1	-	-100%	309	0.03%	-0.48pp
Total			443	213	214	+0.5%	1,024,065	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Results by province

Party			BC	NW	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	YK	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	7	7	7	37	53	7	18	1	-	137
		Popular Vote (%):	49.5	58.4	49.7	47.5	55.1	51.0	52.9	49.1	41.4	50.9
	Conservative	Seats:	-	2	3	44	12	5	-	3	1	70
		Vote (%):	38.8	37.8	41.8	46.3	43.0	42.0	44.5	50.9	58.6	44.4
	Liberal-Conservative	Seats:		1		3		1				5
		Vote (%):		3.8		2.1		6.8				1.5
	Independent	Seats:		-	-	1	-		-			1
		Vote (%):		xx	5.8	0.6	1.3		1.6			1.0
	Independent Conservative	Seats:				1						1
		Vote (%):				1.2						0.5
Total seats			7	10	10	86	65	13	18	4	1	214
Parties that won no seats:
	Unknown	Vote (%):	4.6			2.4	xx					1.1
	Labour	Vote (%):			2.7	0.7			0.8			0.2
	Socialist	Vote (%):	7.1									0.2
	Nationalist	Vote (%):					0.6					0.5
	Independent Liberal	Vote (%):				xx		0.2	0.1			xx

xx - indicates less than 0.05% of the popular vote.

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 10th Canadian Parliament

Further reading

• Hopkins, J. Castell (1905). The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1904. Toronto: The Annual Review Publishing Company.