The 1940 Canadian federal election was held March 26, 1940, to elect members of the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Commons i ...

of the 19th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

was re-elected to their second consecutive majority government. The election was overshadowed by the Second World War, which caused many Canadians to rally around the government. In response to this, the Conservative Party of Robert Manion ran on a platform advocating the creation of an all-party national unity government and ran under the name " National Government" in this election. Though Manion was personally opposed to

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

, the Liberals faced intense pressure in Quebec on the question and promised not to institute the measure. This promise was to haunt the Liberals as they faced increasing pressure from the military and especially from English Canada to bring in the measure. To release him from his September 1939 promise, King called a plebiscite in 1942 on the question. ''See also

Conscription Crisis of 1944 The Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis following the introduction of forced military service for men in Canada during World War II. It was similar to the Conscription Crisis of 1917, but not as politically damaging. B ...

.'' It was the most successful election for the

in its history, in which it captured 73% of the seats in the House of Commons. Social Credit ran jointly with the

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that was decisively distinc ...

movement of

William Duncan Herridge William Duncan Herridge (September 18, 1887 – September 21, 1961) was a Canadian politician and diplomat. Early life He was the son of William T. Herridge, a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. Herridge was educated a ...

. Some candidates of the Conservative and Social Credit parties insisted on running under the traditional names, however. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) gained its first seat east of Manitoba, with the election of

Clarence Gillis Clarence (Clarie) Gillis, MP (October 3, 1895 – December 17, 1960) was a Canadian social democratic politician and trade unionist from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. He was born on Nova Scotia's mainland, but grew up in Cape Breton. He wo ...

from

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

. This election was the last one for its ailing leader,

J. S. Woodsworth James Shaver Woodsworth (July 29, 1874 – March 21, 1942) was a pre–First World War pioneer of the Canadian Social Gospel, a Christian religious movement with social democratic values and links to organized labour. He was a long-time leader a ...

National results

Notes: * The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election. x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote ¹ "Change" and "% Change% figures compare total of "National Government" and "Conservative" to 1935 Conservative vote. ² New Democracy and Social Credit ran jointly under the New Democracy banner under the leadership of former Conservative

who had founded New Democracy in 1939 to promote his ideas monetary and economic reform, though several candidates continued to run under the old Social Credit name. The 3 New Democracy MPs elected were all Social Credit incumbents, including Social Credit parliamentary leader John Horne Blackmore while Herridge himself failed to win his seat. The party sat in the House of Commons under the New Democracy name until 1944 when its national convention voted to revert to the Social Credit name. ³Two candidates appear to have run under the "New Democratic Party" banner. It is unlikely that this was related in any way to the

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialistThe follo ...

's adoption of this name in 1960. This may be a mis-reporting of party label - these candidates may have been "New Democracy" candidates.

Results by province

*xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

References

{{election canada Federal

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January ...

March 1940 events