1867 Ontario general election
elections in XIX century Canada
The 1867 Ontario general election was the first provincial election ("local election" colloquially at the time ) held in the newly created province of Ontario, upon Canadian Confederation to elected the members of Ontario 1st Legislative Assembly. The election took place in conjunction with the first Canadian federal election (called "dominion election" at the time) from late August to September that year, and on the same electoral boundaries.
The partisan make up of the legislature is not as straight forward as the numbers suggest. Political parties in the early days of confederation were characterized by "loose coalitions" that may change from issue to issue. It was clear however, that more than half of the members returned were supportive of the Patent Combination, the coalition ministry of John Sandfield Macdonald, appointed provisionally upon Canada's confederation, while those oppose were in minority, allowing the ministry to continue in government.
Context - Politics of the Province of Canada
The outcome of the first Ontario election tells the story of the political mastery of one John Macdonald and the expediency of another, two erstwhile rivals both from eastern Ontario though with no familial relationship. While the more radical George Brown was the most prominent Liberal (or Reformer, as those in opposition to the Tories were known then) among the fathers of confederation and the principal rival to Canada's founding prime minister John A Macdonald, it was John Sandfield Macdonald leading a Liberal ministry who replaced John A when his Tories ministry was ousted between 1862 and 1864. With the exception of a two-day ministry led by Brown, one of two Macdonalds occupied the English co-premiership in the final decade of the United Province of Canada.
The politics of that final decade was however plagued by division along not just partisan but also religious and language lines. Governments were propped up by disgruntled opposition members with transitory loyalty and therefore were routinely on the verge of collapsing.
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