List of canadian federal general elections from 1867-2019

This article provides a summary of results for the general (all seats contested) elections to the House of Commons, the elected lower half of Canada’s federal bicameral legislative body, the Parliament of Canada. The number of seats has increased steadily over time, from 180 for the first election to the current total of 338. The current federal government structure was established in 1867 by the Constitution Act.

1st 1867 Liberal-Conservative Party (commonly known as the Conservative Party), led by Sir John A. Macdonald, is elected to form Canada’s first government, defeating the Liberal Party and its de facto leader George Brown. In Nova Scotia, AntiConfederates under Joseph Howe win 17 of 19 seats after campaigning against confederation, but later sit with the Liberals.

2nd 1872 Conservatives under Prime Minister Macdonald are re-elected with a minority, defeating Liberals and their de facto leader Edward Blake.

3rd 1874 Liberals, led by Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, retain power with a majority after having formed a government after the Conservatives under former Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald lost the confidence of the House in 1873. The Conservatives drop the word “Liberal” from “Liberal-Conservative Party” in 1873, but Macdonald and some other members continue to run under the original party name. First federal election by Secret ballot. 4th 187 Conservative Party, led by Sir John A. Macdonald, defeat Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie’s Liberals, returning Macdonald to power with a second majority. 5th 1882. Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Macdonald, are re-elected with a third majority, defeating Blake’s Liberals. 6th 1887.Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Macdonald, are re-elected with a fourth majority, defeating Blake’s Liberals.

7th 1891 Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Macdonald, are re-elected with a fifth majority, in Macdonald’s final election before his death shortly after. Macdonald defeated rookie Liberal opposition leader Wilfrid Laurier.

8th 1896 Liberals, led by Laurier, are elected with a majority, defeating Conservatives of Prime Minister Sir Charles Tupper. 9th 1900 Liberals, led by Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, are re-elected with a second majority, defeating former Prime Minister Tupper’s Conservatives. 10th 1904 Liberals, led by Prime Minister Laurier, are re-elected with a third majority, defeating Robert Borden’s Conservatives.

11th 1908 Liberals, led by Prime Minister Laurier, are re-elected with a fourth majority, defeating Borden and his Conservatives.

12th 1911 Conservatives, led by Borden, defeat Prime Minister Laurier’s Liberals with a majority.

13th 1917 Unionist Party, a proconscription coalition of Conservatives and former Liberals, are elected with a majority under Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden. Both former Conservatives and former Liberals are appointed to the cabinet. The coalition defeats former Prime Minister Laurier’s anti-conscription Liberals in the most bitter campaign in Canadian history.

14th 1921Liberals, led by William Lyon Mackenzie King, win a minority government, defeating Conservatives under Prime Minister Arthur Meighen. The Conservatives are reduced to third place in the House, but the Progressive Party under Thomas Crerar declines the title of official opposition so Meighen becomes opposition leader. 15th 1925 Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s Liberals hold on to power with a minority with the help of Progressives under Robert Forke, despite former Prime Minister Meighen’s Conservatives winning more seats. Labour Party leader and future CCF leader J.S. Woodsworth bargains his votes in the House to the Liberals in exchange for a promise to enact an old age pension plan. The Progressives soon withdraw support from the scandal-plagued Liberals but also refuse to support the Conservatives. The Governor General controversially gives Meighen the Prime Minister’s post in the King-Byng Affair, but the Conservatives soon fall in a non-confidence vote.

16th 1926 Liberals, led by Mackenzie King, defeat former Prime Minister Meighen’s Conservatives, winning a minority supported by the eight Liberal-Progressives under Forke. United Farmers parties take 12 seats and Labour four, giving Canada a rare Parliament with six parties in the House each with four or more seats.

17th 1930 Conservatives, led by R.B. Bennett, win a majority, defeating Liberals under former Prime Minister Mackenzie King. 18th 1935 Liberals, led by Mackenzie King, defeat Prime Minister Bennett’s Conservatives with a majority. The new Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from the West, under Woodsworth, wins seven seats on a platform of social reform. The new Social Credit Party under John Blackmore, also from the West, wins 17 seats with its platform of monetary reform. Progressive Party and United Farmers of Alberta pass into the history books.

19th 1940 Liberals, led by Prime Minister Mackenzie King, are re-elected with a majority, defeating Robert Manion’s National Government party, a failed attempt to recreate Robert Borden’s World War I-era Unionists. 20th 1945 Liberals, led by Prime Minister Mackenzie King, are re-elected with a minority, defeating the newly renamed Progressive Conservatives, led by John Bracken. Foreshadowing the Bloc Québécois, Bloc populaire Canadien wins two seats in Quebec on an anti-conscription and Quebec nationalism platform; future Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and future mayor of Montreal Jean Drapeau are young party members.

21st 1949 Liberals, led by Liberal Prime Minister Louis St-Laurent, are reelected with a majority, defeating Progressive Conservatives led by George Drew. 22nd 1953 Prime Minister St-Laurent’s Liberals are re-elected with a majority, defeating Drew’s Progressive Conservatives. 23rd 1957 Progressive Conservatives, led by John Diefenbaker, defeat Liberals led by Prime Minister St-Laurent with an upset minority victory.

24th 1958 Progressive Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Diefenbaker, are re-elected with the largest majority to date in Canadian history, defeating Liberals and their new leader Lester Pearson.

