Times of Transformation: The 1921 Canadian General Election(Turning Point Elections)

Times of Transformation positions the watershed 1921 federal election in the context of activist efforts and the revolutionary mood in the years following the Great War. New Liberal leader William Lyon Mackenzie King, who went on to become Canada's longest-serving prime minister, came to power, with his party capturing every Quebec seat. This election brought many Canadian firsts: the first post-Confederation minority government, the first time women were eligible to vote on terms equal to men, and the first effective fracturing of the two-party system, with the establishment of a federal Labour party and the dramatic rise of the Progressives. These changes had been brewing before the end of the war. The Progressive party owed its success to the increased politicization of farmers and the concerns of the western voting base. Suffrage came after a decades-long battle for political rights for women. Labour strikes swept the nation in the post–Great War era, and a new national Labour party gained Commons representation. In short, this election manifested long-building forces for change and the global zeitgeist of postwar disillusionment and hope.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: Turning Point Elections and the Case of the 1921 Election / Gerald Baier and R. Kenneth Carty Preface Introduction 1 The 1921 Results 2 Farmers' Grievances and Early Organization 3 Tariffs, Trade, and the Economy 4 Disappointed Hopes 5 War and Transformation in Farmer Politics 6 An Uneasy Peace 7 The Growing Power of Labour 8 The Winnipeg General Strike and Labour in Federal Politics 9 New Times, New Parties 10 Economic Troubles and Auguries of Change 11 The Fight for Suffrage 12 A Long Battle Won 13 Winning and Losing Quebec 14 The Electoral Process 15 The 1921 Campaign Underway 16 Election Day and After Appendix 1: List of Key Players Appendix 2: Timeline of Events Notes; Suggestions for Further Reading; Index

About the Author :
Barbara J. Messamore is a professor of history and department chair at the University of the Fraser Valley. She is the author of Canada's Governors General, 1847–1878 and coauthor of Narrating a Nation: Canadian History Post-Confederation and Conflict and Compromise: Pre-Confederation Canada. She cofounded and edited the Journal of Historical Biography and is president of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada.