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1888 North-West Territories general election

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Field	Value
election_name	1888 North-West Territories general election
country	Northwest Territories
flag_year	1870
type	parliamentary
previous_election	1885 North-West Territories election
previous_year	1885
outgoing_members	1st Council of the Northwest Territories
election_date	20–30 June 1888
elected_mps	[members](1st-north-west-legislative-assembly)
next_election	1891 North-West Territories general election
next_year	1891
elected_members	2nd North-West Legislative Assembly
seats_for_election	22 seats in the North-West Legislative Assembly
title	Lieutenant-governor
posttitle	Chairman after election
after_election	Robert Brett

The 1888 North-West Territories general election elected members of the 2nd Legislative Council of the North-West Territories. The 2nd Legislative Council of the North-West Territories replaced the 1st Council of the North-West Territories. The 2nd Legislative Council of the North-West Territories was replaced by the 1st North-West Assembly in 1891 when the quota of elected members was reached. (A different 2nd Council of the Northwest Territories (1905–1951) was created in 1905, when the NWT lost most of its population, to differentiate the new one from the two legislative councils of the NWT that had existed 1876 to 1891.)

The 1888 election was the first general election in the history of the North-West Territories, Canada. Elections were held in various districts between 20 June and 30 June 1888. Although considered a general election, the writs were issued to return on various days. (1891 North-West Territories general election would be the first election where all the seats came empty on the same day.)

Prior to 1888, the elected members of the 1st Council of the North-West Territories were elected in by-elections to supplement members appointed by the Government of Canada. In order to have an elected member, a constituency needed to be set up in an area 1000 sqmi in size that had 1,000 residents. This created a patchwork of represented and unrepresented areas across the sprawling and sparsely settled territory.

Twenty-one members were elected in this election.

Robert Brett, the member for Red Deer, was appointed government leader by Lieutenant Governor Joseph Royal. His official title was Chairman of the Lieutenant Governor's Advisory Council.

Three judges were appointed to the legislative assembly to provide legal advice, but they were not able to vote. They represented the territory at large.

Voters in this election cast their votes by telling the returning officer who they wanted to vote for. This system lasted until 1894 when a secret ballot was first used in a by-election in the Whitewood district.

Election results

Voter turnout cannot be established as no voters lists were in use. Candidates were all elected on non-partisan basis. Decisions in the council were decided by majority vote.

Three members were elected by acclamation. One was re-elected; two were newly elected.

Calgary and Edmonton elected two members through Plurality block voting.

Election summary

Candidates	# of candidates	Popular vote	Incumbent	New
Acclaimed candidates	1	2	-	-
Elected candidates	8	10	5,081	62.53%
Defeated candidates	-	19	3,045	37.47%
Total	40	8,126	100%

Legal advisors

Three members were appointed by Lieutenant Governor Joseph Royal after the election: James Macleod, Hugh Richardson and Charles Rouleau. The purpose of these three legal advisors was to bring experience in procedure, protocol and amending and introducing legislation. The legal advisors held seats at large, were allowed to participate in debates (but not vote) and were paid a salary of $250.

The three members of the assembly had already served as members of the Assembly previously. There were no legal advisors reappointed after dissolution of the 1st North-West Legislative Assembly in 1891.

Members of the Legislative Assembly elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

Electoral District
colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"	Elected
Batoche
Battleford
Calgary
Edmonton
Kinistino
Macleod
Medicine Hat
Moose Jaw
Moosomin
North Qu’Appelle
North Regina
Prince Albert
Red Deer
Souris
South Qu’Appelle
South Regina
Wallace
Whitewood
Wolseley

Medicine Hat

In the Medicine Hat electoral district, candidate William Finlay had withdrawn before election day. The returning officer declared Thomas Tweed elected by acclamation. Finlay lost his nomination deposit of $200.00

Notes

Plurality block voting was used; each voter had two votes

References

Gemmell, John Alexander. (1889). "The Canadian parliamentary companion, 1889". J. Durie & Son.
(5 July 1888). "Northwest Elections". Lethbridge Herald.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

elections-in-the-northwest-territories 1888-elections-in-canada 1888-in-the-northwest-territories june-1888

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