1871 Ontario general election

1871 Ontario general election

March 21, 1871
82 seats in the 2nd Legislative Assembly of Ontario 42 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Edward Blake John Sandfield Macdonald Party Liberal Liberal–Conservative Leader's seat Bruce South Cornwall Last election 41 41 Seats won 43 38 Seat change 2 3
Premier before election John Sandfield Macdonald Conservative Premier after election Edward Blake Liberal

The 1871 Ontario general election was the second general election held in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on March 21, 1871, to elect the 82 Members of the 2nd Parliament of Ontario ("MPPs").

While it is generally accepted that that the Ontario Liberals led by Edward Blake secured a slim edge over the incumbent Conservatives led by Premier John Sandfield Macdonald, such an understanding was partially developed with the benefit of hindsight on a period during which the Liberals' ousted the Sandfield Macdonald ministry, commenced the building of a far more expansive administration, and within a year carried out an orderly transition of its party and the government leadership while largely remained stable and united. In the months following the election however, the incumbent government did not concede it has lost control of the legislature and continued to govern without convening the new parliament. Challenges to the election of a dozen members further muddied the situation and provided additional fodder for Sandfield Macdonald to resist convening the new parliament for eight months and to disregard multiple votes of no confidence. The impasse was resolved on December 19 that year after his Treasurer resigned from cabinet and voted with the opposition.

Neither the outgoing nor the incoming premier remained on the scene for long. The rapid decline of Premier Sandfield Macdonald's health was evident throughout that year. His ministry's demise at the year's end foretold his own in just five months. Matthew Crooks Cameron, his principal lieutenant in government and his most ardent defender in the legislature, assumed leadership of the Conservative Party and of the opposition. Premier Blake served only ten months, resigning in October 1972 to devote his attention to leading the national Liberal Party. He and George Brown convinced their former reform colleague Oliver Mowat to return to politics to succeed him, a move that secured his own legacy as founding head of a 34-year continuous Liberal rule.

The partisan makeup of the new parliament was not remotely as straight forward as the numbers suggest, as candidates' partisan affiliations were not formally registered as they are in modern days. While partisan affiliations were generally more clearly defined than during the 1867 election, there remained candidates who made use of party labels of past affiliations that did not reflect their political allegiance in practice, or were elected without having declared their allegiance.

Significant changes to the rules of engagement

As attorney general Sandfield Macdonald delivered in 1868 An Act respecting Elections of Members of the Legislative Assembly, the province's first statute that comprehensively consolidated and codified elections law. The statute instituted the key requirement to hold balloting for general elections on the same day throughout the province. It also considerably broadened the franchise.

He also delivered, at the eve the election call, the Controverted Elections Act of 1871, which consolidated an array of challenges to election conducts under corrupt practices, and depoliticised the adjudication process by transferring the power to adjudicate such challenges from parliamentary committees to the Court of Queen's Bench (predecessor of Ontario's superior court). This new regime end up playing a big role in ending his government.

While not a formal change to any legislation, both majors party held candidate nomination conventions with increased formality and managed the process with much firmer hands. The result of local nomination conventions of both parties received greater formal coverage in the press. Accordingly, while there remained no formal requirements for formal registration or declaration of candidates' partisan affiliations and no restrictions on usage, the identity of the two main parties' candidate were easier to discern than in the 1867 election. However, they also provided informal support to selected candidates not endorsed by them for various strategic reasons. Furthermore, certain candidates campaigned with labels of past affiliations but were not aligned with the party while other candidates downplay the party they are affiliated with.

This was the last election where sitting members of the federal parliament were not prevented from nomination or election. Before the federal election in the following year however, the Parliament of Canada would legislate the elimination of dual mandates by disallowing nominations of sitting provincial legislators in federal election contests. This pending would impact both parties by removing six members elected in this election from the legislature, including the incumbent Liberal Premier and Treasurer, and two Conservative former cabinet members.

Results in summary

The results, as reported in formal records compiled in years by the Legislative Assembly and made available to the public (and in more recent years also reproduced by Elections Ontario) were as follows.

