Elections in Canada
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The Parliament of Canada (French: Parlement du Canada) has two chambers. The House of Commons (French: Chambre des Communes) has 308 members, elected for a maximum five-year term in single-seat constituencies. The Senate (French: Sénat) has 105 appointed members.
Although four parties are currently represented in Parliament, Canada has two dominant political parties, the Conservatives and Liberals, that have governed the country since its formation in 1867.
The Prime Minister may ask the Governor General to call an election at virtually any time, although one must be called no later than five years after the return of the writs the last election under section 4 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The same provision applies in all provinces and territories.
The time limitation is strictly applied to the life of the Parliament or Assembly in question - this body is not deemed to have been "formed" until the return of the writs and ceases to exist the moment it is dissolved. It is therefore possible to run slightly longer than five years between election days, as was the case between 1930 and 1935.
It is also possible for a general election to be delayed should Canada be embroiled in a war or insurrection. This provision was enacted to allow Prime Minister Robert Borden to delay a federal election for about a year during World War I. Since then, the provision has only been used twice, both times by provincial governments - Ontario delayed an election for a few weeks in the year following the Armistice in 1918. Saskatchewan was the only jurisdiction to delay a general election by more than five years due to World War II, but held an election in 1944 (six years after the previous vote).
Traditionally, governments have waited four years between elections, but under Jean Chrétien's Liberal government in the 1990s, elections were held on average every three and half years. Parties generally only wait the maximum of five years between elections if they expect to lose, and hope (usually in vain) that a postponement will allow more time for things to change in their favour.
Elections are generally held in either the fall or spring. This avoids the problems of a winter campaign, where outdoor events are harder to hold. It also avoids the problems of the summer, when many Canadians are on holiday.
Using the plurality voting system, Canadians vote for their local Member of Parliament (MP), who sits in the House of Commons. Canadians do not vote directly for the Prime Minister, nor do they vote for senators.
By-elections can be held between general elections when seats become vacant. It is at the discretion of the Prime Minister to call by-elections. The federal government can also hold nation-wide referendums on major issues. The last referendum was held in 1992 on proposed constitutional changes in the Charlottetown Accord. On occasion, one particular issue will dominate an election, and the election will in a sense be a virtual referendum. The most recent instance of this was the 1988 election, which was considered by most parties to be a referendum on free trade with the United States.
Election turn-out has been steadily falling for many decades, although turnout rose by four percent in the last election. Currently, about sixty percent of registered voters vote in federal elections, but this amounts to less than 50% of the eligible, adult population.
The most recent election was held on January 23, 2006.
Length of election campaigns
The length of election campaigns can vary, but under the Canada Elections Act the minimum length of a campaign is 36 days. There is no explicit maximum length for a campaign, although section 5 of the Charter requires that the Parliament sit at least once every twelve months, and thus a campaign would have to conclude in time for returns to be completed and parliament to be called into session within twelve months of the previous sitting. The federal election date must be set on a Monday (or Tuesday if the Monday is a statutory holiday).
The longest election campaign was the 1926 election following the King-Byng Affair which lasted 74 days. Prior to the adoption of the minimum of 36 days in law, there were six elections that lasted shorter periods of time. The last of these was the 1904 election which occurred many decades before the time limit was imposed.
In practice, the Prime Minister will generally keep a campaign as brief as is legal and/or feasible, because spending by parties is strictly limited by the Elections Act, a law which contains no provisions that would allow for increased spending in a lengthy campaign. The 1997, 2000 and 2004 elections were all of the minimum 36 days in length which has led to a common misconception that elections must be 36 days long. However, prior to 1997, elections averaged much longer: aside from the 47 day campaign in 1993, the shortest election period after World War II was 57 days and many were over 60 days in length.
Much speculation had surrounded how long of the campaign for the 39th federal election would be in 2006, especially as it became certain the election would be called in the weeks preceding Christmas 2005. The government of Joe Clark, which fell on December 12, 1979, recommended a campaign of 66 days for the resulting election, and nothing legal barred a similarly lengthened campaign. In the end, the 2006 election was called on November 29, 2005, for January 23, 2006 — making a 55-day long campaign.
List of elections
1867-1879
- 1867 - 1st general election, Conservative Party led by Sir John A. Macdonald is elected to form Canada's first majority government, defeating the Liberals and their de facto leader George Brown.
- 1872 - 2nd general election, Conservatives under Macdonald are re-elected with a second majority, defeating the Liberals and their de facto leader Edward Blake.
- 1874 - 3rd general election, Liberal Party, led by Alexander Mackenzie, retains power after having formed a government when Macdonald lost the confidence of the House in 1873, with a majority.
- 1878 - 4th general election, Conservatives, led by Macdonald, defeat Mackenzie's Liberals, returning Macdonald to power with a third majority.
