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282 seats in the House of Commons 142 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 75.7% [1] (4.7pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Popular vote by province, with graphs indicating the number of seats won. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote by province but instead via results by each riding. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Canadian parliament after the 1979 election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1979 Canadian federal election was held on May 22, 1979, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 31st Parliament of Canada. It resulted in the defeat of the Liberal Party of Canada after 16 years in power, 11 of them under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Joe Clark led the Progressive Conservative Party to power but with only a minority of seats in the House of Commons. The Liberals, however, beat the Progressive Conservatives in the overall popular vote by more than 400,000 votes (40.11% to 35.89%). Taking office on the eve of his 40th birthday, Clark became the youngest prime minister in Canadian history.
The PC Party campaigned on the slogans, "Let's get Canada working again", and "It's time for a change – give the future a chance!" Canadians were not, however, sufficiently confident in the young Joe Clark to give him a majority in the House of Commons. Quebec, in particular, was unwilling to support Clark and elected only two PC Members of Parliament (MPs) in the province's 75 ridings. Clark, relatively unknown when elected as PC leader at the 1976 PC Party convention, was seen as being bumbling and unsure. Clark had had problems with certain right-wing members of his caucus. In particular, when Clark's riding was merged into the riding of another PC MP during a redistribution of ridings, the other MP refused to step aside, and Clark ended up running in another riding. Also, when Clark undertook a tour of the Middle East to show his ability to handle foreign affairs issues, his luggage was lost, and Clark appeared to be uncomfortable with the issues being discussed.
The Liberals tried to make leadership and Clark's inexperience the issue by arguing in their advertising, "This is no time for on-the-job training" and "We need tough leadership to keep Canada growing. A leader must be a leader."
The Social Credit Party of Canada, which had lost its mercurial leader, Réal Caouette, who died in 1976, struggled to remain relevant. After a series of interim leaders, including Caouette's son, the party turned to Fabien Roy, a popular member of the National Assembly of Quebec, who took the reins of the party just before the beginning of the campaign. The party won the tacit support of the separatist Parti Québécois , which formed the government of Quebec. Social Credit attempted to rally the separatist and nationalist vote: Canadian flags were absent at its campaign kick-off rally, and the party's slogan was C'est à notre tour ("It's our turn"), which was reminiscent of the popular separatist anthem Gens du pays ("People of the Country"), which includes the chorus, "C'est votre tour, de vous laisser parler d'amour" ("It's your turn, to let you talk about love"). The party focused its platform on constitutional change, which promised to fight to abolish the federal government's constitutional power to disallow any provincial legislation and stated that each province has a "right to choose its own destiny within Canada."
The Socreds' support from the Parti Québécois was not welcome by everyone; for instance, Gilles Caouette publicly denounced what he called péquistes déguisés en créditistes ("péquistes disguised as Socreds"). What remained of its support outside Quebec virtually disappeared, and while the party only suffered a marginal loss in its overall Quebec vote share, its support was much less efficiently distributed than before. The party managed some increase of votes in péquiste areas, but also lost many votes in areas of traditional Socred strength while much of the reduced PC vote share went to the Liberals. The end result was a drop from eleven to six seats. (See also: Social Credit Party candidates, 1979 Canadian federal election.)
Clark's minority government lasted less than nine months. Clark required support from the Socreds to pass the 1979 budget but refused to work with them on ideological grounds, opting instead to "govern as though he had a majority." [2] With none of their demands being met, the Socreds refused to prop up the government. That resulted in the 1980 election in which the PCs were defeated by the resurgent Trudeau Liberals.
As of 2024, this is the earliest Canadian election from which a major party leader (Clark) is still alive.
Clark won the popular vote in seven provinces, while losing the popular vote nationwide, and because his party won only two seats in Quebec, he won only a minority government. The Liberals won only one seat west of Manitoba. The election was the last in which the Social Credit Party of Canada won seats. An unusual event occurred in the Northwest Territories: the Liberals took more votes overall than any other party but won neither of the territory's two seats.
