 The House of Commons after the 1979 election The 1979 Canadian federal election resulted in the defeat of Liberal Party of Canada after 11 years in power under Pierre Trudeau. Joe Clark lead the Progressive Conservatives to power, but with only a minority of seats in the Canadian House of Commons.
The Trudeau Liberals had become very unpopular during their last term in government as a result of high budgetary deficits, high inflation, and high unemployment. Although elections in Canada are normally held four years apart, Trudeau deferred calling an election until five years after the previous election in the hope that the Liberal Party would be able to recover some of the support that it had lost.
The effort was unsuccessful, however, and the Liberals lost 27 seats. Several high-profile cabinet ministers were defeated.
Canadians were not, howver, sufficiently confident in the young Joe Clark, and did not give him a majority in the House of Commons. Quebec, in particular, was unwilling to support Clark, and elected only two PC MPs in the province's 75 ridings.
Clark's minority government lasted less than nine months. It was defeated in the House of Commons in a vote of non-confidence over a budget bill that proposed to increase the excise tax on gasoline by 18 cents per Imperial gallon. This resulted in the 1980 election, in which the PCs were defeated by the resurgent Trudeau Liberals.
National results
 Popular Vote Map showing bar graphs for seat totals in each province Clark won the popular vote in eight provinces, but because his Tories could only muster 2 seats in Quebec, he only won a minority government. The Liberals won only one seat west of Manitoba. This election was the last in which the Social Credit Party of Canada won seats. An unusual event occurred in the Northwest Territories: the Liberals won the popular vote in the territory, but won neither seat.
| Party
| Party Leader
| # of candidates
| Seats
| Popular Vote
|
| Before
| After
| % Change
| #
| %
| Change
|
| Progressive Conservative
| | 282
| 95
| 136
| +43.2%
| 4,111,606
| 35.89%
| +0.43%
|
| Liberal
| <center> Pierre Trudeau
| 282
| 141
| 114
| -19.1%
| 4,595,319
| 40.11%
| -3.04%
|
| New Democratic
| <center> Ed Broadbent
| 282
| 16
| 26
| +62.5%
| 2,048,988
| 17.88%
| +2.45%
|
| Social Credit
| <center> Fabien Roy
| 103
| 11
| 6
| -45.5%
| 527,604
| 4.61%
| -0.46%
|
| Rhinoceros
| <center> Cornelius I
| 63
|
| -
|
| 62,601
| 0.55%
| n.a.
|
| Independent
|
| 48
| 1
| -
| -100%
| 30,518
| 0.27%
| -0.14%
|
| Unknown
|
| 19
| -
| -
| -
| 21,268
| 0.19%
| +0.01%
|
| Union Populaire
| <center>
| 69
|
| -
|
| 19,514
| 0.17%
| n.a.
|
| Libertarian
| <center>
| 60
|
| -
|
| 16,042
| 0.14%
| n.a.
|
| Marxist-Leninist
| <center> Hardial Bains
| 144
|
| -
|
| 14,231
| 0.12%
| -0.05%
|
| Communist
| <center> William Kashtan
| 71
|
| -
|
| 9,141
| 0.08%
| -0.05%
|
| No affiliation
|
| 1
| -
| -
| -
| 176
| x
| x
|
| Total
|
| 1,424
| 265
| 282
| +6.8%
| 11,457,008
| 100.00%
|
| Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867 (http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/process/house/hfer/hfer.asp?Language=E)
|
Notes:
"Previous" refers to the results of the previous election, not the party standings in the House of Commons prior to dissolution.
n.a. = not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election.
x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote.
Results by province
| Party Name
| BC
| AB
| SK
| MB
| ON
| QC
| NB
| NS
| PE
| NL
| NT
| YK
| Total
|
| Progressive Conservative
| Seats:
| 19
| 21
| 10
| 7
| 57
| 2
| 4
| 8
| 4
| 2
| 1
| 1
| 136
|
| Popular Vote:
| 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
| Seats:
| 1
| -
| -
| 2
| 32
| 67
| 6
| 2
| -
| 4
| -
| -
| 114
|
| Vote:
| 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
| Seats:
| 8
| -
| 4
| 5
| 6
| -
| -
| 1
| -
| 1
| 1
| -
| 26
|
| Vote:
| 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
| Seats:
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 6
|
| 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
| 1
| 1
| 282
|
| Parties that won no seats
|
| Rhinoceros
| Vote:
| xx
|
|
|
| xx
| 1.9
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 0.5
|
| Independent
| Vote:
| 0.2
| 1.1
| 0.7
| 0.1
| 0.1
| 0.3
| 0.1
| 0.3
|
|
| 1.6
|
| 0.3
|
| Unknown
| Vote:
| 0.1
| 0.2
| xx
| xx
| xx
| 0.5
|
| xx
|
|
|
|
| 0.2
|
| Union Populaire
| Vote:
|
|
|
|
|
| 0.6
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 0.2
|
| Libertarian
| Vote:
| xx
| xx
|
|
| 0.3
| 0.1
|
|
| xx
|
|
|
| 0.1
|
| Marxist-Leninist
| Vote:
| 0.1
| 0.1
| 0.1
| 0.1
| 0.1
| 0.2
|
| xx
|
|
|
|
| 0.1
|
| Communist
| Vote:
| 0.2
| 0.1
| xx
| 0.1
| 0.1
| 0.1
|
| xx
|
|
|
|
| 0.1
|
| No affiliation
| Vote:
| xx
| xx
| xx
| xx
| xx
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| xx
|
xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote.
Notes
See: 31st Canadian parliament for a full list of MPs elected in this election.
|