2nd Parliament of Ontario   Liberal: 43     Conservative: 38           Conservative-Liberal: 1      seats vacated pending byelection when parliament first met in December 1871

Elections to the 2nd Parliament of Ontario (1871)

Partisan Affiliation		Party leader	Seats				Votes
			Candi- dates	1867	1871	±	Votes	±	%	± (%)
	Liberal	Edward Blake	76	41	43	2	68,366	9,323	52.30%	3.54
	Liberal–Conservative	John Sandfield Macdonald	73	41	38	3	59,926	20,185	45.85%	4.44
	Conservative-Liberal	(label only)	1	–	1	n/a	1,116	n/a	0.85%	n/a
	Others		9	–	–	–	1,303	n/a	1.00%	n/a
Total			159	82	82		130,711		100.00%
Voter turnout							130,711	28,612	62.93	10.93
Registered electors							207,717	8,005

Partisan affiliations were not recorded in contemporaneous formal elections record. Affiliations presented are the party affiliations as recorded in various resources maintained by the Legislative Assembly, which were not all compiled contemporaneously. Even contemporaneous affiliations data were a mixture of both formal undisputed declaration (made by the candidates or the parties), assessments by third parties such as the press, and presumptions from other events such as acceptance of specific offices. Such data inevitably contains some uncertainties, time lags, or inaccuracies, reflecting the lesser formality and permeance in partisan affiliation in that era.

Delayed of transition of power

Main articles: 2nd Parliament of Ontario, John Sandfield Macdonald ministry § Defeat, and Blake ministry § Formation

Following the election, the incumbent Conservatives refused to concede and clung on to power for nine months until December 19, 1871. It claimed to commend the confidence of new parliament, but avoided testing that confidence by delaying the convocation of the new parliament seven times. While its reasoning were less then credible, the government was able to resisted calls for its resignation by leaning on uncertainties provided through a combination of factors.

Partisan allegiance not all certain

The room to dispute the overall election outcome stemmed from the uncertainty of political affiliation for the some of the elected members, and from the fact that elected members' claimed political party affiliations were not the exclusive determining factor, and in some cases not even the main determining factor for their partisan allegiance. Afterall, the incumbent Conservative government was led by a former Liberal chosen by the national party leader in part to help legitimize the party's claim as a coalition.

In the months following the election, the press focused their analysis not on the elected members' professed partisan affiliations, but classified members as "ministerialists" committed to sustain the incumbent ministry versus those opposing the government. Known partisan affiliation were considered along with other factors such as family ties and previous behaviour, with the allegiances of certain members subject to extensive commentary and speculation. Unlike modern day election coverage, only a small number of outlets provided their summary tally of the likely strength of the two sides. The following are a few samples of reported tally. The early tallies reported 81 seats as the election for Algoma was held later on in May that year. The last tally reported in December that year took into account of seven vacancies caused by resignations and invalidations.

	Ministerialists	Opposition	Independent (or unknown)	Election undetermined	Total
Toronto Leader, 22 March 1871, p. 1	43	34	9	1	81
The Globe (Toronto), 23 March 1871, p. 2	32	41	7	1	81
Ottawa Free Press, 23 March 1871, p. 2	32	41	7	1	81
Sarnia Observer, 24 March 1871, p. 1	33	43	5		81
The Globe (Toronto), 6 December 1871, p. 2	29	40	6	7	82

Elections challenged and invalided

The election of elevens members were challenged under the newly adopted Controverted Elections Act of 1871. This prompted the incumbent ministry to delay the convening of parliament repeatedly over right months in the hopes that such challenges would results in its improved standing in the new parliament. Its standing was weakened rather than improved by the process however. While the election of members on both side of the aisle were challenged, the elections of five Conservatives but only one Liberal were invalidated. All six unseated members stood in the subsequent byelections and all but one were returned during in the resulting byelections. However, since writs for byelection could only be moved while the legislature was in session, these six seats were vacant when parliament finally met for a number of weeks.

Double return

Liberal leader Edward Blake was re-elected in Bruce South and also in Durham West (where he was the MP), but would only be able to cast one vote in each division (vote) to take place in parliament. This effectively reduced the opposition Liberal rank by one until a replacement could be elected through a byelection. At that time, resignations could only take effect when the parliament was in session.

Government defeat

Parliament was called into session on Friday December 7th, 1871. An additional Liberal member resigned on the fourth sitting day. By the time substantive debate regarding non-confidence on the government took place, eight seats were vacant, reducing the rank of the Conservatives by five and Liberals by three.

