1867 Canadian federal election

August 7 – September 20, 1867 (1867-08-07 –1867-09-20) 1872 →
elected members →
180 seats in theHouse of Commons 91 seats needed for a majority
Registered	361,028[1]
Turnout	74.3%[a]
First party Second party Third party   Leader John A. Macdonald George Brown(unofficial) Joseph Howe Party Conservative Liberal Anti-Confederation Leader since July 1, 1867 1867 Leader's seat Kingston Ran inOntario South (lost) Hants Seats won 100[b] 62 18 Popular vote 93,909 60,818 21,239 Percentage 35.0% 22.7% 7.9%
Popular vote by electoral riding. (Because seats are awarded by the popular vote in each riding, the provincial popular vote does not necessarily translate to more seats.)
Prime Minister before election John A. Macdonald Conservative Prime Minister after election John A. Macdonald Conservative

The1867 Canadian federal election was held from August 7 to September 20, 1867, and was the first federal election inCanada following post-Confederation. It was held to electmembers representingelectoral districts in the provinces ofNova Scotia,New Brunswick,Ontario andQuebec to theHouse of Commons of the1st Canadian Parliament. The provinces ofManitoba (1870) andBritish Columbia (1871) were created during the term of the 1st Parliament of Canada and were not part of this election.

SirJohn A. Macdonald had been sworn in as prime minister by the Governor General,Lord Monck, when the new Canadian nation was founded on 1 July 1867. As leader of theConservative Party of Canada (known as theLiberal-Conservative Party until 1873), he led his party in this election and continued asPrime Minister of Canada when the Conservatives won a majority of the seats in the election, including majorities of the seats (and votes) in the new provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

TheLiberal Party of Canada won the second most seats overall, including a majority of the seats (and votes) in the province of New Brunswick. The Liberals did not have a party leader in the election.George Brown, who was the leader of theLiberal Party of Ontario, was considered the "elder statesman" of the national party. Brown ran concurrently for seats in theLegislative Assembly of Ontario and the House of Commons of Canada, and might well have been Prime Minister in the unlikely event that the Liberals prevailed over the Conservatives in the national election. Brown failed to win a seat in either body, and the national Liberals remained officially leaderless until 1873.

TheAnti-Confederation Party, led byJoseph Howe, won the third most seats overall, based solely on a majority of seats (and votes) in the province of Nova Scotia. Their main desire was the reversal of the decision to join Confederation, which had become highly unpopular in that province. The goals of the Anti-ConfederationMembers of Parliament (MPs) were openly supported by five of the Liberal MPs of New Brunswick. The Anti-Confederation MPs sat with the Liberal caucus. When the government inBritain refused to allow Nova Scotia to secede, a majority of the Anti-Confederation MPs (11 of 18) moved to the Conservatives.

The first Canadian election took place without a uniform set of election laws to govern the election of members to the House of Commons,^[2] an interim measure until Parliament could pass its own election laws, which did not come until 1885.^[3] Instead, the election was contested under the rules set by each individual province prior to Confederation, and future elections were to be contested under provincial rules until a time when federal parliament set their own rules. Because of this,rules governing having the right to voting were inconsistent, as was the method of casting a ballot.^[2]

The BNA Act did stipulate that in the district of Algoma any male British subject of 21 years of age or older, "being a householder," would have the right to vote.

The election took place over a six-week period from August 7 to September 20, with electoral district polls closing at different dates throughout the period.^[4] Under the system each electoral district was required to be polled in one day, but the day did not have to be the same across all electoral districts. The exception to the extended polling period (often called "polling circuits") being Nova Scotia which abolished the practice of polling different districts on different days after excessive violence was reported in the 1843 election.^[5]

The election inKamouraska, Quebec was delayed due to rioting.

Halifax was a two-member riding at the time of the election. The City of Saint John and the County of Saint John was represented by just one district.

