This is Part Four of a multi-part series. You can read Part One , Part Two, and Part Three .
Prime Minister Arthur Meighen replaced Robert Borden in the summer of 1920.
Borden had resigned due to poor health, and Meighen was appointed to the role after first choice William Thomas White declined.
A depression followed the First World War's end due to deflation and complications of introducing veterans, some who knew nothing but combat, back into the economy, which had not yet fully adjusted from a wartime economy back to peacetime. Labour union strikes, policy changes, and the Spanish Flu also exacerbated the situation.
had formed to solidify his position during the war, particularly around conscription and the war effort, but had renamed it the National Liberal and Conservative Party. However, several Liberal Unionists had retired from the cabinet, but Meighen was keen on keeping the coalition together, as opposed to going back to the parties of old.
Wilfrid Laurier, the leader of the Liberal Party and who was the first French Canadian Prime Minister (1896-1911), died in 1919 of a stroke while still in office as the leader of the opposition. He was succeeded by William Lyon Mackenzie King. A staunch Laurier loyalist, King campaigned for labour interests, welfare reform, and paying attention to the prairies, despite being from Ontario and convinced some Liberals who joined the Unionists to rejoin the party.
Another party had also formed. Thomas Crerar launched the Progressive Party of Canada. Born in Ontario but lived in Manitoba, Crerar was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture by Borden in 1917 despite never being an elected official. He left the position in protest in 1919, upset over high tariff policies. Crerar, a farmer, who had been the leader of the Manitoba Grain Grower's Association before his appointment, thought free trade with the United States was beneficial for farmers.
After he left government, he launched the Progressive Party.
Election day was on Dec. 6, 1921. The Liberals won 118 seats, making King the Prime Minister. Crerar's party won 58 seats, while Meighan's party only won 48.
The election was a first of many. It was the first federal election where the majority of Canadian women could vote and run for office. Five women ran for office, while only one was elected (Agnes Macphail of the Progressive Party for the Grey Southeast riding in Ontario). It was also the first time the election resulted in parliament being split in three ways, effectively making the country a three-party system.
The Comox-Alberni riding elected . A member of the Progressive Party, Neill moved to the riding in 1891 as a farmer and owner of the Pioneer Feed Store.. In this position, Neill was active in enforcing the residential school system and Canada's assimilation policies toward First Nations.
Despite running as a Progressive candidate, (two Independents were elected, as was an Independent Conservative and one Independent Progressive, elsewhere three seats were won by the Labour Party, 10 by the United Farmers of Alberta, and another seat was won by a candidate with the United Farmers of Ontario).
The Progressive Party and its allies, the United Farmers of Alberta, dominated the Prairies but only won one seat in Ontario. Whereas, the Liberals won Quebec and most of the Atlantic and Northern BC. The Conservatives had a strong presence in most of Ontario, BC and the Yukon.
Despite King winning a majority, it was plagued by resignations and byelection defeats, opening the door for other parties members to take a seat. Luckily for King and the Liberals, the Progressive Party wasn't very united in it's goals, and were able to get some of their members to cross the floor.
King's goals included lowering wartime taxes, labour, and ethnic tensions. He also appeased the Progressives by reducing tariffs just enough to please them, but not so much to lose the support of Labour members and industry competing with American imports.
King, like some of his predecessors, was anti-Chinese immigration. He passed the completely banning Chinese from immigrating. King also lifted restrictions on Ukrainians and people from Austria-Hungary on immigration.
. It wasn't just Chinese people he was opposed to, but anyone from Asia and once referred to the Act as the "final solution of the Chinese question in Canada."
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King called an election in 1925 for a few reasons. A corruption scandal surrounding the expansion of the Beauharnois Canal unfolded. Another corruption scandal involving the Department of Customs, not connected to King but still threatening his position, was also uncovered.
An election was not due until December, 2026, but ultimately when a budget proposed by finance minister William Stevens Fielding was voted down. Instead of allowing the two other parties to form government, King resigned as prime minister.
