Canadian federal election, 1911
The 12th Canadian General Election (English 12th Canadian General Election, French 12e élection fédérale canadienne ) took place on 21 September 1911. Were elected 221 Members of the Canadian House of Commons (English House of Commons, French Chambre des Communes ). The elections ended the fifteen- year reign of the Liberal Party of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. Two issues dominated the election campaign: Free trade with the United States and the creation of the independent Canadian Navy. Cited by Robert Borden Conservative Party formed a majority government.
The choice
The Liberal government had been involved in a debate on the Anglo-German arms race. Laurier proposed the creation of the Royal Canadian Navy, but so that he could win neither Francophone nor the English-speaking Canadians for themselves. The former refused any assistance from Great Britain decided, the latter wanted to support the British Royal Navy directly financially. After the election, the Conservatives presented a legislative proposal for a contribution to the British navy, but its implementation was a filibuster of the Liberals in the House and finally prevented by the liberal -dominated Senate.
The population of Ontario and the Maritime provinces accused the Francophones Laurier to abandon Canada's traditional ties to the United Kingdom. On the other side of the nationalist Henri Bourassa, who had resigned because of the supposedly pro-British attitude of the government of the Liberal Party made , in the province of Quebec sentiment against Laurier. This resulted in Québec to strengthen the conservatives who actually even imperialistischere attitude income than the Liberals.
The base of the support of the Liberals shifted to Western Canada. The West was looking for new markets for its agricultural products and, therefore, advocated free trade with the United States. However, representatives of the protected by high tariffs industry in central Canada were strongly opposed. The Liberals decided to make free trade to the main theme of the election campaign and negotiated with the United States a free trade agreement for natural products.
Although the legislature would still take two years, Laurier decided to call a snap election to get a mandate for the implementation of the Agreement. The election campaign was, however, bad for the Liberals. The powerful industry stakeholders in Toronto and Montréal withdrawn their support and defected to the Conservatives. This argued that free trade would undermine the sovereignty of Canada and lead to a creeping annexation by the United States. Nearly eight decades later, at the general election in 1988, the free trade should be the main topic too, but with the roles reversed: Liberals fought proposed by the Conservatives FTAs.
The turnout was 70.2 %.
Results
Overall result
Acclamations
4 candidates were elected by acclamation:
- Ontario: one Conservative, one Liberal
- Quebec: 2 Liberal