1962 Canadian federal election

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The Canadian parliament after the 1962 election

The Canadian federal election of 1962 was held on June 18, 1962 to elect members of the 25th Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons. When the election was called, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada of John George Diefenbaker had governed for four years with the largest majority in the House of Commons in Canadian history. The Diefenbaker government had introduced reforms to social programs, a Canadian Bill of Rights, and other changes.

This election reduced the Tories to a tenuous minority government as a result of economic difficulties such as high unemployment and a slumping Canadian dollar, as well as unpopular decisions such as the cancellation of the Avro Arrow. Despite the Diefenbaker government's difficulties, the Liberal Party, led by Lester Pearson, was unable to make up enough ground in the election to defeat the government.

The Liberals campaigned under the slogan, "Take a stand for tomorrow", and attempted to portray the Diefenbaker government as "feeble", with a divided cabinet. The Liberals criticized the PCs for their "reckless mismanagement of finances", the slowdown in the Canadian economy, a lack of confidence in government policies, job losses, and a lower standard of living than in 1956. The Liberals also argued that the steep devaluation in the Canadian dollar was increasing the cost of living for Canadians.

The PCs tried to defend the decline in the Canadian dollar by pointing out the benefits to the tourism industry, exports, manufacturing and farming, and employment. they denied that the devaluation had an impact on the price of bread, beef, gasoline and fruit and vegetables, saying that these prices were either set in Canada or were influenced by other factors.

The 1962 election was the first contested by the social democratic New Democratic Party, which had been formed from an alliance between the old Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress. The party chose longtime Premier of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas as its first leader. The new party was able to recover ground lost by the CCF in the 1958 federal election, when it was nearly wiped out. It won almost 50% more votes than the CCF had ever managed, but it failed to achieve the major breakthrough that had been hoped for when the party was created.

Douglas failed to win his own seat in the province of Saskatchewan, and the NDP was shut out in this province, which was its political base. Douglas's campaign was hurt by chaos in Saskatchewan brought about by the introduction of Medicare and a resulting strike by the province's doctors. Douglas was forced to enter the House of Commons through a by-election in British Columbia. Despite the initial problems, medicare proved popular, spread throughout the country, and is considered the NDP's (and Douglas') major contribution to the Canadian social fabric.

Social Credit returned to the House of Commons after being shut out in the 1958 election. While leader Robert N. Thompson and three other Socreds were elected in the party's traditional base in western Canada, the party's real success came in Quebec. Réal Caouette led the party's Quebec wing to victory in 26 ridings.

For the first time ever, the entire land mass of Canada was covered by federal electoral districts (the former Mackenzie River riding was expanded to cover the entire Northwest Territories), and Canadian Indians and Inuit (Eskimo) could all vote for the first time.

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1958	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change	Progressive Conservative	John Diefenbaker	265	208	116	-44.2%	2,865,542	37.22%	-16.35%	Liberal	Lester B. Pearson	263	48	99	+106.3%	2,846,589	36.97%	+3.57%	Social Credit	R.N. Thompson	230	-	30		893,479	11.61%	+9.02%	New Democrats (CCF)	Tommy Douglas	218	8	19	+137.5%	1,044,754	13.57%	+4.06%	Liberal-Labour		1	1	1	-	15,412	0.20%	+0.04%	Independent Liberal		7	-	-	-	10,406	0.14%	-0.03%	Independent		11	-	-	-	8,084	0.08%	-0.05%	Communist1	Leslie Morris	12	-	-	-	6,360	0.08%	-0.05%	Unknown		4	*	-	*	2,783	0.04%	*	Independent PC		4	*	-	*	2,713	0.04%	*	Candidat libéral des electeurs		1	*	-	*	1,836	0.02%	*	Capital familial	H-G Grenier	1		-		393	0.01%	-0.01%	Co-operative Builders		1	*	-	*	261	x	*	All Canadian		1	*	-	*	189	x	*	Ouvrier Indépendant		1	*	-	*	152	x	*
Total			1,016	265	265	-	7,698,953	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote.

¹ compared to Labour Progressive Party results from previous election.

Results by province

Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Independents/row

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NW	YK	Total	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	6	15	16	11	35	14	4	9	4	1	1	-	116	Popular Vote:	27.3	42.8	50.4	41.6	39.2	29.6	46.5	47.3	51.3	36.0	55.0	47.8	37.2	Liberal	Seats:	4	-	1	1	43	35	6	2	-	6	-	1	99	Vote:	27.3	19.4	22.8	31.3	41.0	39.2	44.4	42.4	43.3	59.0	45.0	52.2	37.0	Social Credit	Seats:	2	2	-	-	-	26	-	-	-	-			30	Vote:	14.2	29.2	4.6	6.8	1.8	26.0	3.6	0.8	0.2	0.1			11.6	New Democrats	Seats:	10	-	-	2	6	-	-	1	-	-			19	Vote:	30.9	8.4	22.1	19.7	17.2	4.4	5.3	9.4	5.2	4.9			13.6	Liberal-Labour	Seats:					1								1	Vote:					0.6								0.2
	Total Seats		22	17	17	14	85	75	10	12	4	7	1	1	265
Parties that won no seats:
Independent Liberal	Vote:		0.1				0.5	0.2						0.1	Independent	Vote:	xx	0.1		0.3	0.1	0.2							0.1	Communist	Vote:	0.2		0.1	0.6	0.1	xx							0.1	Unknown	Vote:					0.1	xx		0.1					xx	Independent PC	Vote:						0.1							xx	Candidat libéral des electeurs	Vote:						0.1							xx	Capitale familiale	Vote:						xx							xx	Co-operative Builders	Vote:					xx								xx	All Canadian	Vote:		xx											xx	Ouvrier Indépendant	Vote:						xx							xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

Preceded by 1958 federal election

Canadian federal elections

Succeeded by 1963 federal election