1902 North-West Territories general election

The 1902 North-West Territories general election, occurred on 21 May 1902 and was the fifth general election in the history of the North-West Territories, Canada. It was held to elect 35 Members of the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories.

1902 North-West Territories general election

← 1898 21 May 1902 (1902-05-21) 1905 (AB) → 1905 (SK) →
← outgoing members members →
35 seats in the North-West Legislative Assembly 18 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   LIB Leader Frederick W. A. G. Haultain Donald H. McDonald Party Liberal-Conservative Liberal Leader since 1897 1902 Leader's seat Macleod North Qu'Appelle Last election 7 2 Seats won 21 7 Popular vote 8,319 5,067 Percentage 47.8% 29.1%
Premier before election Frederick W. A. G. Haultain Liberal-Conservative Premier after election Frederick W. A. G. Haultain Liberal-Conservative

The Liberal-Conservatives led by incumbent North-West Territories Premier Frederick W. A. G. Haultain, received 8,319 votes, taking 21 of 35 seats. The North-West Territories Liberal Party under the leadership of Donald H. McDonaldr received 5,067 votes, and received 7 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

The main issue of the 1902 election was provincial autonomy for the North-West Territories. Political leaders across the North-West Territories had been pushing the federal Laurier Liberal government for provincial status for the Territories since 1896. Support for provincial autonomy was largely unanimous amongst all candidates, and most ran largely on a platform focused on the issue.

Candidates in this election were not nominated by the party in a contested nomination as with modern elections, but rather proclaimed their support for the governing party or opposition party, or Independent. During the election race some candidates shifted their alignment. The result was a confusing mess, and the bulk of candidates proclaimed support for the already governing Liberal-Conservative party, leaving the Liberals without candidates in many districts. Lethbridge ended up being contested by two government supporting candidates.

Three years after the 1902 election, the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were carved out of North-West Territories in 1905, and they took most of the voting population with them. The 1902 election was the last election held in the NWT until 1951, and it elected the last assembly in the Northwest Territories (NWT) to use political parties. After 1905, the NWT government reverted to an appointed consensus model of government. Since 1951, the government of NWT has been of the elected consensus model of government.

1902 would also see the largest number of MLAs elected to the North-West Territories Legislature in the territories' history.

Election summary

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Elected	Popular Vote
					#	%
	Liberal-Conservative	Frederick Haultain	32	21	8,319	47.70%
	Liberal	Donald H. McDonald	21	7	5,067	29.06%
	Independent		11	6	3,381	19.39%
	Independent Liberal		1	1	362	2.07%
	Independent Liberal-Conservative		1	-	310	1.78%
Total			66	35	17,439	100%

Note:

• Sources are conflicted about the affiliation of some candidates, vote counts and total number of candidates are accurate, standings and votes by party may change upon further research.

Members of the Legislative Assembly elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

5th North-West Legislative Assembly

District		Member	Party
	Banff	Arthur Sifton	Liberal-Conservative
	Batoche	Charles Fisher	Liberal
	Battleford	Joseph Benjamin Prince	Liberal-Conservative
	Cannington	Ewan McDiarmid	Independent Liberal
	Cardston	John William Woolf	Liberal
	East Calgary	John Jackson Young	Independent
	Edmonton	Richard Secord	Independent
	Grenfell	Richard Stuart Lake	Liberal-Conservative
	High River	Richard Alfred Wallace	Liberal-Conservative
	Innisfail	John A. Simpson	Liberal-Conservative
	Kinistino	William Frederick Meyers	Liberal
	Lacombe	Peter Talbot	Liberal-Conservative
	Lethbridge	Leverett DeVeber	Liberal-Conservative
	Macleod	Frederick Haultain	Liberal-Conservative
	Maple Creek	Horace Greeley	Liberal-Conservative
	Medicine Hat	William Finlay	Liberal-Conservative
	Mitchell	Alexander McIntyre	Liberal-Conservative
	Moose Jaw	George Annable	Liberal
	Moosomin	Alexander S. Smith	Liberal-Conservative
	North Qu'Appelle	Donald H. McDonald	Liberal
	North Regina	George W. Brown	Liberal-Conservative
	Prince Albert	Thomas McKay	Liberal
	Saltcoats	Thomas MacNutt	Liberal-Conservative
	Saskatoon	William Henry Sinclair	Liberal-Conservative
	Souris	John Connell	Liberal-Conservative
	South Qu'Appelle	George Bulyea	Liberal-Conservative
	South Regina	James Hawkes	Independent
	Strathcona	Alexander Rutherford	Liberal-Conservative
	St. Albert	Daniel Maloney	Independent
	Victoria	Jack Shera	Independent
	West Calgary	Richard Bennett^*	Independent
	Wetaskiwin	Anthony Rosenroll	Liberal-Conservative
	Whitewood	Archibald Gillis	Liberal-Conservative
	Wolseley	William Elliott	Liberal-Conservative
	Yorkton	Thomas Alfred Patrick	Liberal

Note: ^* Sources are conflicted on Richard Bennett as to whether he was a Liberal or Independent

See also

• 1905 Alberta general election
• 1905 Saskatchewan general election
• List of Northwest Territories general elections
• 2nd Council of the Northwest Territories