The basic general requirement to vote across provinces was the requirement to be a maleBritish subject 21 years of age or older. Voting was conducted in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia throughoral vote which required an eligible elector to declare their choice.^[4] New Brunswick had adopted a form ofsecret ballot in 1855,^[4] where electors write the name of a candidate on a piece of paper and deposit the vote in a ballot box.^[2]

In all provinces, women and government employees including civil servants, judges, police and prosecutors were not permitted to vote.^[2]Indigenous individuals who met property criteria were excluded from voting eligibility in most provinces if they received a benefit paid by the government.^[2]

The Ontario elections laws were updated in 1866, with electors required to meet aproperty qualification of being an owner or tenant with a property value listed on the assessment roll of $600 in a city, $400 in a town, $300 in an incorporated village, and $100 in a township or police village.^[6][7][2][c] Furthermore, urban residents must prove an annual income of at least $250.^[8] An estimated 16.5 per cent of the population of Ontario was enfranchised for the 1867 election.^[2] In Quebec, the property qualification for being an owner was $300 in urban areas and $200 in rural areas, and a tenant required a rent of $30 in an urban area or $20 in a rural area.^[8][9] Nova Scotia's election laws were passed in 1863, and had a property qualification for owners or tenants of $150, and enfranchised persons with $300 of personal property.^[10][8][11] while New Brunswick had a property qualification for owners of $100 and an annual income of $400, but also gave the vote to anyone who owned real or personal property with a total value of $400 or more.^[8][12]

The number of members in each province in Confederation was set by theConstitution Act, 1867 on the principle of representation by population.^[13] The Act provided Quebec a minimum of 65 seats, and seat allotment for the remainder of the country was based by dividing the population of Quebec by 65 and then using it as a base to determine the number of seats for each of the other provinces.^[14] The Act also specified that redistribution and boundary reviews should occur after each 10 year census.^[14][15]

Thus there were 181 MPs in the first House of Commons – 82 from Ontario, 65 from Quebec, 19 from Nova Scotia, and 15 from New Brunswick. Each was elected in asingle-member district, except there were two elected inthe Halifax riding.^[16] Each voter could cast one vote as under first past the post, except Halifax voters who cast up to two votes (Plurality block voting).^[17]

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Elected	Popular vote
					#	%
	Conservative	SirJohn A. Macdonald	83	71	64,179	23.92%
	Liberal-Conservative[b]		32	29	29,730	11.08%
	Liberal	none (unofficially,George Brown)	66	62	60,818	22.67%
	Anti-Confederation[d]	Joseph Howe	20	18	21,239	7.92%
	Independents		1	-	1,756	0.65%
	Independent Liberal		1	-	1,048	0.39%
	Unknown		140	-	89,547	33.37%
	Vacant – 1		–	0	–	–
Total			343	180	268,317	100%
Source:[18]

Acclamations

The following MPs were acclaimed:

• Ontario: 3 Conservative, 3 Liberal-Conservatives, 9 Liberals
• Quebec: 14 Conservatives, 5 Liberal-Conservatives, 4 Liberals
• New Brunswick: 1 Conservative, 3 Liberals
• Nova Scotia: 4 Anti-Confederates

Vacancy

The election inKamouraska, Quebec, was cancelled due to rioting at the polling places. No member was elected for the riding until a by-election in 1869.^[19]

• List of elections in the Province of Canada
• 1st Canadian Parliament

• Dutil, Patrice A. (2025).Ballots and Brawls: The 1867 Canadian General Election. Vancouver: UBC Press.ISBN 978-0-774-87139-6.
• Elections Canada (2021).A History of the Vote in Canada(PDF) (Third ed.). Gatineau, Quebec: Elections Canada.ISBN 978-0-660-37056-9.
• Garner, John (1969).The Franchise and Politics in British North America, 1755-1867. Ottawa: University of Toronto Press.ISBN 978-0-8020-3219-5.
• Gwyn, Richard J. (2007).John A.: The Man who made us: the life and times of John A. Macdonald. Toronto: Random House Canada.ISBN 978-0-679-31475-2.
• LeDuc, Lawrence; Pammett, Jon H.; McKenzie, Judith L.; Turcotte, André (2010).Dynasties and Interludes: Past and Present in Canadian Electoral Politics. Toronto: Dundurn Press.ISBN 978-1-55488-886-3.

• Map of electoral districts coloured for each party
• Ridings and candidates

• 1867 Canadian federal election
• 1867 elections in Canada
• Canadian federal elections by year
• August 1867
• September 1867
• John A. Macdonald

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from September 2023