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| Date | October 12, 1927 |
|---|---|
| Convention | Winnipeg Amphitheatre,Winnipeg,Manitoba |
| Resigning leader | Arthur Meighen |
| Won by | R. B. Bennett |
| Ballots | 2 |
| Candidates | 6 |
| Progressive Conservative leadership conventions 1927 ·1938 ·1942 ·1948 ·1956 ·1967 ·1976 ·1983 ·1993 ·1995 ·1998 ·2003 Canadian Alliance leadership elections 2004 ·2017 ·2020 ·2022 | |
AConservative leadership convention was held on October 12, 1927 at the Winnipeg Amphitheatre inWinnipeg,Manitoba. The convention was held to choose a new leader of theConservative Party (formally theLiberal-Conservative Party) to choose a successor to former Prime Minister of CanadaArthur Meighen who had led the party since 1920. This was the first time the Conservatives used aleadership convention to choose a leader. Previous leaders had been chosen by the party's caucus, the previous leader, or by theGovernor General of Canada designating an individual to form a government after his predecessor's death or resignation.[1]
Meighen had succeeded SirRobert Borden as prime minister and leader of theUnionists, a coalition of Conservatives and pro-conscriptionLiberal-Unionists in 1920 and attempted to forge the alliance into a permanent party called the National Liberal and Conservative Party. Despite his efforts, most Liberal supporters of the Borden government either returned to theLiberal Party of Canada or joined the newProgressive Party of Canada afterWorld War I and Meighen's party was defeated in the1921 federal election by the Liberals under their new leaderWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King. At a March 1922 caucus meeting that re-affirmed Meighen's leadership, the party voted to change its name to theLiberal-Conservative Party which it was known by under SirJohn A. Macdonald.[2]
Meighen's Conservatives won a plurality of seats in the1925 federal election but King's Liberals were able to continue in power until 1926 with the support of the Progressives, until King's government lost anon-confidence vote in theHouse of Commons of Canada. King askedGovernor GeneralLord Byng for a dissolution and new election but Byng asked Meighen to form a government instead, a controversial decision that became known as theKing-Byng Affair. Meighen's government, in turn, was defeated in a non-confidence vote after three months and the subsequentSeptember 14, 1926 federal election returned the Liberals to power and also resulted in Meighen losing his seat in the House.
Meighen resigned as party leader, and the party called a special meeting of its parliamentary caucus and defeated candidates on October 11, 1926 that elected Member of ParliamentHugh Guthrie (Wellington South) asinterim leader. In addition to Guthrie, MPsHenry Herbert Stevens, SirGeorge Halsey Perley (Argenteuil),Robert Manion (Fort William),Charles Cahan (St. Lawrence—St. George), SirHenry Drayton (York West),Charles William Bell (Hamilton West) andSimon Fraser Tolmie (Victoria) were also nominated; Guthrie defeated Manion and Stevens on the third ballot to become interim leader andLeader of the Official Opposition until a permanent leader was chosen.[3] The caucus also recommended that aleadership convention, the party's first, be held in 1927 to choose a permanent leader.[4]
Heading into the convention,Ontario PremierHoward Ferguson was considered the favourite as he enjoyed popularity in Quebec as well as Ontario as his government had repealedRegulation 17 which had restricted French-language school instruction. Other Conservatives wanted Meighen to stand as a candidate and succeed himself. Meighen and Ferguson clashed on the convention floor after Meighen, who had attempted to make overtures to Quebec where the Conservatives and Meighen were unpopular due to theConscription crisis of 1917, proposed that Canada not be able to go to war in future without there first being areferendum or federal election on the issue. Meighen raised the issue on the floor of the convention but Ferguson, echoing the views of many English-Canadian Conservatives, loudly denounced Meighen's position saying: "I, as a Liberal-Conservative, entirely disagree with him and repudiate that view; and if this convention chooses to endorse him, I will dissociate myself entirely from the convention." Ferguson's comments were received with a round of boos taking him out of consideration for leadership while also making Meighen succeeding himself untenable.[5][6]
George Halsey Perley,H. H. Stevens,John Allister Currie,New Brunswick PremierJohn Baxter, Ferguson,Nova Scotia PremierEdgar Nelson Rhodes, and outgoing leader Arthur Meighen were all nominated but declined to run.[7]
Bennett had the support of Ferguson and Stevens, who worked the convention floor on his behalf. Bennett spoke no French in his speech to delegates.[5] Guthrie misspoke by saying: "Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome this, the greatest Liberal convention in all history,"[7] and hurt his prospects in Quebec by saying he wished to "obliterate" distinctions between French and English.[5]
Resolutions were passed favouringpreferential tariffs throughout theBritish Empire but not if it hurt farmers or workers, social legislation to support the unemployed, ill, and elderly "so far as it is practicable" and an immigration policy that supported settlers fromBritain and excluded "such races... as are not capable of ready assimilation."[6] The party also committed itself to maintaining theCanadian National Railway as a "publicly owned and operated utility" and affirmed the "traditional adherence of the Liberal-Conservative Party to the principle of loyalty to the Crown, and the maintenance of that integral connection of Canada with theBritish Empire".[8][9] The convention also approved the construction of aSt. Lawrence canal as an all-Canadian project, maintenance of a maximumfreight rate for grain products, construction of interprovincialhighways, implementation of the findings of theDuncan Commission investigating grievances of theMaritime provinces, as well as resolutions on the development of mining, the fisheries, and agriculture, and for legislation giving the Western provinces powers over natural resources within their territory.[9]
While there had been some expectation of a close race between Bennett and Guthrie, the latter's bungled speech at the convention proved severely injurious to his chances, and resulted in Bennett having a commanding lead in the first ballot. Guthrie finished second, narrowly ahead of Cahan, followed by Manion, Rogers and then Drayton. Guthrie and Cahan actually had more votes between them then Bennett did, but any hope of one dropping out and endorsing the other was ultimately thwarted by their political views being too dissimilar, plus the enmity that Guthrie's speech had generated among the delegates from Quebec, who by and in large supported Cahan. In addition, either Guthrie or Cahan would realistically have needed Manion's delegates in order to defeat Bennett, and Manion was not prepared to support either of them.
No-one dropped out or endorsed any other candidate prior to the second round - unlike future leadership contests, the bottom-placed candidate was not automatically eliminated in each round - but Bennett attracted roughly equal numbers of delegates from all five of his rivals, and secured victory in the second round.
| Candidate | 1st ballot | 2nd ballot | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | ||
 | BENNETT, Richard Bedford | 594 | 38.0% | 780 | 50.2% |
 | GUTHRIE, Hugh | 345 | 22.0% | 320 | 20.6% |
| CAHAN, Charles Hazlitt | 310 | 19.8% | 266 | 17.1% | |
 | MANION, Robert James | 170 | 10.9% | 148 | 9.5% |
 | ROGERS, Robert | 114 | 7.3% | 37 | 2.4% |
 | DRAYTON, Henry Lumley | 31 | 2.0% | 3 | 0.2% |
| Total | 1,564 | 100.0% | 1,554 | 100.0% | |
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