1979 Canadian federal election

none August 2012 September 2023 1979 Canadian federal election Canada parliamentary no no no 75.7%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 ( 4.7 pp) Opinion polling for the 1979 Canadian federal election 1974 Canadian federal election 1974 30th Canadian Parliament 1980 Canadian federal election 1980 31st Canadian Parliament 282 seats in the House of Commons 142 May 22, 1979 Joe Clark being interviewed 1979 crop (cropped).jpg 130 120 160 0 0 CA PC nohash Joe Clark February 22, 1976 CA PC name Yellowhead 95 seats, 35.46% 98 136 38 4,111,606 35.89% 0.43 pp Pierre Trudeau 1979 (UPI press photo) (cropped2).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA Liberal nohash Pierre Trudeau April 6, 1968 CA Liberal name Mount Royal 141 seats, 43.15% 133 114 19 4,595,319 40.11% 3.04 pp Ed Broadbent 1980 (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 CA NDP nohash Ed Broadbent July 7, 1975 CA NDP name Oshawa 16 seats, 15.44% 17 26 9 2,048,988 17.88% 2.45 pp SC CA Social Credit nohash Fabien Roy March 30, 1979 CA Social Credit name Beauce 11 seats, 5.06% 9 6 3 527,604 4.61% 0.46 pp 350px Results by electoral district 350px Results by Province and Territory Prime Minister Prime Minister after election Joe Clark CA PC name Pierre Trudeau CA Liberal name Chambre des Communes 1979.png The Canadian parliament after the 1979 election 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. 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 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 ("Socred"), 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 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."1979 Canadian Federal Election Debate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfDSimvCFY https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/JBfDSimvCFY 2021-12-21 live en 2020-06-20 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 2025, this is the earliest Canadian election from which a major party leader (Clark) is still alive. National results The Conservatives won the popular vote in seven provinces, while losing the popular vote nationwide, and because they won only two seats in Quebec, Clark 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. center|300px PartyParty leader# ofcandidatesSeatsPopular vote1974DissolutionElected% Change#%Change CA PC row Progressive Conservative Joe Clark282 9598 136+43.2% 4,111,606 35.89%+0.43pp CA Liberal row Liberal Pierre Trudeau282141133114−19.1% 4,595,319 40.11%−3.04pp CA NDP row New Democratic Party Ed Broadbent282 1617 26+62.5% 2,048,988 17.88%+2.45pp CA Social Credit row-name Fabien Roy103 119 6−45.5% 527,604 4.61%−0.46pp CA Rhinoceros (historical) row-name Cornelius I63    -   62,601 0.55%   CA Independent rowIndependent48 1 5 -−100% 30,518 0.27%−0.14pp CA Independent rowUnknown19 - - -- 21,268 0.19%+0.01pp CA Union populaire row Union Populaire 69    -   19,514 0.17%   CA Libertarian row-name Alex Eaglesham60    -   16,042 0.14%   CA Marxist-Leninist row-name Hardial Bains144 - - - - 14,231 0.12%−0.05pp CA Communist row-name William Kashtan71 - - -- 9,141 0.08%−0.05pp CA Independent row No affiliation1 - - -- 176 xx    Vacant2 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 Ternary plots - shift of electoral support (1974-1979) 350 200 yes center Electoral districts identified by colours of winning parties File:Ternary CA1974.svg 1974 Ternary plot of 1974 results File:Ternary CA1979.svg 1979 Ternary plot of 1979 results Popular vote #ddd 600px 410px Liberal #F08080 40.11 PC #6495ED 35.89 NDP #F4A460 17.88 Social Credit CA Social Credit 4.61 Others #DCDCDC 1.51 Seat totals #ddd 600px 410px PC #6495ED 48.23 Liberal #F08080 40.43 NDP #F4A460 9.22 Social Credit CA Social Credit 2.13 Results by province Party nameBCABSKMBONQCNBNSPENLNTYKTotal CA PC rowProgressive Conservative Seats:19 21 10 7 57 2 4 8 4 2 1 1 136 CA PC row 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 CA Liberal rowLiberal Seats:1 - - 2 32 67 6 2 - 4 - - 114 CA Liberal row 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 CA NDP rowNew Democratic Party Seats:8 - 4 5 6 - - 1 - 1 1 - 26 CA NDP row 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 CA Social Credit rowSocial Credit Seats:- - - - - 6             6 CA Social Credit row 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 CA Rhinoceros (historical) row-name Vote:xx       xx 1.9             0.5 CA Independent row Independent Vote:0.2 1.1 0.7 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.3     1.6   0.3 CA Independent row Unknown Vote:0.1 0.2 xx xx xx 0.5   xx         0.2 CA Union populaire row Union Populaire Vote:          0.6             0.2 CA Libertarian row-name Vote:xx xx     0.3 0.1     xx       0.1 CA Marxist-Leninist row-name Vote:0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2   xx         0.1 CA Communist row-name Vote:0.2 0.1 xx 0.1 0.1 0.1   xx         0.1 CA Independent row 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 a full list of MPs elected in this election 31st Canadian Parliament See also Canada Politics List of Canadian federal general elections List of political parties in Canada Articles on parties' candidates in this election: Liberal Progressive Conservative Social Credit References Further reading Penniman Howard Canada at the Polls, 1979 and 1980: A Study of the Federal General Elections 1981 American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research Washington D.C. 0844734748 https://archive.org/details/canadaatpolls1970000unse registration Byers R.B. Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs. 1979 1981 University of Toronto Press Toronto 978-1-4426-7193-5 https://archive.org/details/canadianannualre0000unse_w1r4 registration Simpson Jeffrey Jeffrey Simpson Discipline of Power: the Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration 1996 University of Toronto Press Toronto 978-0-8020-7620-5 https://archive.org/details/disciplineofpowe0000simp registration Cocking Clive Following the Leaders: A Media Watcher's Diary of Campaign '79 1979 Doubleday Canada Toronto 978-0-385-14395-0 https://archive.org/details/followingleaders0000cock registration Pammett Jon H. The Politics of Limited Change: The 1979 Federal Election 1981 Dept. of Political Science, Carleton University Ottawa 978-0-7709-0103-5 Government Reports Canada, Chief Electoral Officer Thirty-First General Election, 1979: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer 1979 Queen's Printer Ottawa https://archive.org/details/31761115529737 Canada, Chief Electoral Officer Thirty-First General Election, 1979: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer - Respecting Election Expenses 1979 Queen's Printer Ottawa https://archive.org/details/31761115530131 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 1979