Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Federal Election history, 2: October 1872: "I must have another $10,000"

Can't wait for the election campaigning to be over?  In the 1872 election, right at the end of the full five-year life of the 1867 Parliament, the voting itself took nearly three months, with constituency voting contining from July though October.

Manitoba and British Columbia voters participated in federal elections for the first time, but Canadians in the Northwest Territories had no representation at all.

Macdonald's Liberal-Conservative coalition did reasonably well and secured another Parliament in which a majority would support his government, though the L-Cs slipped a little in both Quebec and Ontario.  With campaigns already beginning to coalesce around the party platform and the leader, Macdonald first introduced his "National Policy" platform in this campaign.

This was the "I must have another ten thousand" election," in which the government's corrupt election practices would set the stage for future turmoil.
 
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