During the debate on the speech from the throne, the Sandfield Macdonald ministry suffered defeats in three recorded divisions on three consecutive days, respectively on December 13th, 14th, and 15th and each unmistakably expressed parliament's non-confidence on the ministry. The incumbent Conservative ministry initially refused to accept the recorded divisions as binding expression of non-confidence on the grounds that a tenth of the seats were vacant, but the government's position became untenable following the resignation of Provincial Treasurer Edmund Burke Wood on December 15 and defeats in two further recorded divisions on December 18, each by margin of close to 20 votes. Premier Macdonald announced the resignation of the ministry on December 19.

The transition of power mandated by this election was effected nine months after on December 20, 1971 with the formation of the province's first Liberal ministry led by Premier Edward Blake and featuring future Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie as Treasurer. While Blake and Mackenzie remained in their provincial offices for only a year, the Liberal Party led the Ontario government for 33 more years after their departures.

Byelections for the eight vacancies noted, along with four ministerial byelections necessitated by the formation of the Blake ministry, were held in the following January. The two parties each gain a seat against the other, result in no change to their respective standings in parliament.

Synopsis of results

Results by riding - 1871 Ontario general election

Riding	Winning party								Turnout	Votes
Name	1867		Party		Votes	Share	Margin #	Margin %		Lib	Con	CL	Ind	Total
Addington		Con		Lib	809	50.82%	26	1.63%	59.31%	809	783	–	–	1,592
Algoma		Con		Con	acclaimed
Bothwell		Lib		Lib	1,304	55.02%	238	10.04%	72.17%	1,304	1,066	–	–	2,370
Brant North		Lib		Lib	740	60.26%	252	20.52%	60.73%	740	488	–	–	1,228
Brant South		Con		Con	1,172	52.70%	120	5.40%	66.55%	1,052	1,172	–	–	2,224
Brockville and Elizabethtown		Con		Con	620	50.28%	7	0.57%	66.33%	613	620	–	–	1,233
Bruce North		Lib		Lib	acclaimed
Bruce South		Lib		Lib	2,082	55.21%	393	10.42%	79.79%	2,082	1,689	–	–	3,771
Cardwell		Con		CL	1,116	63.16%	465	26.32%	67.14%	651	–	1,116	–	1,767
Carleton		Lib		Con	822	50.31%	10	0.61%	63.46%	812	822	–	–	1,634
Cornwall		Con		Con	acclaimed
Dundas		Lib		Lib	1,216	56.09%	264	12.18%	76.28%	1,216	952	–	–	2,168
Durham East		Con		Con	acclaimed
Durham West		Lib		Lib	acclaimed
Elgin East		Con		Lib	1,442	53.11%	169	6.22%	63.82%	1,442	1,273	–	–	2,715
Elgin West		Con		Lib	969	55.69%	198	11.38%	76.55%	969	771	–	–	1,740
Essex		Con		Lib	1,204	51.23%	418	17.79%	50.95%	1,204	786	–	360	2,350
Frontenac		Con		Con	acclaimed
Glengarry		Con		Con	962	52.89%	105	5.77%	72.30%	857	962	–	–	1,819
Grenville South		Con		Con	797	51.22%	38	2.44%	76.42%	759	797	–	–	1,556
Grey North		Con		Con	1,339	58.42%	386	16.84%	50.22%	953	1,339	–	–	2,292
Grey South		Con		Con	1,625	59.92%	538	19.84%	61.83%	1,087	1,625	–	–	2,712
Haldimand		Lib		Lib	1,212	60.78%	430	21.56%	59.90%	1,212	782	–	–	1,994
Halton		Lib		Lib	1,194	55.98%	255	11.95%	57.51%	1,194	939	–	–	2,133
Hamilton		Lib		Lib	1,294	54.23%	202	8.47%	60.54%	1,294	1,092	–	–	2,386
Hastings East		Con		Con	186	88.57%	162	77.14%	10.10%	24	186	–	–	210
Hastings North		Con		Con	604	86.04%	506	72.08%	41.29%	98	604	–	–	702
Hastings West		Con		Con	acclaimed
Huron North		Con		Lib	2,259	55.86%	474	11.72%	68.67%	2,259	1,785	–	–	4,044
