Prime Minister Arthur Meighen appointed McCurdy to his Cabinet as Minister of Public Works in July 1920 and, as was the requirement at the time for new Cabinet appointees, McCurdy resigned to run for re-election in a by-election. It's unknown why he ran as a Nationalist Liberal but it's possible that this had something to do with the fact that the Conservative/Unionist Party had changed it's formal name to the National Liberal and Conservative Party. McCurdy reverted to the Conservative label in 1921.