1958 Canadian General Election
The 24th Canadian General Election ( English 24th Canadian General Election , French 24e élection fédérale canadienne ) was held on 31 May 1958th 265 deputies were elected the Canadian House of Commons (Engl. House of Commons , fr. Chambre des Communes ). They resulted in a superior victory for the progressive conservative party led by John Diefenbaker , which had the highest voter share in its history and won more than three-quarters of all seats.
The vote
Prime Minister Diefenbaker, who had been in office since June 1957, could only rule with a minority. In order to create a clear picture, he called an early election . He benefited from two factors:
The Liberal Party had elected former Foreign Secretary Lester Pearson as its new chairman in January 1958 . Pearson made a tactical mistake early on in his position as opposition leader. In the lower house, he called on the progressive-conservative minority government to cede power to the liberals without elections, as the economy was in a recession. Thereupon Diefenbaker published a secret paper from the Liberals, which actually predicted a recession. However, this was so obviously at odds with the liberal election promises of 1957 that the opposition lost credibility.
Since the conscription crisis of 1917 , the French-speaking province of Québec had voted largely liberally. But after the resignation of Louis Saint-Laurent in 1957, she was no longer represented with a strong personality in the federal government. The powerful, conservative-nationalist provincial party Union nationale led by Maurice Duplessis supported the progressive conservatives at the federal level, who were now able to gain a foothold in the liberal stronghold.
The progressive conservatives achieved the best result in their history. Its 53.66% share of the vote is the highest any party at the federal level has ever achieved. With 208 seats it now had a comfortable majority. The Liberals, on the other hand, achieved the worst result ever. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation also suffered significant seat losses, while the Social Credit Party was no longer represented.
The turnout was 79.4%.
Results
Overall result
| Political party | Chairman | candidates data |
Seats 1957 |
Seats 1958 |
+/- | be right | Share of voters |
+/- | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressive-Conservative Party | John Diefenbaker | 265 | 111 | 208 | + 97 | 3,908,633 | 53.66% | + 14.85% | |
| Liberal Party | Lester Pearson | 264 | 104 | 48 | - 56 | 2,432,953 | 33.40% | - 7.35% | |
| Commonwealth Co-operative Federation | Major James Coldwell | 169 | 25th | 8th | - 17th | 692,668 | 9.51% | - 1.20% | |
| Liberal Labor 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11,956 | 0.16% | ||||
| Social Credit Party | Solon Earl Low | 82 | 19th | - 19th | 188.356 | 2.59% | - 3.98% | ||
| Independent | 9 | 2 | - 2nd | 14,211 | 0.20% | - 0.87% | |||
| Independent liberals | 10 | 2 | - 2nd | 12,054 | 0.17% | - 1.25% | |||
| Independent progressive conservatives | 5 | 1 | - 1 | 2,097 | 0.03% | - 0.19% | |||
| Labor Progressive Party | Tim Buck | 18th | 9,769 | 0.13% | + 0.02% | ||||
| Candidate des électeurs | 1 | 8,276 | 0.11% | - 0.01% | |||||
| Socialist party | 2 | 1,113 | 0.02% | + 0.02% | |||||
| Capital familial | 1 | 968 | 0.01% | ||||||
| Radical chrétien | 1 | 687 | 0.01% | + 0.01% | |||||
| Independent Social Credit | 1 | 361 | <0.01% | - 0.04% | |||||
| Ouvrier canadien | 1 | 243 | <0.01% | ||||||
| Independent Conservatives | 1 | 122 | <0.01% | ||||||
| total | 831 | 265 | 265 | 7,284,467 | 100.0% | ||||
1 the Liberal Labor MP joined the Liberal Group
Result by provinces and territories
| Political party | BC | FROM | SK | MB | ON | QC | NB | NS | PE | NL | NW | YK | total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressive-Conservative Party | Seats | 18th | 17th | 16 | 14th | 67 | 50 | 7th | 12 | 4th | 2 | 1 | 208 | ||
| Percentage ownership % | 49.4 | 59.9 | 51.4 | 56.7 | 56.4 | 49.6 | 54.1 | 57.0 | 62.2 | 45.2 | 54.5 | 42.8 | 53.7 | ||
| Liberal Party | Seats | 14th | 25th | 3 | 5 | 1 | 48 | ||||||||
| Percentage ownership % | 16.1 | 13.7 | 19.6 | 21.6 | 32.1 | 45.6 | 43.4 | 38.4 | 37.5 | 54.4 | 43.3 | 57.2 | 33.4 | ||
| Commonwealth Co-operative Federation | Seats | 4th | 1 | 3 | 8th | ||||||||||
| Percentage ownership % | 24.5 | 4.4 | 28.4 | 19.6 | 10.5 | 2.3 | 1.8 | 4.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 9.5 | ||||
| Liberal Labor | Seats | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Percentage ownership % | 0.5 | 0.2 | |||||||||||||
| Social Credit Party | proportion of | 9.6% | 21.6% | 0.4% | 1.8% | 0.3% | 0.6% | 0.7% | 2.6% | ||||||
| Independent | Percentage ownership % | <0.1 | <0.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.2 | |||||||||
| Independent liberals | Percentage ownership % | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | |||||||||||
| Labor Progressive Party | Percentage ownership % | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | |||||||
| Candidate des électeurs | Percentage ownership % | 0.4 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||
| Independent progressive conservatives | Percentage ownership % | 0.1 | 0.1 | <0.1 | |||||||||||
| Socialist party | Percentage ownership % | <0.1 | <0.1 | <0.1 | |||||||||||
| Capitale familiale | Percentage ownership % | <0.1 | <0.1 | ||||||||||||
| Radical chrétien | Percentage ownership % | 0.1 | <0.1 | ||||||||||||
| Independent Social Credit | Percentage ownership % | 0.1 | <0.1 | ||||||||||||
| Ouvrier canadien | Percentage ownership % | <0.1 | <0.1 | ||||||||||||
| Independent Conservatives | Percentage ownership % | 2.3 | <0.1 | ||||||||||||
| Totally sit | 22nd | 17th | 17th | 14th | 85 | 75 | 10 | 12 | 4th | 7th | 1 | 1 | 265 | ||
Web links
- Elections Canada (Electoral Authority)
- PE Bryden: Elections of 1957 and 1958 ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved June 23, 2015.
Individual evidence
- ^ Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums. Elections Canada, February 18, 2013, accessed July 4, 2015 .
