1965 Canadian federal election

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1965 Canadian federal election
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg
  1963 November 8, 1965 1968  

265 seats in the House of Commons
133 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout74.8% [1] (Decrease2.svg4.4pp)
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Lester Pearson 1957 (cropped2).jpg John G. Diefenbaker (cropped).jpg TommyDouglas-c1971 (cropped).jpg
Leader Lester B. Pearson John Diefenbaker Tommy Douglas
Party Liberal Progressive Conservative New Democratic
Leader since January 16, 1958 December 14, 1956 August 3, 1961
Leader's seat Algoma East Prince Albert Burnaby—Coquitlam
Last election128 seats, 41.52%93 seats, 32.72%17 seats, 13.24%
Seats before1289517
Seats won1319721
Seat changeIncrease2.svg3Increase2.svg2Increase2.svg4
Popular vote3,099,5212,500,1131,381,658
Percentage40.18%32.41%17.91%
SwingDecrease2.svg1.34pp Decrease2.svg0.31pp Increase2.svg4.67pp

 Fourth partyFifth party
  Real Caouette (cropped).jpg
Leader Réal Caouette Robert N. Thompson
Party Ralliement créditiste Social Credit
Leader since September 1, 1963 July 7, 1961
Leader's seat Villeneuve Red Deer
Last electionnew party [lower-alpha 1] 24 seats, 11.92%
Seats before194
Seats won95
Seat changeDecrease2.svg10Increase2.svg1
Popular vote359,258282,454
Percentage4.66% [lower-roman 1] 3.66%
Swingnew partyDecrease2.svg8.26pp

Canada 1965 Federal Election.svg

Chambre des Communes 1965.png
The Canadian parliament after the 1965 election

Prime Minister before election

Lester B. Pearson
Liberal

Prime Minister after election

Lester B. Pearson
Liberal

The 1965 Canadian federal election was held on November 8, 1965 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 27th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson was re-elected with a larger number of seats in the House. Although the Liberals lost a small share of the popular vote, they were able to win more seats, falling just short of a majority.

Contents

Overview

The Liberals campaigned on their record of having kept the promises made in the 1963 campaign, which included job creation, lowering income taxes, higher wages, higher family allowances and student loans. They promised to implement a national Medicare program by 1967, and the Canada Pension Plan system of public pensions. The party also urged voters to give them a majority for "five more years of prosperity". The party campaigned under the slogans, "Good Things Happen When a Government Cares About People", and, "For Continued Prosperity". However, the Liberals came up two seats short of a majority, largely due to being virtually nonexistent in the Prairies for the second consecutive election. They actually lost five seats in the region, the only survivor being Veterans Affairs Minister Roger Teillet.

The Progressive Conservative Party of John Diefenbaker, campaigning with the slogan, "Policies for People, Policies for Progress", gained a small number of seats. Despite losing a second time, Diefenbaker refused to resign as party leader, and was eventually forced from the position by a campaign by the party president Dalton Camp. Diefenbaker subsequently ran for re-election as leader in the party's 1967 leadership convention, but lost to Robert Stanfield.

Old age pensions were an important issue in this campaign. The Liberal Party pointed to having increased the pension to $75 per month for persons 70 years of age and older, planned to reduce the eligibility age to 65 by 1970 and also promised a "Canada Assistance Program" payment for seniors with lower incomes. The PCs promised to increase OAP to $100 per month for all those 70 years old and over.

The New Democratic Party of Tommy Douglas, campaigning under the slogan, "Fed up? Speak up! Vote for the New Democrats!", increased its share of the popular vote by more than four and a half percentage points, and became the third largest party in the House of Commons. However, it won only four more seats as it continued to fail to make the electoral break-through that was hoped for when the party was founded in 1960.

These aforementioned net gains came at the expense of the Social Credit Party of Canada which was split in two before this election. Réal Caouette led French-Canadian Socreds out of the party into the new Ralliement créditiste (Social Credit Rally) but lost more than half of the party's Quebec seats. Robert N. Thompson continued to lead the Social Credit Party in English-speaking Canada, and actually managed to gain one seat outside Quebec although it was still fewer than the French-Canadian breakaway party. However, even the combined seat totals of the two factions would not have been enough to prevent the NDP from replacing Social Credit as the third largest party. The election would be the last time that the Social Credit Party elected federal candidates outside Quebec.

