Interesting Runners-Up in Canadian Elections Quiz

Answer: 1874, Accepting bribery from railroad company during the last election campaign

Macdonald's strong support of Canadian intercontinental railroad that connected the Canadian provinces across the country earned him much credit for successfully uniting Canada. However, his active involvement in railroad construction projects once went too far when they involved bribery in the incident that would be known as the Pacific Scandal. Ultimately, Macdonald returned to power in 1878 when the Liberal successor's lack of progress in building the railroad threatened a potential break-up of the country, as British Columbia warned a possibility of secession if the promise to build the railroad were not kept.

Answer: Military conscription

Unlike the English Canadians who supported their 'mother country' during the World War I, the French Canadians strongly opposed the Canadian involvement in what they perceived to be nothing more than Britain's European conflict. The French Canadians' resentment had been generally tempered during the first few years of the War, but it reached the boiling point when the Conservative/Union Government proposed conscription to supplement the shortage of recruits in 1917.

The French Canadians were now aghast that they would be forced to die for the War they hated so much.

Answer: Progressive Party

Initially, the newly emerged Progressive Party enjoyed a great electoral success due to its appeal to the farmers who were disappointed in the Liberal Party's reluctance to support its traditional pro-free trade stance. Ultimately, however, the Progressive Party was a highly disorganized protest party that could not sustain its electoral success after 1921. Gradually, most members of the Progressive Party joined other traditional parties when their initial passion for populist protest had diminished.

The Progressive Party ceased to exist when the final remnants of the party eventually merged with the Conservatives in 1942.

Answer: Members of minor political parties supported the Liberals instead of Conservatives

Although a simplified textbook explanation of parliamentary politics would state that the party winning most number of seats always becomes the Government Party, the reality is much more complex when no party wins the majority of seats in the Parliament. Because maintaining confidence ALWAYS requires majority of Parliament votes, a minority government that wishes to stay in power must form a (formal or informal) coalition with other party/parties to secure the required majority votes.

Therefore, in practice, a smaller party that is very good at building coalition can upstage a party that won plurality of seats but is unable to find a coalition partner.

The Election of 1925 was a classic example of the 2nd-place Liberals maintaining power by relying on the support of another political party (CCF).

Answer: Lester B. Pearson

The Suez Crisis began in 1956 when Gamal Abdel Nasser, the new leader of Egypt, nationalized the British-controlled Suez Canal, and Britain and France promptly made the controversial decision to re-occupy the Canal with the aid of Israel. Lester Pearson played the crucial role in introducing the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces into the Suez Canal Zone and averting a diplomatic crisis between the British-French Coalition and other powers including the United States and the Soviet Union.

In Canada, however, Pearson's mediation probably did not help his own party's electoral fortune very much, since many English Canadians would have preferred Canada to assist the 'mother country' (Britain) in need.

Answer: Supported Apartheid policy to maintain good relationship with South Africa

John Diefenbaker had been responsible for making many unfortunate policy mistakes while he was the Prime Minister (1957-1963), but he actually deserves a full credit for being a sincere advocate of social equality. In fact, Diefenbaker actually advocated the expulsion of South Africa from the British Commonwealth for its Apartheid policy, even if it meant straining relationships with Britain and South Africa.

In addition, Diefenbaker ended racial discriminations in voting rights and immigration, appointed a first woman and Aboriginal into the cabinet and the Senate respectively, and introduced the Canadian Bill of Rights (which unfortunately was merely a legal statute instead of a constitutional amendment).

Answer: Robert Stanfield

Robert Stanfield actually came very close to defeating Trudeau in 1972 (by the margin of 2 seats) when the Liberal Government was struggling to deal with the troubling economic recessions during the 1970s. While Stanfield was very well respected as a person, he was also regarded as a very dull individual.

This certainly did not help Stanfield in a close election, especially considering his opponent was a highly charismatic leader.

Answer: Tax increase

Charles Joseph Clark was a moderate conservative who proposed a pragmatic budget including a tax hike to reduce deficit and slow down inflation in 1979-80. However, Clark proved to be not as pragmatic in political maneuvering, as he seriously underestimated the Liberal Party's willingness to oppose the Government motion after the Liberal leader Pierre Trudeau announced his intent to resign. Later in the Election of 2000, Clark would come out of retirement to lead the Progressive Conservative Party again. Even though the Party was only the shell of its former self by then, Clark strongly asserted the Party's raison d'etre as a moderate conservative party and an alternative to the hardline right-wing Reform Party/Canadian Alliance.

Answer: US-Canada Free Trade Agreement

The replays of heated televised debate over free trade between John Turner and Brian Mulroney received extensive media coverage throughout the Election, just as Turner hoped. Considering some opinion polls even projected the 3rd-place finish for the Liberal Party before the debate (Liberals never finished worse than 2nd in the past), the solid 2nd-place finish in the Election was a moderate success for John Turner. Ironically, in the previous Election of 1984, John Turner actually had one of the worst moments in Canadian election debates (and elections), as he responded "I had no option" when Brian Mulroney asked why Turner did not reject appointments of Trudeau's nominees who only got the nomination based on cronyism.

Answer: Bloc Quebecois

Failure of the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords (which would have recognized Quebec as 'Distinct Society'), perception of betrayal within the Western Canadian party base, and other unpopular measures such as the Goods and Service tax (7% sales tax) all contributed to the demise of Progressive Conservative Party, which won just 2 seats in 1993. Bloc Quebecois, the party advocating political independence for Quebec in the form of 'sovereignty-association', narrowly edged the Western-Canadian-dominated Reform Party for the 2nd-place finish.