1972 Canadian federal election

none September 2023 1972 Canadian federal election Canada parliamentary no no no 1968 Canadian federal election 1968 October 30, 1972 1974 Canadian federal election Opinion polling for the 1972 Canadian federal election 1974 264 seats in the House of Commons 133 76.7%Pomfret R. Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index&lang=e Elections Canada Elections Canada 11 January 2014 ( 1.0 pp) Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau December 1971 (LOC 50514) (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA Liberal nohash Pierre Trudeau CA Liberal name April 6, 1968 Mount Royal 155 seats, 45.49% 147 109 38 3,717,804 38.42% 7.07 pp 300px Results by electoral district, shaded by winners' vote share 300px Results by province and territory Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau CA Liberal name Prime Minister after election Pierre Trudeau CA Liberal name 29th Canadian Parliament 28th Canadian Parliament Robert Stanfield 1968 press photo (3x4).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA PC nohash Robert Stanfield September 9, 1967 CA PC name Halifax 72 seats, 31.36% 73 107 34 3,388,980 35.02% 3.59 pp David Lewis 1968 Edit Alt.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA NDP nohash David Lewis April 24, 1971 CA NDP name York South 22 seats, 16.96% 25 31 6 1,725,719 17.83% 0.87 pp Real Caouette (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA Social Credit nohash Réal Caouette October 9, 1971 CA Social Credit name Témiscamingue 14 seats, 5.28%1 15 15 0 730,759 7.55% 2.27 pp Chambre des Communes 1972.png The Canadian parliament after the 1972 election 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, making this the closest election in Canadian history in terms of seat count. Trudeau's Liberals experienced a decline in support as a result of rising unemployment. A further 48 seats were won by other parties and independents. On election night, the results appeared to give 109 seats to the Tories, but once the counting had finished the next day, the final results gave the Liberals a minority government and left the New Democratic Party led by David Lewis holding the balance of power. This was the first national election held in Canada after the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1970.A Brief History of Federal Voting Rights in Canada Elections Canada's Civic Education https://electionsanddemocracy.ca/voting-rights-through-time-0/brief-history-federal-voting-rights-canada 2024-11-08 electionsanddemocracy.ca This was also the last election until 1997 in which more than three parties won enough seats to earn official party status in the House of Commons. Overview The election was the second fought between Liberal leader, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield. The Liberals entered the election campaign with a 10-point lead over the Progressive Conservatives, but the spirit of Trudeaumania had worn off, and a slumping economy and rising unemployment hurt his party. Stanfield's Tories tried to capitalize on the public's perception that the Liberals were mismanaging the economy with the slogan, "A Progressive Conservative government will do better."Bradburn Jamie How the NDP saved Pierre Trudeau's government https://www.tvo.org/article/how-the-ndp-saved-pierre-trudeaus-government TVO 23 April 2022 15 October 2019 The Liberals campaigned on the slogan, "The Land is Strong", and television ads illustrating Canada's scenery. The slogan quickly became much derided, and the party had developed few real issues to campaign on. As a result, their entire campaign was viewed as being one of the worst managed in recent decades. The New Democratic Party, led by David Lewis, had been struggling in the polls for much of the previous year, following an acrimonious leadership contest in which Lewis had been elected as leader over hard-left candidate James Laxer, and subsequent internecine conflicts between the party establishment and the left-wing group The Waffle. In the lead-up to the election, however, the federal party received a morale boost when the British Columbia New Democratic Party, under the leadership of Dave Barrett, unseated the long-standing provincial Social Credit government of W. A. C. Bennett in a major political upset. Additionally, Lewis' reputation