Huron South		Lib		Lib	1,561	53.55%	207	7.10%	71.64%	1,561	1,354	–	–	2,915
Kent		Lib		Lib	1,382	53.55%	183	7.09%	61.15%	1,382	1,199	–	–	2,581
Kingston		Con		Con	607	50.04%	21	1.73%	58.21%	586	607	–	20	1,213
Lambton		Lib		Lib	acclaimed
Lanark North		Lib		Lib	acclaimed
Lanark South		Con		Con	816	42.88%	150	7.88%	66.10%	666	816	–	421	1,903
Leeds North and Grenville North		Lib		Con	723	61.01%	261	22.03%	52.71%	462	723	–	–	1,185
Leeds South		Con		Con	acclaimed
Lennox		Con		Con	1,183	56.41%	269	12.83%	62.95%	–	2,097	–	–	2,097
Lincoln		Con		Con	acclaimed
London		Con		Con	985	63.84%	427	27.67%	57.06%	558	985	–	–	1,543
Middlesex East		Lib		Con	1,622	51.41%	89	2.82%	74.92%	1,533	1,622	–	–	3,155
Middlesex North		Lib		Lib	1,286	56.58%	299	13.15%	69.34%	1,286	987	–	–	2,273
Middlesex West		Con		Lib	1,362	58.81%	408	17.62%	77.17%	1,362	954	–	–	2,316
Monck		Con		Con	931	50.13%	5	0.27%	66.35%	926	931	–	–	1,857
Niagara		Con		Con	277	62.25%	109	24.49%	56.98%	168	277	–	–	445
Norfolk North		Con		Lib	1,122	56.78%	268	13.56%	74.43%	1,122	854	–	–	1,976
Norfolk South		Lib		Lib	1,009	53.30%	125	6.60%	71.73%	1,009	884	–	–	1,893
Northumberland East		Lib		Lib	694	37.70%	30	1.63%	53.22%	694	664	–	483	1,841
Northumberland West		Lib		Lib	1,013	50.90%	36	1.81%	67.48%	1,013	977	–	–	1,990
Ontario North		Lib		Lib	1,279	73.80%	833	48.07%	44.11%	1,279	446	–	–	1,733
Ontario South		Lib		Lib	1,180	52.17%	98	4.33%	65.81%	1,180	1,082	–	–	2,262
Ottawa		Lib		Lib	574	76.33%	396	52.66%	27.68%	574	178	–	–	752
Oxford North		Lib		Lib	acclaimed
Oxford South		Lib		Lib	1,430	57.78%	385	15.56%	65.86%	1,430	1,045	–	–	2,475
Peel		Con		Con	1,118	51.36%	59	2.71%	75.91%	1,059	1,118	–	–	2,177
Perth North		Con		Con	1,630	57.88%	444	15.77%	68.20%	1,186	1,630	–	–	2,816
Perth South		Lib		Con	1,302	50.60%	31	1.20%	71.99%	1,271	1,302	–	–	2,573
Peterborough East		Con		Con	779	61.68%	299	23.67%	60.55%	480	779	–	4	1,263
Peterborough West		Con		Lib	648	52.13%	53	4.26%	69.91%	648	595	–	–	1,243
Prescott		Lib		Con	853	54.26%	134	8.52%	75.61%	719	853	–	–	1,572
Prince Edward		Lib		Lib	1,522	52.23%	130	4.46%	78.19%	1,522	1,392	–	–	2,914
Renfrew North		Con		Con	640	56.74%	152	13.48%	74.31%	488	640	–	–	1,128
Renfrew South		Lib		Con	448	63.46%	190	26.91%	59.88%	258	448	–	–	706
Russell		Con		Con	773	51.29%	46	3.05%	56.15%	727	773	–	7	1,507
Simcoe North		Lib		Con	1,354	44.39%	313	10.26%	69.41%	1,696	1,354	–	–	3,050
Simcoe South		Con		Con	acclaimed
Stormont		Con		Con	705	50.18%	5	0.36%	74.34%	700	705	–	–	1,405
Toronto East		Con		Con	1,232	52.56%	120	5.12%	52.26%	1,112	1,232	–	–	2,344
Toronto West		Con		Lib	1,487	53.05%	171	6.10%	51.84%	1,487	1,316	–	–	2,803
Victoria North		Lib		Con	518	54.76%	90	9.51%	61.55%	428	518	–	–	946
Victoria South		Lib		Lib	1,046	60.05%	350	20.09%	59.97%	1,742	–	–	–	1,742
Waterloo North		Lib		Lib	acclaimed
Waterloo South		Lib		Lib	1,215	60.27%	414	20.54%	69.42%	1,215	801	–	–	2,016
Welland		Lib		Lib	1,182	53.12%	139	6.25%	61.08%	2,225	–	–	–	2,225
Wellington Centre		Con		Lib	1,465	64.94%	674	29.88%	58.89%	1,465	791	–	–	2,256
Wellington North		Lib		Lib	1,531	63.53%	652	27.05%	59.40%	1,531	879	–	–	2,410
Wellington South		Lib		Lib	acclaimed
Wentworth North		Lib		Lib	1,071	57.24%	271	14.48%	70.95%	1,071	800	–	–	1,871
Wentworth South		Lib		Lib	957	66.97%	485	33.94%	56.08%	957	472	–	–	1,429
York East		Lib		Lib	791	70.19%	455	40.37%	36.52%	791	336	–	–	1,127
York North		Lib		Con	1,306	50.10%	5	0.19%	66.64%	1,301	1,306	–	–	2,607
York West		Con		Lib	865	56.32%	194	12.63%	62.54%	865	671	–	–	1,536

