Unionist Party (Canada)

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The Unionist Party (English Unionist Party , French Parti unioniste ) was a political party in Canada . It was a short-lived association of the Conservative Party of Prime Minister Robert Borden with individual members of the lower house of the Liberal Party , who supported the introduction of conscription during the First World War (see also the conscription crisis of 1917 ).

history

In May 1917, the Conservative Prime Minister Borden had proposed the formation of an all-party government to the leader of the Liberals, Wilfrid Laurier , in order to be able to introduce conscription and rule for the remainder of the war. Laurier rejected the proposal, as many liberal MPs from the French-speaking province of Québec firmly opposed conscription and feared that the nationalist Henri Bourassa would take advantage of the situation. By contrast, conscription was met with approval by the Liberals in the English-speaking part of the country.

As an alternative to a coalition with Laurier, Borden formed a "unionist government" with conservative, liberal and independent ministers on October 12, 1917. He then set a new election for December 1917 in order to receive a clear mandate for conscription. Borden appeared as the head of the "Unionist Party" and made conscription the main topic of the election campaign. In the 1917 general election , candidates from the Unionist Party ran against liberals who were critical of conscription and who continued to support Wilfrid Laurier (hence the name "Laurier Liberals"). The election ended in a split in the country along the language border. The Liberals won 82 seats, including 62 in Québec. The Unionists, who won 153 seats, were successful in only three predominantly English-speaking constituencies in Québec.

After the end of the war Borden tried to continue the Unionist Party. Arthur Meighen succeeded him in 1920 and renamed the party the “National Liberal and Conservative Party” in the hope of keeping the coalition permanently. The Unionists had never officially been a party in the strict sense of the word and so they lacked structures. Meighen sought to change that.

Before the general election in 1921 , however, most of the liberal-unionist MPs did not join this party because they had only agreed with the conservatives on the issue of conscription. Instead, they returned to the Liberal Party, now led by William Lyon Mackenzie King . Few liberals continued to support the conservatives. After Meighen's devastating electoral defeat, the Conservative Party reverted to its old name.

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