Party | Party leader | # of candidates | Seats | Popular vote | ||||||
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1974 | Dissolution | Elected | % Change | # | % | Change | ||||
Progressive Conservative | Joe Clark | 282 | 95 | 98 | 136 | +43.2% | 4,111,606 | 35.89% | +0.43pp | |
Liberal | Pierre Trudeau | 282 | 141 | 133 | 114 | −19.1% | 4,595,319 | 40.11% | −3.04pp | |
New Democratic Party | Ed Broadbent | 282 | 16 | 17 | 26 | +62.5% | 2,048,988 | 17.88% | +2.45pp | |
Social Credit | Fabien Roy | 103 | 11 | 9 | 6 | −45.5% | 527,604 | 4.61% | −0.46pp | |
Rhinoceros | Cornelius I | 63 | - | 62,601 | 0.55% | |||||
Independent | 48 | 1 | 5 | - | −100% | 30,518 | 0.27% | −0.14pp | ||
Unknown | 19 | - | - | - | - | 21,268 | 0.19% | +0.01pp | ||
Union Populaire | 69 | - | 19,514 | 0.17% | ||||||
Libertarian | Alex Eaglesham | 60 | - | 16,042 | 0.14% | |||||
Marxist–Leninist | Hardial Bains | 144 | - | - | - | - | 14,231 | 0.12% | −0.05pp | |
Communist | William Kashtan | 71 | - | - | - | - | 9,141 | 0.08% | −0.05pp | |
No affiliation | 1 | - | - | - | - | 176 | x | x | ||
Vacant | 2 | |||||||||
Total | 1,424 | 265 | 265 | 282 | +6.8% | 11,457,008 | 100.00% | |||
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867 | ||||||||||
Notes:
"% change" refers to change from previous election.
x − less than 0.005% of the popular vote.
Party name | BC | AB | SK | MB | ON | QC | NB | NS | PE | NL | NT | YK | Total | ||
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Progressive Conservative | Seats: | 19 | 21 | 10 | 7 | 57 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 136 | |
Popular Vote: | 44.3 | 65.6 | 41.2 | 43.4 | 41.8 | 13.5 | 40.0 | 45.4 | 52.8 | 27.7 | 32.3 | 40.6 | 35.9 | ||
Liberal | Seats: | 1 | - | - | 2 | 32 | 67 | 6 | 2 | - | 4 | - | - | 114 | |
Vote: | 23.0 | 22.1 | 21.8 | 23.5 | 36.4 | 61.7 | 44.6 | 35.5 | 40.6 | 41.7 | 34.1 | 36.4 | 40.1 | ||
New Democratic Party | Seats: | 8 | - | 4 | 5 | 6 | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | - | 26 | |
Vote: | 31.9 | 9.9 | 35.8 | 32.7 | 21.1 | 5.1 | 15.3 | 18.7 | 6.5 | 30.6 | 31.9 | 23.1 | 17.9 | ||
Social Credit | Seats: | - | - | - | - | - | 6 | 6 | |||||||
Vote: | 0.2 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.2 | xx | 16.0 | 4.6 | ||||||||
Total seats: | 28 | 21 | 14 | 14 | 95 | 75 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 282 | ||
Parties that won no seats | |||||||||||||||
Rhinoceros | Vote: | xx | xx | 1.9 | 0.5 | ||||||||||
Independent | Vote: | 0.2 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 0.3 | ||||
Unknown | Vote: | 0.1 | 0.2 | xx | xx | xx | 0.5 | xx | 0.2 | ||||||
Union Populaire | Vote: | 0.6 | 0.2 | ||||||||||||
Libertarian | Vote: | xx | xx | 0.3 | 0.1 | xx | 0.1 | ||||||||
Marxist–Leninist | Vote: | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | xx | 0.1 | ||||||
Communist | Vote: | 0.2 | 0.1 | xx | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | xx | 0.1 | ||||||
No affiliation | Vote: | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx |
xx – less than 0.05% of the popular vote.
