1935 Canadian Federal Election

King or Chaos

October 14, 1935 · The King–St. Laurent ascendancy · 245 seats, 123 for a majority

'King or Chaos': the Liberals crushed R.B. Bennett's Depression-battered Conservatives with 173 seats on just 44.7% of the vote, as the new CCF and Social Credit parties and Bennett's renegade Reconstruction Party splintered the opposition.

Prime Minister before

R. B. Bennett

Conservative

Prime Minister after

William Lyon Mackenzie King

Liberal

Government formed

Liberal

majority government

Turnout

74.2%

The result

Liberal
W. L. Mackenzie King · +84 seats · 44.7%
173
seats
Conservative
R. B. Bennett · -98 seats · 29.8%
39
seats
Social Credit
William Aberhart (unofficial) · +17 seats · 4.1%
17
seats
CCF
J. S. Woodsworth · +7 seats · 9.3%
7
seats
Reconstruction
H. H. Stevens · +1 seats · 8.7%
1
seats

8 further seats went to parties and independents outside the main contenders listed above.

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.

Liberal
BC 6 (31.8%)AB 1 (21.6%)SK 16 (40.8%)MB 10 (31.7%)ON 56 (42.2%)QC 59 (56.0%)NB 9 (57.2%)NS 12 (52.7%)PE 4 (58.3%)YT 0 (44.4%)
173
seats
Conservative
BC 5 (24.9%)AB 1 (17.6%)SK 1 (18.0%)MB 1 (27.9%)ON 25 (35.8%)QC 5 (27.5%)NB 1 (31.9%)NS 0 (34.5%)PE 0 (38.4%)
39
seats
Co-operative Commonwealth
BC 3 (32.7%)AB 0 (12.0%)SK 2 (21.3%)MB 2 (19.4%)ON 0 (8.0%)QC 0 (0.6%)
7
seats
Social Credit
BC 0 (0.6%)AB 15 (46.6%)SK 2 (17.8%)MB 0 (2.0%)
17
seats
Liberal-Progressive
MB 4 (10.5%)
4
seats
Reconstruction
BC 1 (7.3%)AB 0 (0.7%)SK 0 (1.3%)MB 0 (5.9%)ON 0 (11.4%)QC 0 (9.3%)NB 0 (9.7%)NS 0 (12.7%)PE 0 (3.4%)
1
seats
Independent Liberal
MB 0 (0.2%)ON 0 (0.6%)QC 1 (3.8%)NB 0 (0.4%)NS 0 (3.0%)
1
seats
Independent
BC 1 (1.8%)MB 0 (0.1%)ON 0 (0.2%)QC 0 (0.7%)NB 0 (0.8%)
1
seats
UFO-Labour
ON 1 (0.5%)
1
seats
Independent Conservative
QC 0 (<0.1%)YT 1 (55.6%)
1
seats
Total seats
245