1930 Canadian federal election

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The Canadian parliament after the 1930 election

The Canadian federal election of 1930 was held on July 28, 1930 to elect members of the 17th Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons. R.B. Bennett's Conservative Party won a majority government, defeating the Liberal Party led by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

The first signs of the Great Depression were clearly evident by the 1930 election, and Conservative party leader Richard Bedford Bennett campaigned on a platform of aggressive measures in order to combat it.

"I propose that any government of which I am the head will at the first session of parliament initiate whatever action is necessary to that end, or perish in the attempt." - R.B. Bennett, June 9, 1930.

Part of the reason for Bennett's success lay in the Liberals' own handling of the rising unemployment of 1930. Touting the Liberal formula as the reason for the economic prosperity of the 1920s, for example, left the Liberals carrying much of the responsibility, whether deserved or not, for the consequences of the crash of the American stock market.

Liberal election poster in French, showing King forging a chain link.

King was apparently oblivious to the rising unemployment that greeted the 1930s, and continued to laud his government's hand in Canada's prosperity. Demands for aid were met with accusations of being the part of a great "Tory conspiracy," which led King to make his famous "five-cent piece" outburst, alienating a growing number of voters. In retrospect, one can try and understand King's reasoning. Both the Western mayors and provincial Premiers who had visited King with requests of relief were overwhelmingly Conservative - in the Premiers' case, seven out of nine. King concluded in Parliamentary debates that though aid was a provincial jurisdiction, the fact that he believed there to be no unemployment problem meant that the requests from the provinces appeared to be nothing more than political grandstanding. The Federal Conservatives had certainly exaggerated the Depression in its early stages solely to attack King's government.

Several other factors entered into King's defeat. Though obtaining funds from sometimes dubious sources was not a problem, the Liberal election machine was not as efficient as it once was, primarily due to the cause of the age and poor health of many chief strategists. King's campaign was the epitome of Murphy's Law - every campaign stop appeared to meet the Prime Minister with some kind of mishap.

By contrast, Bennett's Conservatives were electric. The self-made man who led them had practically rebuilt his party (a significant part of it with his own funds) and developed an election machine which could rival the Liberals'. Aside from superior party organization, the Tories used it. They bought out newspapers in key areas (notably the Liberal strongholds of the West, and Quebec) and ensured that pro-Tory slants were kept. In the first election where radio played an important role, Bennett's vibrant, zealous voice was extremely preferable to King's. (The Tory machine, of course, ensured that only the best radio spots were available to Bennett.) And Bennett's tariff policy - epitomized by his infamous promise to "blast" Canada's way into world markets - was extremely well-received in the key Liberal strongholds of the West and Quebec. In the former, agricultural production had been hurt by worldwide overproduction, and certain agricultural groups in Quebec firmly endorsed Bennett's tariff policy. (Given the devastation experienced by farmers during this time, what else could be done?) Bennett's Conservatives won much of the former Progressive and Farmers' vote in the West, and they were elected with 44% of the popular vote in Quebec as a kind of "protest vote".

All these factors led to Bennett's eventual election.

Canadian voters agreed with Bennett and the Conservatives were elected with a majority of 134 seats in the House Of Commons. The incumbent Liberals under William Lyon Mackenzie King became the official opposition after being reduced to 90, with the Progressives taking only 3.

"R. B. Bennett leads the Tories to a smashing federal victory, defeating Mackenzie King's Liberals as voters vent their anger over the depression." - Newspaper headline from July 28, 1930

Unfortunately for Bennett and the Conservatives, the Depression brought complex problems to politicians and extreme hardship for most Canadians. Bennett and the Conservatives lost the 1935 election to the Liberals under the previous Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1926	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change	Conservative	R.B. Bennett	229	91	134	+69.6%	1,863,115	47.79%	+3.07%	Liberal	Mackenzie King	226	116	90	-21.1%	1,716,798	45.5%	+1.29%	United Farmers of Alberta		10	11	9	-18.2%	56,968	1.46%	-0.55%	Progressive		15	11	3	-72.7%	70,822	1.82%	-2.41%	Liberal-Progressive		8	8	3	-62.5%	44,822	1.15%	-0.94%	Labour	J.S. Woodsworth	8	4	2	-50.0%	26,548	0.68%	-0.95%	Independent		11	2	2	-	21,608	0.55%	-0.30%	Progressive-Conservative		2	-	1		15,996	0.41%	+0.18%	Independent Labour		2	*	1	*	15,988	0.41%	*	Independent Liberal		8	1	-	-100%	14,426	0.37%	-0.25%	Farmer		5	*	-	*	11,999	0.31%	*	Independent Conservative		6	-	-	-	10,360	0.27%	-0.07%	Unknown		2	-	-	-	7,441	0.19%	+0.08%	Liberal-Labour		1	-	-	-	7,195	0.18%	+0.05%	Communist	Tim Buck	6	*	-	*	4,557	0.12%	*	Labour-Farmer		2	-	-	-	3,276	0.08%	+0.04%	Liberal-Protectionist		1	*	-	*	2,723	0.07%	*	Farmer-Labour		1	*	-	*	2,091	0.05%	*	Independent Progressive		1	*	-	*	1,294	0.03%	*	Franc Lib		1	*	-	*	429	0.01%	*	Prohibitionist		1	*	-	*	266	0.01%	*
Total			546	245	245	-	3,898,722	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca -- History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Note:

* The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Results by province

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	YK	Total	Conservative	Seats:	7	4	6	10	59	24	10	10	3	1	134	Popular vote (%):	49.3%	35.0%	33.6%	44.1%	53.9%	43.7%	59.3%	52.5%	50.0%	60.3%	47.8%	Liberal	Seats:	5	3	13	1	22	40	1	4	1	-	90	Vote:	40.9%	30.0%	48.4%	19.6%	42.4%	53.2%	40.7%	47.5%	50.0%	39.7%	44.0%	UF Alberta	Seats:		9									9	Vote:		28.4%									1.5%	Progressive	Seats:		-	2	-	1						3	Vote:		1.9%	8.1%	6.4%	1.8%						1.8%	Liberal-Progressive	Seats:			-	3							3	Vote:			2.1%	16.2%							1.2%	Labour	Seats:		-		2	-							Vote:		3.0		8.4	0.1						0.7	Independent	Seats:	1		-		-	1					2	Vote:	2.6		3.5		0.1	0.3					0.6	Progressive-Conservative	Seats:				1		-					1	Vote:				2.7		1.0					0.4	Independent Labour	Seats:	1			-							1	Vote:	6.5			0.1							0.4
Total Seats			14	16	21	17	82	65	11	14	4	1	245
Parties that won no seats:														Independent Liberal	Vote:				0.4		1.3					0.4	Farmer	Vote:			3.6								0.3	Independent Conservative	Vote:				1.2	0.5	0.1						Unknown	Vote:					0.5						0.2	Liberal-Labour	Vote:					0.5						0.2	Communist	Vote:	0.4			0.9	0.1						0.1	Labour-Farmer	Vote :		0.6									0.1	Liberal-Protectionist	Vote:						0.3					0.1	Farmer-Labour	Vote:			0.6								0.1	Independent Progressive	Vote:						0.1					xx	Franc Lib	Vote:	0.2										xx	Prohibitionist	Vote:	0.1										xx

• xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

Preceded by 1926 federal election

Canadian federal elections

Succeeded by 1935 federal election