Canadian federal election, 1979

Last updated
Canadian federal election, 1979
Flag of Canada.svg
  1974 May 22, 1979 1980  

282 seats in the 31st Canadian Parliament
142 seats needed for a majority
Turnout75.7% [1] (Increase2.svg4.7pp)
 First partySecond party
  JoeClark.jpg Pierre Trudeau (1975) cropped.jpg
Leader Joe Clark Pierre Trudeau
Party Progressive Conservative Liberal
Leader since February 22, 1976 April 6, 1968
Leader's seat Yellowhead Mount Royal
Last election95 seats, 35.46%141 seats, 43.15%
Seats before98133
Seats won136114
Seat changeIncrease2.svg38Decrease2.svg19
Popular vote4,111,6064,595,319
Percentage35.89%40.11%
SwingIncrease2.svg0.43pp Decrease2.svg3.04pp

 Third partyFourth party
  Ed Broadbent.jpg
SC
Leader Ed Broadbent Fabien Roy
Party New Democratic Social Credit
Leader since July 7, 1975 March 30, 1979
Leader's seat Oshawa Beauce
Last election16 seats, 15.44%11 seats, 5.06%
Seats before179
Seats won266
Seat changeIncrease2.svg9Decrease2.svg3
Popular vote2,048,988527,604
Percentage17.88%4.61%
SwingIncrease2.svg2.45pp Decrease2.svg0.46pp

Canada 1979 Federal Election.svg
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.

Prime Minister before election

Pierre Trudeau
Liberal

Prime Minister-designate

Joe Clark
Progressive Conservative

The Canadian federal election of 1979 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 11 years in power 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, did beat the Progressive Conservatives in the overall popular vote by more than 400,000 votes.

House of Commons of Canada lower house of the Parliament of Canada

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons currently meets in a temporary Commons chamber in the West Block of the parliament buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, while the Centre Block, which houses the traditional Commons chamber, undergoes a ten-year renovation.

31st Canadian Parliament

The 31st Canadian Parliament was a briefly lived parliament in session from October 9 until December 14, 1979. The membership was set by the 1979 federal election on May 22, 1979, and it was dissolved after the minority government of Joe Clark failed to pass a Motion of Confidence on December 13, 1979. The dissolution of parliament led to the 1980 federal election. Lasting only 66 days from first sitting to dissolution, and only nine months from election to election, the 31st was the shortest parliament in Canadian history.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

Contents

Overview

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 Asia[ clarification needed ] to show his ability to handle foreign affairs issues, his luggage was lost, and Clark appeared to be uncomfortable with the issues being discussed.

Electoral district (Canada) federal or provincial electoral district in Canada

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a "constituency" or a "riding", is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based. It is officially known in Canadian French as a circonscription, but frequently called a comté (county).

The Liberals tried to make leadership and Clark's inexperience the issue, arguing in their advertising that "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 that includes the chorus, "C'est votre tour, de vous laisser parler d'amour". The party focused its platform on constitutional change, promising to fight to abolish the federal government's constitutional power to disallow any provincial legislation, and stating that each province has a "right to choose its own destiny within Canada".

Social Credit Party of Canada political party in Canada

The Social Credit Party of Canada, colloquially known as the Socreds, was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. It was the federal wing of the Canadian social credit movement.

Réal Caouette Canadian politician

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.

Fabien Roy was a politician in Quebec, Canada, 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.

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"). While the party did manage to somewhat increase its vote in Péquiste areas, it also lost many votes in areas of traditional Socred strength, with the end result being a drop from eleven to six seats and a slightly reduced share of the popular vote compared to the 1974 election. (See also: Social Credit Party candidates, 1979 Canadian federal election.)

Gilles Caouette was a Canadian politician and Member of Parliament.

Clark's minority government lasted less than nine months. Clark required support from the Socreds to pass the budget, but refused to work with them on ideological grounds, opting instead to "govern as though he had a majority".[ attribution needed ] As none of their demands were met, the socreds refused to prop up the government. This resulted in the 1980 election, in which the PCs were defeated by the resurgent Trudeau Liberals.

A minority government, or minority cabinet or minority parliament, is a cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament. It is sworn into office, with or without the formal support of other parties, to enable a government to be formed. Under such a government, legislation can only be passed with the support of enough other members of the legislature to provide a majority, encouraging multi-partisanship. In bicameral parliaments, the term relates to the situation in chamber whose confidence is considered most crucial to the continuance in office of the government.

National results

The House of Commons after the 1979 election Chambre des Communes 1979.png
The House of Commons after the 1979 election

Clark won the popular vote in seven provinces, while losing the popular vote nationwide, and because his Tories could only muster 2 seats in Quebec, he won only a minority government. The Liberals won only one seat west of Manitoba. This election was the last in which the Social Credit Party of Canada won seats. An unusual event occurred in the Northwest Territories: the Liberals won the popular vote in the territory, but won neither seat.

136114266
Progressive ConservativeLiberalNDPSC
PartyParty leader# of
candidates
SeatsPopular vote
1974 Dissolution Elected% Change#%Change
  Progressive Conservative Joe Clark 2829598136+43.2%4,111,60635.89%+0.43pp
  Liberal Pierre Trudeau 282141133114-19.1%4,595,31940.11%-3.04pp
  New Democratic Party Ed Broadbent 282161726+62.5%2,048,98817.88%+2.45pp
Social Credit Fabien Roy 1031196-45.5%527,6044.61%-0.46pp
Rhinoceros Cornelius I 63  - 62,6010.55% 
 Independent4815--100%30,5180.27%-0.14pp
 Unknown19----21,2680.19%+0.01pp
  Union Populaire 69  - 19,5140.17% 
Libertarian Alex Eaglesham 60  - 16,0420.14% 
Marxist–Leninist Hardial Bains 144----14,2310.12%-0.05pp
Communist William Kashtan 71----9,1410.08%-0.05pp
 No affiliation1----176xx
    Vacant2 
Total 1,424 265265 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.

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
Liberal
40.11%
PC
35.89%
NDP
17.88%
Social Credit
4.61%
Others
1.51%
Seat totals
PC
48.23%
Liberal
40.43%
NDP
9.22%
Social Credit
2.13%

Results by province

Party name BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE NL NT YK Total
  Progressive Conservative Seats:1921107572484211136
 Popular Vote:44.365.641.243.441.813.540.045.452.829.732.340.635.9
  Liberal Seats:1--2326762-4--114
 Vote:23.022.121.823.536.461.744.635.540.640.634.136.440.1
  New Democratic Party Seats:8-456--1-11-26
 Vote:31.99.935.832.721.15.115.318.76.529.731.923.117.9
  Social Credit Seats:-----6      6
 Vote:0.21.00.50.2xx16.0      4.6
Total seats:28211414957510114721282
Parties that won no seats
Rhinoceros Vote:xx   xx1.9      0.5
 IndependentVote:0.21.10.70.10.10.30.10.3  1.6 0.3
 UnknownVote:0.10.2xxxxxx0.5 xx    0.2
  Union Populaire Vote:     0.6      0.2
Libertarian Vote:xxxx  0.30.1  xx   0.1
Marxist–Leninist Vote:0.10.10.10.10.10.2 xx    0.1
Communist Vote:0.20.1xx0.10.10.1 xx    0.1
 No affiliationVote:xxxxxxxxxx       xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote.

Notes

See also

Articles on parties' candidates in this election:

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References

  1. Pomfret, R. "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Elections Canada. Elections Canada. Retrieved 11 January 2014.