The
Canadian federal election of 1926 was held on September 14 to elect members of the
Canadian House of Commons of the
16th Parliament of
Canada. The election was called following an event known as the
King-Byng Affair. In the
1925 federal election, Prime Minister
William Lyon Mackenzie King's
Liberal Party of Canada won fewer seats in the
Canadian House of Commons than the
Conservative Party of
Arthur Meighen. Mackenzie King, however, was determined to continue to govern with the support of the
Progressive Party. The combined Liberal and Progressive caucuses gave Mackenzie King a plurality of seats in the House of Commons, and the ability to form a minority government. The agreement collapsed, however, following a scandal, and Mackenzie King approached the
Governor-General,
Baron Byng of Vimy, to seek dissolution of the Parliament. Byng refused on the basis that the Conservatives had won the largest number of seats in the prior election, and called upon Meighen to form a government.