Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, 1919
| Winner | William Lyon Mackenzie King |
|---|---|
| Resigning leader | Sir Wilfrid Laurier |
| Convention | Howick Hall, Lansdowne Park, Ottawa |
| Date | August 7, 1919 |
| Ballots | 5 |
| Candidates | 4 |
The 1919 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election the first federal leadership convention held in Canada. It was originally called by Sir Wilfrid Laurier as a national policy convention with the intention of reinvigorating and reuniting the Liberals after eight years of being in opposition and who, as a result of the Conscription Crisis of 1917, divided into Laurier Liberal, who remained in opposition, and a Liberal–Unionist faction that joined the wartime Union government of Sir Robert Borden . Laurier's death on February 17, 1919 resulted in the meeting being reconfigured as a leadership convention. Previous party leaders in Canada had been chosen by the parliamentary caucus or the outgoing leader. However, the Liberal caucus no longer felt that it was representative of Canada's linguistic and religious diversity and that allowing the entire party to select the leader would result in a more representative choice.
There was also an attempt to draft Saskatchewan Premier William Melville Martin, a former Liberal MP, but he declinded to run.
King had run as a Laurier Liberal in the 1917 federal election but was defeated. Fielding, who had long been seen as Laurier's natural successor, had opposed Laurier's stand on conscription and had returned to the House of Commons in 1917 as a Liberal–Unionist MP supporting the Borden government but declining the offer of a cabinet position. Graham had sat out of the 1917 election and McKenzie had run and kept his seat as a Laurier Liberal.
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