1880-1899
- 1882 - 5th general election, Conservatives, led by Macdonald, are re-elected with a fourth majority, defeating Edward Blake's Liberals.
- 1887 - 6th general election, Conservatives, led by Macdonald, are re-elected with a fifth majority, defeating Edward Blake's Liberals.
- 1891 - 7th general election, Conservatives, led by Macdonald, are re-elected with a sixth majority, in Macdonald's final election before his death shortly after. Macdonald defeated rookie Liberal opposition leader Wilfrid Laurier.
- 1896 - 8th general election, Liberals, led by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, are elected with a majority, defeating the Conservatives of prime minister Sir Charles Tupper.
1900-1919
- 1900 - 9th general election, Liberals, led by Laurier, are re-elected with a second majority, defeating Tupper's Conservatives.
- 1904 - 10th general election, Liberals, led by Laurier, are re-elected with a third majority, defeating the Conservatives of Sir Robert Borden.
- 1908 - 11th general election, Liberals, led by Laurier, are re-elected with a fourth majority, defeating Borden and the Conservatives.
- 1911 - 12th general election, Conservatives, led by Sir Robert Borden, defeat Laurier's Liberals with a majority.
- 1917 - 13th general election, Conservatives, led by Borden, are re-elected with a majority as part of a pro-conscription unionists coalition, which had former Liberals and Conservatives in the cabinet. The Unionists defeat Laurier's anti-conscription Liberals in the most bitter campaign in Canadian history.
1920-1939
- 1921 - 14th general election, Liberals, led by William Lyon Mackenzie King, win a minority government, defeating Conservative prime minister Arthur Meighen, whose party is reduced to third-place in the House. Meighen becomes opposition leader, however, as the Progressives decline the title of official opposition.
- 1925 - 15th general election, Conservatives, led by Arthur Meighen, win more seats than Mackenzie King's Liberals, who hold on to power with the help of Progressive Robert Forke. The Progressives withdraw support from scandal-plagued Liberals and refuse to support the Conservatives, triggering the 1926 election.
- 1926 - 16th general election, Liberals, led by Mackenzie King, defeat Meighen's Conservatives, winning a majority with a Liberal-Progressive coalition. Also see the King-Byng Affair.
- 1930 - 17th general election, Conservatives, led by R.B. Bennett, defeat Mackenzie King's Liberals, winning a majority.
- 1935 - 18th general election, Liberals, led by Mackenzie King, defeat Bennett's Conservatives with a majority.
1940-1959
- 1940 - 19th general election, Liberals, led by Mackenzie King, are re-elected with a second consecutive majority, defeating Robert Manion's National Government party, a failed attempt to recreate Robert Borden's World War I-era Unionists.
- 1945 - 20th general election, Liberals, led by Mackenzie King, are re-elected with a third consecutive majority, defeating the newly renamed Progressive Conservatives, led by John Bracken.
- 1949 - 21st general election, Liberals, led by Liberal prime minister Louis St-Laurent, are re-elected with a majority, defeating the Progressive Conservatives led by George Drew.
- 1953 - 22nd general election, Liberals, led by St. Laurent, are re-elected with a second majority government, defeating George Drew's Progressive Conservatives.
- 1957 - 23rd general election, Progressive Conservatives, led by John Diefenbaker, defeat Liberals, led by St-Laurent with an upset minority victory.
- 1958 - 24th general election, Progressive Conservatives, led by Diefenbaker, are re-elected with the largest majority to date in Canadian history, defeating the Liberals and their new leader Lester Pearson.
1960-1979
- 1962 - 25th general election, Progressive Conservatives, led by Diefenbaker, are re-elected, but with a minority.
- 1963 - 26th general election, Liberals, led by Lester Pearson, defeat Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservatives, winning a minority.
- 1965 - 27th general election, Liberals, led by Pearson, are re-elected with a second minority, defeating Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservatives.
- 1968 - 28th general election, Liberals, led by prime minister Pierre Trudeau, are re-elected with a majority, defeating the Progressive Conservatives led by Robert Stanfield.
- 1972 - 29th general election, Liberals, led by Trudeau, are re-elected, but with a minority, defeating Stanfield's Progressive Conservatives by only two seats.
- 1974 - 30th general election, Liberals, led by Trudeau, are re-elected with a majority government, defeating Robert Stanfield's Progressive Conservatives.
- 1979 - 31st general election, Progressive Conservatives, led by Joe Clark, defeat Liberals, led by Trudeau, and win a minority, despite winning a significantly smaller share of the vote than the Liberals. The Progressive Conservatives won the highest vote share in seven provinces, but the Liberals captured an enormous lead in Quebec.