  = open seat

  = turnout is above provincial average

  = winning candidate was in previous Legislature

  = incumbent had switched allegiance

  = previously incumbent in another riding

  = not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature

  = incumbency arose from byelection gain

  = other incumbents renominated

  = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada

  = multiple candidates

Analysis

Party candidates in 2nd place

Party in 1st place		Party in 2nd place			Total
		Accl	Lib	Con
	Liberal	7	2	34	43
	Conservative	8	29	1	38
	Conservative-Liberal		1		1
Total		15	32	35	82

Candidates ranked 1st to 3rd place, by party

Parties	Accl	1st	2nd	3rd
█ Liberal	7	36	32	1
█ Conservative	8	30	35
█ Conservative-Liberal		1
█ Independent				7

Resulting composition of the 2nd Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Source		Party
		Lib	Con	CL	Total
Seats retained	Incumbents returned	19	16		35
	Returned by acclamation	7	8		15
	Open seats held		3		3
	Ouster of incumbents changing allegiance	4			4
	Defeat of incumbent by same-party candidate	2	1		3
	Byelection loss reversed		1		1
Seats changing hands	Incumbents defeated	8	7		15
	Open seats gained	3	2	1	6
Total		43	38	1	82

Members elected by region and riding

Party designations are as follows:

  Liberal

  Conservative

  Conservative-Liberal

Midwestern Ontario

•   Brant North: Hugh Finlayson
•   Brant South: Edmund Burke Wood
•   Bruce North: Donald Sinclair
•   Bruce South: Edward Blake
•   Grey North: Thomas Scott
•   Grey South: Abram William Lauder
•   Haldimand: Jacob Baxter
•   Huron North: Thomas Gibson
•   Huron South: Robert Gibbons
•   Norfolk North: John Fitzgerald Clarke
•   Norfolk South: Simpson McCall
•   Oxford North: George Perry
•   Oxford South: Adam Oliver
•   Perth North: Andrew Monteith
•   Perth South: Thomas B. Guest
•   Waterloo North: Moses Springer
•   Waterloo South: Isaac Clemens
•   Wellington Centre: Charles Clarke
•   Wellington North: Robert McKim
•   Wellington South: Peter Gow

Southwestern Ontario

•   Bothwell: Archibald McKellar
•   Elgin East: John Henry Wilson
•   Elgin West: Thomas Hodgins
•   Essex: Albert Prince
•   Kent: James Dawson
•   Lambton: Timothy Blair Pardee
•   London: John Carling
•   Middlesex East: Richard Tooley
•   Middlesex North: James Sinclair Smith
•   Middlesex West: Alexander Mackenzie

Northern Ontario

•   Algoma: Frederick William Cumberland

Peel/Simcoe/Durham/Ontario

•   Cardwell: George McManus
•   Durham East: Arthur Trefusis Heneage Williams
•   Durham West: Edward Blake
•   Ontario North: Thomas Paxton
•   Ontario South: Charles Godfrey
•   Peel: John Coyne
•   Simcoe North: William Davis Ardagh
•   Simcoe South: Thomas Roberts Ferguson

York/Toronto

•   Toronto East: Matthew Crooks Cameron
•   Toronto West: Adam Crooks
•   York East: Hugh Powell Crosby
•   York North: Alfred Boultbee
•   York West: Peter Patterson