as a moderate helped win over Liberal voters who were dissatisfied with Trudeau's government. Party platforms Liberal Party: increase bilingualism in the Canadian civil service; re-introduce a bill controlling foreign take-overs of Canadian businesses; specialized programs to reduce unemployment; a program to expand and create new parks across Canada, including Toronto's "Harbourfront" and Mont-Sainte-Anne near Quebec City; make-work programs to create jobs; reduce abuse of Unemployment Insurance; and incentives to reduce pollution. Progressive Conservative Party: increase the discipline in government spending, and increase the power of the Auditor General of Canada to fight waste and inefficiency in government; ban strikes in essential services; introduce price and wage controls if necessary to control inflation; require foreign-owned companies operating in Canada to have a majority of Canadians on their boards of directors; introduce an incentive to encourage Canadians to invest in small businesses; develop a national economic strategy in co-operation with the provincial governments; expand re-training opportunities for unemployed workers; adjust tariffs to encourage secondary processing in Canada of Canada's natural resources; eliminate the 11% sales tax on building materials; eliminate 3% increase in personal income tax rates scheduled for January 1, 1973, and reduce rates by 4% on July 1, 1973; adjust old age security payments regularly to reflect changes in the cost of living; index tax brackets to inflation so that taxes do not rise as the cost of living rises; provide assistance to set up residential land banks to reduce the cost of housing. New Democratic Party: eliminate 3% increase in personal income tax rates scheduled for January 1, 1973, and reduce rates by 8% for ordinary Canadians; introduce controls on prices and rents, but not on wages; create a $430 million program to fund public works during winter months to reduce unemployment; increase old age security payments, but eliminate them for wealthy senior citizens; legislate greater autonomy for Canadian trade unions that are branches of international unions; tough tax laws for corporations; eliminate "corporate welfare", i.e., grants and subsidies for corporations, and use this money to build housing and transportation infrastructure, and fund municipal services to create jobs. Social Credit Party: reform the monetary system in line with social credit theories; increase old age security payments to $200 per month beginning at age 60, and to $150 per month for spouses of seniors regardless of age. National results The voter turn-out was 76.7%. One independent candidate was elected: Roch La Salle was re-elected in the Quebec riding of Joliette. La Salle had left the PC caucus to protest the party's failure to recognize what he considered Quebec's right to self-determination, and was the only candidate to win the support of the separatist Parti Québécois. He returned to the PC caucus in 1974. One candidate with no affiliation was elected: Lucien Lamoureux, in the Ontario riding of Stormont—Dundas. Lamoureux, originally elected as a Liberal, had been serving as Speaker of the House of Commons. He ran without affiliation in order to preserve his impartiality as Speaker. He retired after this Parliament, and did not run again in 1974. The Liberals won a minority government, with the New Democratic Party holding the balance of power. Requiring NDP support to continue, the Trudeau government would move left politically, including the creation of Petro-Canada. This was the first of two elections in which Réal Caouette led the national Social Credit Party of Canada. Caouette, who had contested the previous two elections as leader of the breakaway Quebec-based Ralliement créditiste, had successfully taken over the leadership of the original western-based party and overseen the reintegration of the two factions. He successfully held on to the seats he had previously won under the RC banner, but these were the only ridings Social Credit managed to win as it continued to lose support outside Quebec. center|300px PartyParty leader# ofcandidatesSeatsPopular vote1968Dissol.Elected% Change#%Change CA Liberal row Liberal Pierre Trudeau 263155147 109-29.7% 3,717,804 38.42% -7.07pp CA PC row Progressive