Canadian general election 1979
The 31 Canadian general election (Engl. 31st Canadian General Election , French. 31e élection fédérale canadienne ) took place May 22, 1979. 282 deputies were elected the Canadian House of Commons (Engl. House of Commons , fr. Chambre des Communes ). The election ended in the defeat of Pierre Trudeau's ruling Liberal Party . The progressive-conservative party , led by Joe Clark , became the strongest force, but did not win enough seats to form a majority government.
The vote
Due to large budget deficits, high inflation and rising unemployment, the liberal government had become increasingly unpopular. Although elections usually take place every four years, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau delayed calling a new election for over a year. He hoped by doing this to regain some of the lost confidence. This hope was not fulfilled: Although the Liberals gained over 400,000 votes more than the Progressive Conservatives, they lost 27 seats due to distortions in the majority voting system.
The opposition progressive conservatives were only able to benefit in part from the defeat of the liberals. Voters seemed unwilling to express their full confidence in young chairman Joe Clark . The opposition fared particularly poorly in the province of Québec , where it was only successful in two constituencies. In contrast, the Liberals in western Canada only won three seats. The New Democrats almost made up for their 1974 losses. In contrast, the Social Credit Party only sent six members to parliament; with its reference to the separatist Parti Québécois it offended many traditional voters.
Joe Clark's minority rule lasted less than nine months. In December 1979, during the budget debate, it was overthrown by a vote of no confidence because the Social Credit Party abstained. An early election took place in February 1980 .
The turnout was 75.7%.
Results
Overall result
Political party | Chairman | candidates data |
Seats 1974 |
upon dissolution |
Seats 1979 |
+/- | be right | Share of voters |
+/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Progressive-Conservative Party | Joe Clark | 282 | 95 | 98 | 136 | + 41 | 4,111,606 | 35.89% | + 0.43% | |
Liberal Party | Pierre Trudeau | 282 | 141 | 133 | 114 | - 27 | 4,595,319 | 40.11% | - 3.04% | |
New Democratic Party | Ed Broadbent | 282 | 16 | 17th | 26th | + 10 | 2,048,988 | 17.88% | + 2.44% | |
Social Credit Party | Fabien Roy | 103 | 11 | 9 | 6th | - | 5th527,604 | 4.61% | - 0.45% | |
Parti Rhinoceros | Cornelius I. | 63 | 62.501 | 0.54% | ||||||
Independent | 48 | 1 | 5 | - | 130,518 | 0.27% | - 0.14% | |||
Union populaire | 69 | 19,514 | 0.17% | |||||||
Libertarian party | Alex Eaglesham | 60 | 16,042 | 0.14% | ||||||
Marxist-Leninists | Hardial Bains | 144 | 14,231 | 0.12% | - 0.05% | |||||
Communist Party | William Kashtan | 71 | 9,141 | 0.08% | - 0.05% | |||||
Other parties | 19th | 21,268 | 0.19% | + 0.01% | ||||||
Not partisan | 1 | 176 | <0.01% | |||||||
vacant | 2 | |||||||||
total | 1,424 | 264 | 264 | 282 | + 18 | 11,457,008 | 100.0% |
Result by provinces and territories
Political party | BC | FROM | SK | MB | ON | QC | NB | NS | PE | NL | NW | YK | total | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Progressive-Conservative Party | Seats | 19th | 21st | 10 | 7th | 57 | 2 | 4th | 8th | 4th | 2 | 1 | 1 | 136 | |
Percentage ownership % | 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 Party | Seats | 1 | 2 | 32 | 67 | 6th | 2 | 4th | 114 | ||||||
Percentage ownership % | 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 | 8th | 4th | 5 | 6th | 1 | 1 | 1 | 26th | ||||||
Percentage ownership % | 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 Party | Seats | 6th | 6th | ||||||||||||
Percentage ownership % | 0.2 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.2 | <0.1 | 16.0 | 4.6 | ||||||||
Parti Rhinoceros | Percentage ownership % | <0.1 | <0.1 | 1.9 | 0.5 | ||||||||||
Independent | Percentage ownership % | 0.2 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 0.3 | ||||
Other parties | Percentage ownership % | 0.1 | 0.2 | <0.1 | <0.1 | <0.1 | 0.5 | <0.1 | 0.2 | ||||||
Union populaire | Percentage ownership % | 0.6 | 0.2 | ||||||||||||
Libertarian party | Percentage ownership % | <0.1 | <0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | <0.1 | 0.1 | ||||||||
Marxist-Leninists | Percentage ownership % | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | <0.1 | 0.1 | ||||||
Communist Party | Percentage ownership % | 0.2 | 0.1 | <0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | <0.1 | 0.1 | ||||||
Not partisan | Percentage ownership % | <0.1 | <0.1 | <0.1 | <0.1 | <0.1 | <0.1 | ||||||||
Totally sit | 28 | 21st | 14th | 14th | 95 | 75 | 10 | 11 | 4th | 7th | 2 | 1 | 282 |
Web links
- Elections Canada (Electoral Authority)
- Robert Bothwell: Elections of 1979 and 1980 ( 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 .