1878 Canadian federal election
General Election
The 1878 Canadian federal election was held on September 17, 1878, to elect members of the House of Commons of the 4th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in the end of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie's Liberal government after only one term in office. Canada suffered an economic depression during Mackenzie's term, and his party was punished by voters for it. The Liberals' policy of free trade also hurt their support with the business establishment in Toronto and Montreal.
Sir John A. Macdonald and his Conservative Party were returned to power after having been defeated four years before amidst scandals over the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Electoral System
First past the post was used to elect in single-member ridings. The Halifax riding elected two MPs, using plurality block voting.
Secret voting, with the paper "Australian ballot", was used in this election for the first time.
National results
Note:
* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.
Acclamations
The following Members of Parliament were elected by acclamation;
British Columbia: 1 Conservative, 1 Liberal-Conservative
Manitoba: 2 Conservatives, 1 Liberal-Conservative
Quebec: 1 Conservative, 2 Liberal-Conservatives, 1 Liberal
New Brunswick: 1 Liberal, 1 Independent
Results by province
See also
List of Canadian federal general elections
4th Canadian Parliament
References
Notes
Further reading
Argyle, Ray (2004).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “1878 Canadian federal election” as general Election. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as general Election. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q909888. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1878 and 2004.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1878 Canadian federal election”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1878 Canadian federal election primary sources, 1878 Canadian federal election archive and Canadian research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1878 Canadian federal election”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1878 Canadian federal election” 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.