Articles on parties' candidates in this election:
Charles Joseph Clark is a Canadian businessman, writer, and politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980.
The Canadian social credit movement is a political movement originally based on the Social Credit theory of Major C. H. Douglas. Its supporters were colloquially known as Socreds in English and créditistes in French. It gained popularity and its own political party in the 1930s, as a result of the Great Depression.
The 1988 Canadian federal election was held on November 21, 1988, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 34th Parliament of Canada. It was an election largely fought on a single issue: the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA); the Progressive Conservative Party campaigned in favour of it, whereas the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP) campaigned against it.
The 1972 Canadian federal election was held on October 30, 1972, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 29th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in a slim victory for the governing Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, which won 109 seats, compared to 107 seats for the opposition Progressive Conservatives led by Robert Stanfield. Trudeau's Liberals experienced a decline in support as a result of rising unemployment.
The 1984 Canadian federal election was held on September 4, 1984, to elect members to the House of Commons of the 33rd Parliament of Canada.
Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credit movement was largely an out-growth of Alberta Social Credit. The Social Credit Party of Canada was strongest in Alberta, before developing a base in Quebec when Réal Caouette agreed to merge his Ralliement créditiste movement into the federal party. The British Columbia Social Credit Party formed the government for many years in neighbouring British Columbia, although this was effectively a coalition of centre-right forces in the province that had no interest in social credit monetary policies.
The Social Credit Party of Canada, colloquially known as the Socreds, was a populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. It was the federal wing of the Canadian social credit movement.
The 1968 Canadian federal election was held on June 25, 1968, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 28th Parliament of Canada.
Historically in Quebec, Canada, there were a number of political parties that were part of the Canadian social credit movement. There were various parties at different times with different names at the provincial level, all broadly following the social credit philosophy; at various times they had varying degrees of affiliation with the Social Credit Party of Canada at the federal level.
David Réal Caouette was a Canadian politician from Quebec. He was a member of Parliament (MP) and leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada and founder of the Ralliement des créditistes. Outside politics he worked as a car dealer.
The 1980 Canadian federal election was held on February 18, 1980, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 32nd Parliament of Canada. It was called when the minority Progressive Conservative government led by Prime Minister Joe Clark was defeated in the Commons.
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Fabien Roy was a Canadian politician who was active in Quebec in the 1970s. Roy was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec and the House of Commons of Canada, and advocated social credit theories of monetary reform.
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The 1979 British Columbia general election was the 32nd general election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on April 3, 1979. The election was held on May 10, 1979, and the new legislature met for the first time on June 6, 1979.
In 1963, the Quebec wing of the Social Credit Party of Canada split off from the national party as the Ralliement des créditistes. The split had its roots in a long-standing dispute between the de facto leader of the Ralliement, Réal Caouette, and the party's national leader, Robert N. Thompson. At the party's 1960 leadership convention, held two years after the party lost all of its seats in the House of Commons of Canada, Thompson defeated Caouette for the leadership. The party returned to Parliament in the 1962 federal election, but all but four of its 30 MPs came from Quebec. Under the circumstances, Thompson was all but forced to name Caouette as deputy leader of the party. The relationship was strained, however, and the strain was exacerbated when the party failed to make any gains in its old heartland of the Prairies in the 1963 federal election. Only Thompson and three others were elected outside of Quebec, while 20 Socreds were elected in Quebec. The two factions of the party were not re-united until October 1971.
The Canadian social credit movement first contested the 1935 federal election in order to capitalize from the Alberta Social Credit League's surprise victory in Alberta's August 1935 provincial election. Social Credit supporters ran as the Western Social Credit League and John Horne Blackmore was appointed the movement's parliamentary leader following the election although Alberta Premier William Aberhart was generally regarded as the unofficial national leader of the movement.