1867 Canadian Federal Election

August 7 – September 20, 1867 · Macdonald's Canada · 180 seats, 91 for a majority

The first election of the new Dominion, held over six weeks of open voting: Macdonald's Conservatives and their Liberal-Conservative allies won comfortably, though Joseph Howe's Anti-Confederates took 18 of Nova Scotia's 19 seats on a platform of leaving Canada.

Prime Minister before

John A. Macdonald

Conservative

Prime Minister (continued)

John A. Macdonald

Conservative

Government formed

Conservative

majority government

Turnout

74.3%

The result

Conservative
John A. Macdonald · 35.0%
100
seats
Liberal
George Brown (unofficial) · 22.7%
62
seats
Anti-Confederation
Joseph Howe · 7.9%
18
seats

Elections before 1874 were held over several weeks of open (non-secret) voting, and many seats went uncontested, so vote totals understate real support.

The result by province & territory

Seats won and vote share in each province and territory. Blank cells mean the party did not contest the province; the results table splits allied labels (Liberal-Conservatives, farmers' candidates, independents) that the headline figures group together.

Conservative
ON 33 (26.2%)QC 36 (28.5%)NB 1NS 1 (13.8%)
71
seats
Liberal-Conservative
ON 16 (12.5%)QC 11 (12.3%)NB 2 (11.1%)NS 0 (3.5%)
29
seats
Liberal
ON 33 (23.7%)QC 17 (25.2%)NB 12 (49.5%)
62
seats
Anti-Confederation
NS 18 (58.2%)
18
seats
Unknown
ON 0 (35.6%)QC 0 (34.1%)NB 0 (39.3%)NS 0 (23.1%)
0
seats
Independent
ON 0 (1.3%)
0
seats
Independent Liberal
ON 0 (0.7%)
0
seats
Total seats
180