This was the first election for the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, a satirical party led by Cornelius the First. The party fielded only one candidate. Cornelius, a resident of the Granby zoo, did not seek election because Canadian election law does not permit rhinoceroses (or other zoo animals) to be nominated.

In order to govern, the minority Liberals relied on the New Democratic Party and occasionally other smaller opposition parties in order to remain in power. Pearson announced his intention to resign as Liberal leader in December 1967 and was replaced the following April by Pierre Trudeau.

Notably, this election marked the last time that a single conservative party did not win an absolute majority of the vote in Alberta (although the totals of the Progressive Conservatives and Social Credit combined did add up to over two thirds of the vote in that province).

Party platforms

Liberal Party:

Progressive Conservative Party:

New Democratic Party:

Social Credit Party:

Ralliement des creditistes/Social Credit Rally:

Source: The Globe and Mail newspaper, October 1965.

National results

1965 Canadian parliament.svg
PartyParty leader# of
candidates
SeatsPopular vote
1963 Dissolution Elected% Change#%Change
  Liberal Lester Pearson 265128128131+2.3%3,099,52140.18%-1.34pp
  Progressive Conservative John Diefenbaker 265939597+4.3%2,500,11332.41%-0.31pp
  New Democrats Tommy Douglas 2551717 21+23.5%1,381,65817.91%+4.67pp
  Ralliement créditiste Real Caouette 77 199-47.4%359,2584.66% 
Social Credit R.N. Thompson 862445-79%282,4543.66%-8.26pp
 Independent24 -1 52,1550.68%+0.61pp
 Independent PC4--1 13,1980.17%+0.15pp
 Independent Liberal10----16,7380.22%+0.03pp
Communist William Kashtan 12----4,2850.06%x
  New Capitalist Frank O'Hearn 3  - 1,0090.01% 
  Ouvrier Indépendant  2----6500.01%-0.01pp
 Droit vital personnelH-G Grenier1  - 4650.01% 
 Independent Social Credit2----4220.01%x
 Independent Conservative1----373xx
Rhinoceros Cornelius I 1  - 321x 
  Republican  1  - 297x 
  Progressive Workers  1  - 274x 
  Socialist Labour  1----147xx
Total 1,011265265265-7,713,338 100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867 Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine

Notes:

"% change" refers to change from previous election

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

1 "Previous" refers to the results of the previous election, not the party standings in the House of Commons prior to dissolution.

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
Liberal
40.18%
PC
32.41%
NDP
17.91%
RC
4.66%
Social Credit
3.66%
Others
1.18%
Seat totals
Liberal
49.43%
PC
36.60%
NDP
7.92%
RC
3.39%
Social Credit
1.88%
Independent
0.75%

Results by province

Party name BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE NL YK NW Total
  Liberal Seats:7--1515662-7-1131
 Popular Vote:30.022.424.031.043.645.647.542.044.164.144.856.240.2
  Progressive Conservative Seats:31517102584104-1-97
 Vote:19.246.648.040.734.021.342.548.653.932.455.239.132.4
  New Democrats Seats:9--39----- -21
 Vote:32.98.226.024.021.712.09.49.12.01.2 4.717.9
  Ralliement créditiste Seats:    -9-     9
 Vote:    xx17.50.4     4.7
  Social Credit Seats:32--- -  -  5
 Vote:17.422.51.94.30.4 0.1  1.6  3.7
 IndependentSeats:     1      1
 Vote:0.20.1 0.10.22.1 0.3    0.7
 Independent PCSeats:    -1      1
 Vote:    xx0.6      0.2
Total seats:22171714857510124711265
Parties that won no seats:
 Independent LiberalVote:     0.8   0.7  0.2
Communist Vote:0.20.1xx xxxx      0.1
  New Capitalist Vote:    xx       xx
  Ouvrier Indépendant Vote:     xx      xx
 Droit vital personnelVote:     xx      xx
 Independent Social CreditVote:xx    xx      xx
 Independent ConservativeVote:    xx       xx
Rhinoceros Vote:     xx      xx
  Republican Vote:     xx      xx
  Progressive Workers Vote:xx           xx
  Socialist Labour Vote:    xx       xx

See also

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References

  1. Pomfret, R. "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Elections Canada. Elections Canada. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
  1. Only contested seats in Quebec and Restigouche—Madawaska and Glengarry—Prescott in New Brunswick and Ontario respectively.
  1. Elected 20 MPs in Quebec as part of the Social Credit Party of Canada.

Further reading