1926 Canadian federal election

The 1926 Canadian federal election was held on September 14, 1926, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 16th Parliament of Canada. The election was called after an event known as the King–Byng affair.

In the 1925 federal election, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party of Canada had won fewer seats in the House of Commons of Canada than the Conservatives of Arthur Meighen. King, however, was determined to continue to govern with the support of the Progressive Party. The combined Liberal and Progressive caucuses gave Mackenzie King a plurality of seats in the House of Commons, and the ability to form a minority government.

The agreement collapsed, however, after a scandal, and King approached the governor general of Canada, Baron Byng of Vimy, to seek dissolution of the Parliament. Byng refused on the basis that the Conservatives had won the most seats in the prior election and so he called upon Meighen to form a government.

Prime Minister Meighen's government was soon defeated in a vote of non-confidence, and Byng agreed to Meighen's request to dissolve Parliament and call new elections. King effectively campaigned against Byng, instead of against Meighen, in the election. King's Liberals won the most seats in the House of Commons although they received fewer votes than the Conservatives. However, this may have been largely because the Liberals did not run candidates in all ridings - they had an informal electoral pact with the Progressives and Liberal-Progressives. Robert Forke had resigned as Progressive house leader on June 30, 1926. The Progressives fractured and Forke ran for re-election as a Liberal-Progressive. Of 12 Liberal-Progressive candidates, 8 were elected.

The Conservatives suffered from disproportional transition from votes to seats. In particular, in Manitoba Meighen's party captured almost 40 percent of the vote, twice the vote share of any other party, but no seats.

King's Liberals did not take a majority of seats but were able to govern with the support of Liberal-Progressive Members of Parliament.

The Progressive Party's Albertan legislators left the party and instead sought re-election under the United Farmers of Alberta banner. At the time, the UFA formed the government in Alberta. They won eleven seats in Alberta, an increase of nine from the previous year and the same number the Progressives won elsewhere. The Progressives' seat count was halved compared to 1925, although when viewed in its totality the election result can also be regarded as a combined net decrease of two seats for the Progressives and UFA.

Byng returned to Britain at the end of the year and was raised to the rank of viscount as an expression of confidence in him. After his party's defeat and the loss of his seat, Meighen resigned as Conservative leader.

National results

Party	Party leader	# of
candidates	Seats	Popular vote	Total	530	245	245	-	3,256,508	100%
[1925](1925-canadian-federal-election)	**Elected**	% Change	#	%	pp Change	Liberal	W. L. Mackenzie King	203	100	**116**	+16.0%	1,397,031
**Sources:** http://www.elections.ca -- [History of Federal Ridings since 1867](http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/process/house/hfer/hfer.asp?Language=E)

Notes:

• not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote