12th Canadian Parliament
term of the parliament of Canada (1911–1917)
The 12th Canadian Parliament was in session from 15 November 1911 until 6 October 1917. The membership was set by the 1911 federal election on 21 September 1911, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1917 election. At 5 years, 10 months and 22 days, it was the longest parliament in Canadian history. The parliament was extended beyond the normal limit of five years by the British North America Act, 1916 as a result of World War I.
It was controlled by a Conservative/Liberal-Conservative majority under Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden and the 9th Canadian Ministry. The Official Opposition was the Liberal Party, led by Wilfrid Laurier. The last year of the wartime parliament was dominated by the Conscription Crisis of 1917. At the end of the parliament, a new ministry, the Union Government, was formed by Borden as a wartime coalition government including Liberals. Laurier refused to join and those Liberals who supported Borden took the name Liberal-Unionists. The Union Government went on to win the 1917 federal election.
The Speaker was first Thomas Simpson Sproule, and later Albert Sévigny.
“12th Canadian Parliament” enters the record as term of the parliament of Canada (1911–1917). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what 12th, Canadian and Parliament can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2807469. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1911, 1917 and 1916.
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This entry incorporates text from “12th Canadian Parliament” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.