Wentworth/Halton/Niagara

•   Halton: William Barber
•   Hamilton: James Miller Williams
•   Lincoln: John Charles Rykert
•   Monck: Lachlin McCallum
•   Niagara: Stephen Richards
•   Welland: James George Currie
•   Wentworth North: Robert Christie
•   Wentworth South: William Sexton

Ottawa Valley

•   Carleton: George William Monk
•   Lanark North: Daniel Galbraith
•   Lanark South: Abraham Code
•   Ottawa: Richard William Scott
•   Prescott: George Wellesley Hamilton
•   Renfrew North: Thomas Deacon
•   Renfrew South: Eric Harrington
•   Russell: William Craig

Saint Lawrence Valley

•   Brockville and Elizabethtown: William Fitzsimmons
•   Cornwall: John Sandfield MacDonald
•   Dundas: Simon S. Cook
•   Glengarry: James Craig
•   Grenville South: Mcneil Clarke
•   Kingston: William Robinson
•   Leeds North and Grenville North: Henry Merrick
•   Leeds South: Herbert Stone MacDonald
•   Stormont: William Colquhoun

Southeastern Ontario

•   Addington: Hammel Madden Deroche
•   Frontenac: Delino Dexter Calvin
•   Hastings East: Henry Corby
•   Hastings North: George Henry Boulter
•   Hastings West: Ketchum Graham
•   Lennox: John Thomas Grange
•   Northumberland East: William Wilson Webb
•   Northumberland West: Alexander Fraser
•   Peterborough East: George Read
•   Peterborough West: Thomas McCulloch Fairbairn
•   Prince Edward: Gideon Striker
•   Victoria North: Duncan McRae
•   Victoria South: Samuel Casey Wood

Byelections

Electoral District	Member initially elected/ outgoing member		Reason for vacancy (subsequent election)		Byelection held	Member elected in byelection Changed party; Acclaimed
Carleton		George William Monk	Election voided by court	Y	January 1872		George William Monk
Grey South		Abram William Lauder		Y			Abram William Lauder
Prescott		George Wellesley Hamilton		Y			George Wellesley Hamilton
Prince Edward|		Gideon Striker		Y			Gideon Striker
Simcoe North		William Davis Ardagh		Y			William Davis Ardagh
Stormont		William Colquhoun		N			James Bethune
Durham West		Edward Blake	Elected in two electoral districts	n/a			John McLeod
Bothwell		Archibald McKellar	Ministerial by-election (Blake ministry)	Y			Archibald McKellar
Ottawa		Richard William Scott		Y			Richard William Scott
Toronto West		Adam Crooks		Y			Adam Crooks
Wellington South		Peter Gow		Y			Peter Gow
Northumberland West		Alexander Fraser	Resignation (December 12, 1971)	n/a			Charles Gifford
Grenville South		Mcneil Clarke	Died in office (February 29, 1872)	n/a	March 30, 1872		Christopher Finlay Fraser
Cornwall		John Sandfield MacDonald	Died in office (June 1, 1872)	n/a	July 16, 1872		John Goodall Snetsinger
Bruce South		Edward Blake	Sought re-election as MP (in 1872 federal election)	Y	September 1872		Rupert Mearse Wells
London		John Carling		Y			William Ralph Meredith
Middlesex West		Alexander Mackenzie		Y			John Watterworth
Monck		Lachlin McCallum		N			Henry Ryan Haney
Grenville South		Christopher Finlay Fraser	Election voided by court	Y	October 16, 1872		Christopher Finlay Fraser
Lambton		Timothy Blair Pardee	Ministerial by-election (Mowat ministry)	Y	November 1872		Timothy Blair Pardee
Oxford North		George Perry	Resignation (for seatless party leader)				Oliver Mowat
Brant South		Edmund Burke Wood	Sought election as MP	Y	May 2, 1873		Arthur Sturgis Hardy
Grenville South		Christopher Finlay Fraser	Ministerial by-election (Mowat ministry)	Y	December 1873		Christopher Finlay Fraser
Wellington North		Robert McKim	Sought election as MP	N	February 1874		George Turner Orton

See also

• Politics of Ontario
• List of Ontario political parties
• Premier of Ontario
• Leader of the Opposition (Ontario)