However, it was a minority government, with the Conservatives only winning 115 seats. The Liberals had won 100, while the Progressives, now under the leadership of Robert Forke, won 22.
King and the Progressives had a deal to form a minority agreement, with their combined seats holding the balance of power. It was complicated. King had actually lost his seat in York North, and the Conservative Party had more seats than his party. Governor General, Baron Julian Byng of Vimy felt this pact was corrupt but couldn't find anything to prevent it from happening, so King was allowed to remain in office. King had a Liberal Member of Parliament resign so he could run for Prince Albert, which he won.
However, it was all undone in June when another scandal forced him to resign again, but not before he attended the 1926 Imperial Conference, which resulted in the Balfour Declaration. The declaration gave diplomatic and political independence to the United Kingdom's Dominions (in 1922, the UK appealed to King to support them in the Chanak Crisis - a war scare between Turkey, formally the Ottoman Empire, and the Allied forces of the UK, France, Italy and Greece), which included Canada and Newfoundland.
This time, King won 116 seats, while Meighan, again the leader of the opposition, won 91. The Progressive Party was also accelerating to demise. Forke resigned as leader and joined the Liberals as a Liberal-Progressive. Others followed suit, some joined the United Farmers of Alberta, who had become more independent from the Progressive Party, and others joined the Ginger Group - a non-formal faction of Progressive and Labour Party members who were advocating for socialism.
Despite being leaderless, the Progressive Party won 11 seats, while the United Farmers of Alberta, led by John E. Brownlee, also won 11 seats.
Neill survived all this upheaval, this time running as a true Independent, winning both the 1925 and 1926 elections.
The Conservative loss in this election, caused Meighen to resign as party leader. Byng also returned to the United Kingdom and was given a promotion for his trouble, becoming a Viscount instead of Baron.
After his win, King carried on making Canada more autonomous from the United Kingdom. Domestically, he reduced taxes and introduced the Fair Wages and Eight Hours Day Act.
By 1930, the Great Depression was starting to hit Canada. It caused millions of Canadians to lose their jobs, go hungry, and become homeless. The Prairies and Western Canada were hit the hardest, especially in rural areas, driving farmers to cities. King's administration was not prepared for it, believing the crisis would blow over without government intervention.
Come election time on July 28, 1930, it was clear many Canadians disagreed with him. The Conservative Party won 137 seats under the leadership of .
Bennett nominated himself as a candidate for the Conservative leadership convention in 1927 after Meighen stepped down, despite not expecting to win. But he did. The party, however, was broke and before the election, he donated $500,000 ($8,857,664.23 today) to his party.
Bennett's tariff policy also brought Liberal strongholds in Quebec over to the Conservatives.
The Progressive Party on the other end, only managed to win three seats. The party eventually dissolved the same year.
Bennett and the government passed the Unemployment Relief Act, providing $20 million for public works, and increased tariffs as part of the Unemployment and Farm Relief Act but the Conservative Party's pro-business and pro-banking policies did little to help those suffering from the Great Depression. Most social programs offered to individuals and families were minimal, making the situation turn violent in some cases, such as the Estevan Riot in 1931 and the Battle of Ballantyne Pier in Vancouver in 1935.
" It came from a speech he gave in Toronto in 1932. The Great Depression led to the rise of the Communist Party of Canada, and Bennett invoked Section 98 of the Criminal Code,
Labour camps were also introduced for unemployed single men, who were paid 20 cents a day for a 44-hour working week. Eventually, the poor conditions of these camps in BC, workers started protesting for two months starting in April 1935, , which Bennett treated as an insurrection. By the time it reached Regina, RCMP officers met them, resulting in the , where two people died, and over 140 people were arrested.
Bennett was starting to lose faith in not just the Canadian public, but his own party. One of his ministers, H.H. Stevens left the party and started a new one, the short-lived Reconstruction Party of Canada.
By 1935, Bennett and the Conservatives lost all favour and King was re-elected as Prime Minister on Oct. 14, 1935 winning a majority of 173 seats. New parties, the Social Credit Party of Canada and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation also emerged.
