1979 Canadian federal election

Canadian federal election, 1979

May 22, 1979
282 seats in the 31st Canadian Parliament 142 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	75.7%
First party Second party   Leader Joe Clark Pierre Trudeau Party Progressive Conservative Liberal Leader since February 22, 1976 April 6, 1968 Leader's seat Yellowhead Mount Royal Last election 95 seats, 35.46% 141 seats, 43.15% Seats before 98 133 Seats won 136 114 Seat change +38 -19 Popular vote 4,111,606 4,595,319 Percentage 35.89% 40.11% Swing +0.43pp -3.04pp   Third party Fourth party   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 election 16 seats, 15.44% 11 seats, 5.06% Seats before 17 9 Seats won 26 6 Seat change +9 -3 Popular vote 2,048,988 527,604 Percentage 17.88% 4.61% Swing +2.45pp -0.46pp
Popular vote map showing seat totals by province
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 Canadian House of Commons 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.

Overview

The Trudeau Liberals had become very unpopular during their last term in government because of large budget deficits, high inflation, and high unemployment. Although elections in Canada are normally held four years apart, Trudeau deferred calling an election until five years after the previous election in the hope that the Liberal Party would be able to recover some of the support that it had lost. The effort was unsuccessful, however, and the Liberals lost 27 seats. Several high-profile cabinet ministers were defeated. Trudeau resigned as Liberal leader following the election.

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 in order 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, 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".

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.)

Clark's minority government lasted less than nine months. It was defeated in the House of Commons in a vote of non-confidence over a budget bill that proposed to increase the excise tax on gasoline by 18¢ per Imperial gallon (just under 4¢ per litre). This resulted in the 1980 election, in which the PCs were defeated by the resurgent Trudeau Liberals.

National results

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 only won 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.

↓
136	114	26	6
Progressive Conservative	Liberal	NDP	SC

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats				Popular vote
				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.

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:	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	29.7	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	40.6	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	29.7	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.

Notes

• Number of parties: 9
  • First appearance: Libertarian Party of Canada, Union Populaire
  • Reappearance after hiatus: Rhinoceros Party of Canada
  • Final appearance: none

For a full list of MPs elected in this election, see 31st Canadian parliament.

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 31st Canadian parliament

Articles on parties' candidates in this election:

• Communist
• Liberal
• Progressive Conservative
• Social Credit

External links

• Riding map
• The Elections of 1979 and 1980, by Robert Bothwell
• History on the Run: The Media and the '79 Election, a documentary film by Peter Raymont, National Film Board of Canada