25th 1962 Progressive Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Diefenbaker, are re-elected, but with a minority. Under “father of Canadian medicare” Tommy Douglas, the New Democratic Party, evolved from the CCF, wins 19 seats but fails to achieve a hoped-for breakthrough. Social Credit makes unprecedented gains in Quebec, but only a modest recovery in the West.

26th 1963 Liberals, led by Lester Pearson, defeat Prime Minister Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservatives, winning a minority. Liberals, led by Prime Minister Pearson, are re-elected with a second minority, defeating former Prime Minister Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservatives.

28th 1968 Liberals, led by new Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, are re-elected with a majority, defeating Progressive Conservatives led by Robert Stanfield.

WK Liberals, led by Prime Minister Trudeau, are re-elected, but with a minority, defeating Stanfield’s Progressive Conservatives by only two seats. The NDP pick up several seats under new leader David Lewis.

30th 1974 Liberals, led by Prime Minister Trudeau, defeat Stanfields’s Progressive Conservatives with a majority.

31st 1979.Progressive Conservatives, led by Joe Clark, defeat Liberals, led by Prime Minister Trudeau, and win a minority, despite winning a significantly smaller share of the vote than the Liberals. The PCs win the popular vote in seven provinces, but the Liberals capture an enormous lead in Quebec. Ed Broadbent makes his debut as leader of the NDP, which wins 10 more seats than in 1974 in a Parliament enlarged by 18 seats. 32nd 1980 Liberals, led by former Prime Minister Trudeau, defeat Progressive Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Clark. Social Credit fades into history after an almost unbroken 45-year run, leaving Canada with a three-party system.

33rd 1984 Progressive Conservatives, led by Brian Mulroney, defeat Liberals, led by new Prime Minister John Turner and win the most seats in Canadian history. The election is both the best showing ever for the Progressive Conservatives and the second-worst showing ever for the Liberals (by total seats). 34th 1988 Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Mulroney is re-elected with a second majority, contending with a much stronger performance from former Liberal Prime Minister Turner and a strong third-party showing from Broadbent’s New Democrats, who score that party’s third best result ever.

35th 1993 Liberals, led by Jean Chrétien, win a majority and soundly defeat Progressive Conservatives, led by new Prime Minister Kim Campbell, who are left in fifth place with just two seats, their worst ever showing. The separatist Bloc Québécois under ex-Mulroney cabinet minister Lucien Bouchard becomes the official opposition, and the right-wing Reform Party, led by Preston Manning, becomes the third party. Audrey McLaughlin’s New Democrats also post their worst ever results with just nine seats. The election marks the end of the predominantly three-party system of the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, and NDP. 36th 1997 Liberals, led by Prime Minister Chrétien, are re-elected with a second majority. Manning’s Reform Party becomes the official opposition. Bloc Québécois falls to third place under new leader Gilles Duceppe. NDP under Alexa McDonough win 21 seats, 12 more than in 1993. Progressive Conservatives under Jean Charest win nearly as many votes as Reform, but only one-third the seats.

37th 2000 Liberals, led by Prime Minister Chrétien, are re-elected with a third majority, defeating Stockwell Day’s Canadian Alliance, the unsuccessful attempt to unite the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservatives. Progressive Conservatives, led by former Prime Minister Joe Clark, barely keep official party status in the House with the minimum 12 seats.

38th 2004 Liberals are re-elected under new Prime Minister Paul Martin to a minority government. They defeat the new Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper, ex-leader of the Canadian Alliance, who merged that party with the Progressive Conservatives. Bloc Québécois experiences a revival due to the Liberal sponsorship scandal. Jack Layton’s NDP comes one seat short of being able to guarantee the survival of Martin’s government.

39th 2006 Conservatives, led by Stephen Harper, win a minority, defeating Prime Minister Martin’s Liberals. BQ keeps most of its seats and NDP improves its fourth-place position.

40th 2008 Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Harper, win a second minority, defeating Stéphane Dion’s Liberals by larger margins than in 2006. BQ support is steady and NDP picks up several Liberal seats. Green Party under new leader Elizabeth May continues its growth, winning 6.78% of the national vote on its environmentally conscious platform, but again fails to win any seats.

41st 2011 Conservatives, under Prime Minister Harper win a majority of seats. For the first time the NDP, led by Layton, becomes the Official Opposition, taking advantage of the collapse of BQ in Quebec and Liberals in Ontario. The leaders of both defeated parties, respectively, Gilles Duceppe and Michael Ignatieff lost their seats and resigned. The Green Party campaign focused on and won its first ever seat, letting overall support collapse to year 2000 levels.

42nd 2015 Liberals under Justin Trudeau win a majority of seats. Conservatives become the official opposition. Stephen Harper resigns. Quebec drops their overwhelming support for the NDP following the 2011 election, and instead is largely divided, with the Liberals seizing most of the available seats. This split in Quebec reduces the NDP under Thomas Mulcair back to their standing as a third party, while the Bloc Quebecois under Gilles Duceppe regains some of the ridings lost in 2011, despite Duceppe again failing to win his riding. Green Party leader Elizabeth May retains her seat.

43rd 2019 Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau, win a minority. Conservatives win the popular vote and gain seats under Andrew Scheer, who resigns two months later due in part to a spending scandal. The Bloc Québécois under Yves-François Blanchet also gain seats. The NDP loses seats under leader Jagmeet Singh, who wins his seat, and Green Party leader Elizabeth May retains her seat, their second MP, Paul Manly’s seat in Nanaimo—Ladysmith, and also gain a riding seat in Fredericton.

44th 2021 TBD

Source: en.wikipedia.org