"Government" or "Opposition". It is calculated that the Unionist government took 14 seats from the Opposition due to its use of Army votes. Soon after these measures were passed, Borden convinced a faction of Liberals (using the name Liberal-Unionists) along with Gideon Decker Robertson, who was described as a "Labour" Senator (but was unaffiliated with any Labour Party) to join with them, forming the Unionist government in October 1917. He then dissolved parliament to seek a mandate in the election, which pitted "Government" candidates, running as the Unionist Party, against the anti-conscription faction of the Liberal Party, which ran under the name Laurier Liberals. As well, Independent, Labour and Socialist candidates ran in many ridings across the country. The divisive debate ended with the country divided on linguistic lines. The Liberals won 82 seats, 62 in Quebec, with many other seats won in provinces such as Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Ontario in ridings with significant French Canadian populations. The Unionists won 153 seats. The three Unionist won seats in Quebec were all in mainly English-speaking ridings. That led to the Francœur Motion in January 1918. Out of 235 seats, 33 were won by acclamation—17 to the Laurier Liberals (all in Quebec) and 16 to the Unionists (all outside Quebec). Two of the Unionist acclamations were for the riding of Halifax, where the only candidates were two Unionists, and where, eleven days earlier, the tragic Halifax Explosion had taken place. The election was conducted mostly using First past the post in single-member ridings but Ottawa and Halifax each had two members and each of the voters there cast up to two votes as per Plurality block voting. National results Notes: * Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election. 1 % change for Government compared to Conservative Party (including Liberal-Conservatives) in 1911 election, and for Opposition to Liberal Party. Results by province See also List of Canadian federal general elections List of political parties in Canada 11th Canadian Parliament 13th Canadian Parliament Conscription crisis of 1917 Khaki election Notes References Primary sources Further reading Federal 1917 December 1917 events