1980-1999
- 1980 - 32nd general election, Liberals, led by Trudeau, defeat Clark's Progressive Conservatives with a majority.
- 1984 - 33rd general election, Progressive Conservatives, led by Brian Mulroney, defeat Liberals, led by prime minister John Turner and win the most seats in Canadian history. The election is both the best showing ever for the Progressive Conservatives (211 seats), and the worst showing ever for the Liberals (40 seats).
- 1988 - 34th general election, Mulroney is re-elected with a second majority, contending with a much stronger performance from Turner, and a strong third-party showing from Ed Broadbent's New Democrats, winning that party's best result ever (43 seats).
- 1993 - 35th general election, Liberals, led by Liberal Jean Chrétien, defeat Progressive Conservatives, led by prime minister Kim Campbell, with a majority. The election changes the political landscape as ex-Mulroney cabinet minister Lucien Bouchard's separatist Bloc Québécois become the official opposition, and the upstart right-wing western protest Reform Party, led by Preston Manning, becomes the third party. Meanwhile Audrey McLaughlin's New Democrats and Campbell's Progressive Conservatives both have their worst electoral results ever, with 9 and 2 seats, respectively.
- 1997 - 36th general election, Liberals, led by Chretien, are re-elected with a second majority. Manning becomes opposition leader. The Progressive Conservatives, hoping to regain their place as the natural alternative to the Liberals under Jean Charest win nearly as many votes as Manning's Reform Party, but only one-third as many seats.
Since 2000
- 2000 - 37th general election, Liberals, led by Chretien, are re-elected with a third majority, defeating Stockwell Day and the Canadian Alliance, the failed attempt to unite the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservatives. Former prime minister Joe Clark leads the Progressive Conservatives to a disappointing result in their final election, but is able to keep the party as an official party in the House of Commons by winning the necessary 12 seats.
- 2004 - 38th general election, Liberals, led by prime minister Paul Martin, are re-elected with a minority, defeating Conservative Stephen Harper, the former leader of the Canadian Alliance and now leader of the united Conservative Party. Jack Layton's New Democrats come 1 seat short of winning enough seats to be able to guarantee the survival of Martin's government, resulting in a highly unstable parliament. The Bloc Quebecois under Gilles Duceppe, which had been drifting into irrelevance, also experiences a revival due to a Quebec-based Liberal scandal.
- 2006 - 39th general election, Conservatives, led by Stephen Harper, win a minority, defeating Martin's Liberals, who finish 21 seats behind them. The BQ retains most of its seats, while the New Democrats improve their fourth-place position. It is expected that the Conservatives will negotiate for the support they will need to pass legislation, while the opposition parties will not force another election at least until Martin has been replaced as Liberal leader.
Latest election results
Provincial elections
The following table lists the results of the most recent provincial and territorial elections. A link to complete lists for each province and territory is below. The winning party is indicated in bold and by the coloured bar at the left of the table. The table does not show the current state of the parties within the leglislative bodies - click the name of the province / territory for the current state.
It is important to note that in some cases the provincial parties are not associated with its federal equivalent. Most notably, in British Columbia the BC Liberals are wholly emancipated from the federal Liberals and align idealogically more with the federal Conservatives while the BC NDP is affiliated with the federal NDP and is somewhat more moderate then other NDP parties because some of them are liberals. Thus, names of provincial parties are sometimes misleading when associating a provincial party with a national party.
Note that Nunavut does not have political parties; political parties in the Northwest Territories were disbanded in 1905. For lists of general elections in each province and territory, see the infobox at the bottom of the page.
Municipal
- Ontario municipal elections, 2003
- Ontario municipal elections, 2006
- List of Toronto municipal elections
- List of Ottawa municipal elections
- Results of mayoral elections in Winnipeg
Senate nominee (Alberta)
- Alberta Senate nominee election, 1989
- Alberta Senate nominee election, 1998
- Alberta Senate nominee election, 2004
See also
- List of elections in the Province of Canada (pre-Confederation)
- Canadian federal election results since 1867
- Electronic voting in Canada
- Electoral calendar
- Electoral system
- Canadian electoral calendar
- List of Canadian federal electoral districts
- Past Canadian electoral districts
External links
- Maple Leaf Web - Political Education Website
- Electionworld
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- Pollingreport.ca
- Nodice Elections: Canada
- Predicting the 2006 Canadian Election by Elmer G. Wiens
- Undecided in 2006 - Join the confusion
- CBC Digital Archives - Voting in Canada: How a Privilege Became a Right
- CBC Digital Archives - Campaigning for Canada
Publications
The Hill Times: Canada's national newsweekly of politics and government
The Tyee's Election Blog: Canada's Daily Election Blog based in British Columbia
The Tyee: Daily Election stories from this daily independent BC-based online news source
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