Conservative Robert Stanfield 2647273 107+48.6% 3,388,980 35.02%+3.59pp CA NDP row New Democratic Party David Lewis 2522225 31+40.9%1,725,719 17.83% +0.87pp CA Social Credit row-name1 Real Caouette1641415 15+7.1%730,759 7.55% +2.27pp CA Independent rowIndependent2 5312 1- 56,685 0.59%+0.14pp CA Independent rowNo affiliation3 26   1 23,938 0.25%  CA Independent rowUnknown 93  - 32,013 0.33%  CA Rhinoceros (historical) row Rhinoceros4 Cornelius I1-- -- 1,565 0.02% +0.02pp    Vacant4 Total1,117264264 264 -0.4% 9,677,463 100%  Sources: Elections Canada;History of Federal Ridings since 1867; Toronto Star, October 30, 1972 Notes: "% change" refers to change from previous election 1 Indicates increase from total Social Credit + Ralliement creditiste seats/vote in 1968. 2 Roch LaSalle, who was elected in 1968 as a Progressive Conservative, won re-election as an independent. 3 Lucien Lamoureux who was elected as a Liberal but served as Speaker of the House, won re-election with no party affiliation. 4 The Rhinoceros Party ran a total of 12 candidates, but because it was not recognized by Elections Canada as a registered party, its candidates were listed as independents. Vote and seat summaries Ternary plots - shift of electoral support (1968-1972) 350 200 yes center Electoral districts identified by colours of winning parties File:Ternary CA1968.svg 1968 Ternary plot of 1968 results File:Ternary CA1972.svg 1972 Ternary plot of 1972 results Popular vote #ddd 600px 410px Liberal #F08080 38.42 PC #9999FF 35.02 NDP #F4A460 17.83 Social Credit CA Social Credit 7.55 Others #DCDCDC 1.18 Seat totals #ddd 600px 410px Liberal #F08080 41.28 PC #9999FF 40.53 NDP #F4A460 11.74 Social Credit CA Social Credit 5.68 Independent #DCDCDC 0.75 Results by province Party nameBCABSKMBONQCNBNSPENLNTYKTotal CA Liberal rowLiberal Seats:4 - 1 2 36 56 5 1 1 3 - - 109 CA Liberal row Popular Vote:28.9 25.0 25.3 30.9 38.2 48.9 43.1 33.9 40.5 44.8 29.3 32.2 38.4 CA PC rowProgressive Conservative Seats:8 19 7 8 40 2 5 10 3 4 - 1 107 CA PC row Vote:33.0 57.6 36.9 41.6 39.1 17.4 46.8 53.4 51.9 49.0 30.9 53.0 35.0 CA NDP rowNew Democratic Party Seats:11 - 5 3 11 - - - - - 1 - 31 CA NDP row Vote:35.0 12.6 35.9 26.3 21.5 6.8 6.3 12.3 7.5 4.7 39.8 11.6 17.8 CA Social Credit rowSocial Credit Seats:- - - - - 15 - - - -    15 CA Social Credit row Vote:2.6 4.5 1.8 0.7 0.4 24.3 3.2 0.3 0.1 0.2     7.6 CA Independent rowIndependent Seats:- - - - - 1 -     -   - 1 CA Independent row Vote:0.2 xx xx 0.1 0.2 1.7 0.3     0.4   3.1 0.6 CA Independent rowNo affiliation Seats:- - - - 1 -   -         1 CA Independent row Vote:xx 0.1 xx xx 0.5 0.2   xx         0.2 Total seats:23 19 13 13 88 74 10 11 4 7 1 1 264 Parties that won no seats: CA Independent row Unknown Vote:0.1 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.7 0.4 0.1   0.9     0.3 CA Rhinoceros (historical) row-name Vote:          0.1            xx xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote See also Canada Politics 29th Canadian Parliament List of Canadian federal general elections List of political parties in Canada Progressive Conservative Party of Canada candidates in the 1972 Canadian federal election Social Credit Party of Canada candidates, 1972 Canadian federal election References Party platforms Liberal Party of Canada Together...The Land is Strong 1972 Liberal Party of Canada https://www.poltext.org/sites/poltext.org/files/plateformesV2/Canada/CAN_PL_1972_LIB_en.pdf 1000921684 Social Credit Party of Canada Platform of the Social Credit Party of Canada 1972 Social Credit Party of Canada https://www.poltext.org/sites/poltext.org/files/plateformesV2/Canada/CAN_PL_1972_SC_en.pdf 243480055 Progressive Conservative Party of Canada P.C. 1972 Progressive Conservative Party of Canada https://www.poltext.org/sites/poltext.org/files/plateformesV2/Canada/CAN_PL_1972_PC_en.pdf Further reading LeDuc Lawrence Pammett Jon H. McKenzie Judith L. Turcotte André Dynasties and Interludes: Past and Present in Canadian Electoral Politics 2010 Dundurn Press Toronto 978-1-55488-886-3 https://archive.org/details/dynastiesinterlu0000unse registration Canada, Chief Electoral Officer Twenty-Ninth General Election, 1972: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer 1972 Queen's Printer Ottawa https://archive.org/details/31761115529711 Federal 1972 Federal election