Laurier Liberals
Laurier Liberals was the name used in the 1917 Canadian election by the wing of the Liberal Party of Canada led by Sir Wilfrid Laurier that opposed conscription and declined to join Sir Robert Borden's Unionist government. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 and Borden's decision to invite the Liberals into a wartime coalition government with the Conservatives split the Liberal Party largely along linguistic lines. Many provincial Liberal parties in English Canada and a number of Liberal Members of Parliament supported conscription and decided to support Borden's government. Many of them called themselves Liberal Unionists. Quebec Liberals and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, refused to join Borden and ran in the resulting election as "Laurier Liberals" or Opposition (Laurier Liberal).
Out of a Canadian House of Commons of 235 seats only 82 "Laurier Liberals" were returned in the election held December 17 1917, 62 of whom were elected in Quebec ridings. Of the 20 Laurier Liberal MPs from the rest of Canada, one was from Alberta, one was from a Manitoba riding with a large francophone population, five were from New Brunswick (four of whom were French-Canadians), four were from Nova Scotia, two were from Prince Edward Island, and eight were from Ontario.
Though reduced to a largely French-Canadian rump in 1917 the Liberals under their new leader, William Lyon Mackenzie King, were able to recover enough of their support in English Canada to form a minority government following the 1921 Canadian election. This was despite efforts by the Conservatives to make their alliance with Liberal Unionists permanent in the formation of the National Liberal and Conservative Party.
