1968 Canadian federal election

Canadian federal election, 1968

June 25, 1968
264 seats in the 28th Canadian Parliament 133 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	75.7%
First party Second party   Leader Pierre Trudeau Robert Stanfield Party Liberal Progressive Conservative Leader since April 6, 1968 September 9, 1967 Leader's seat Mount Royal Halifax Last election 131 seats, 40.18% 97 seats, 32.41% Seats before 128 94 Seats won 154 72 Seat change +26 -22 Popular vote 3,686,801 2,554,397 Percentage 45.37% 31.43% Swing +5.18pp -0.98pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Tommy Douglas Réal Caouette Party New Democratic Ralliement créditiste Leader since August 3, 1961 September 1, 1963 Leader's seat Burnaby—Coquitlam ran in Burnaby—Seymour (lost) Témiscamingue Last election 21 seats, 17.91% 9 seats, 4.66% Seats before 22 8 Seats won 22 14 Seat change ±0 +6 Popular vote 1,378,263 360,404 Percentage 16.96% 4.43% Swing -0.95pp -0.22pp
Prime Minister before election Pierre Trudeau Liberal Prime Minister-designate Pierre Trudeau Liberal

The Canadian federal election of 1968 was held on June 25, 1968, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 28th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party won a majority government under its new leader, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

This was the last federal election in which some provinces (specifically Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Saskatchewan) had fewer seats they had been allocated in the previous election due to a redistribution. The 1966 census, for example, revealed that Alberta had a population about 50% greater than Saskatchewan's even though both provinces had the same number of seats at the time (17). Saskatchewan was the only province to lose multiple seats in the redistribution (4). It was also the only election in Canadian history where fewer total seats were contested compared to the previous vote (264 instead of 265). Changes to the Constitution enacted since that time have rendered the prospect of similar reductions far less likely.

Parties and campaigns

Trudeau, who was a relative unknown until he was appointed to the cabinet by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, had won a surprise victory over Paul Joseph James Martin, Paul Hellyer and Robert Winters in the party's leadership election earlier in 1968. The charismatic, intellectual, handsome, single, and fully bilingual Trudeau soon captured the hearts and minds of the nation, and the period leading up to the election saw such intense feelings for him that it was dubbed "Trudeaumania." At public appearances, he was confronted by screaming girls, something never before seen in Canadian politics.

The Liberal campaign was dominated by Trudeau's personality. Liberal campaign ads featured pictures of Trudeau inviting Canadians to "Come work with me", and encouraged them to "Vote for New Leadership for All of Canada". The substance of the campaign was based upon the creation of a "just society", with a proposed expansion of social programs.

The principal opposition to the Liberals was the Progressive Conservative Party led by Robert Stanfield. The party was still smarting from the nasty infighting that had led to the ousting of leader John Diefenbaker. The PCs also had problems with their policy on Quebec: the Tories, hoping to contrast with the rigidly federalist Trudeau, and embraced the idea of deux nations, meaning that their policies would be based on the idea that Canada was one country housing two nations - French-Canadians and English-speaking Canadians. As Conservative candidates began to renounce this policy, the party was forced to backtrack, and late in the campaign, ran ads signed by Stanfield that stated that the PC Party stood for "One country, one Canada". Trudeau had more success on this point, promoting his vision of a Canada whole and indivisible.

On the left, former long-time Premier of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas led the New Democratic Party, but once again failed to make the electoral break-through that was hoped for when the party was founded in 1960. Under the slogan, "You win with the NDP", Douglas campaigned for affordable housing, higher old age pensions, lower prescription drug prices, and a reduced cost of living. However, the NDP had difficulty running against the left-leaning Trudeau, who was himself a former supporter of the NDP. Douglas would step down as leader in 1971, but remains a powerful icon for New Democrats.

This was the first Canadian federal election to hold a leaders debate, on June 9, 1968. The debate included Trudeau, Stanfield, Douglas, and in the latter part Réal Caouette, with Caouette speaking French and Trudeau alternating between the languages. The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy three days before cast a pall over the proceedings, and the stilted format was generally seen as boring and inconclusive.

National results

The Canadian parliament after the 1968 election

The results of the election were sealed when on the night before the election a riot broke out at the St. Jean Baptiste Day parade in Montreal. Protesting the prime minister's attendance at the parade, supporters of Quebec independence yelled Trudeau au poteau [Trudeau to the gallows], and threw bottles and rocks. Trudeau, whose lack of military service had led some to question his courage, firmly stood his ground, and did not flee from the violence despite the wishes of his security escort. Images of Trudeau standing fast to the thrown bottles of the rioters were broadcast across the country, and swung the election even further in the Liberals' favour as many English-speaking Canadians believed that he would be the right leader to fight the threat of Quebec separatism.

The Social Credit Party lost all four of its seats. On the other hand, the Ralliement des créditistes (Social Credit Rally), the Québec wing of the party that had split from the English Canadian party, met with great success. The créditistes were a populist option appealing to social conservatives and Québec nationalists. They were especially strong in rural ridings and amongst poor voters. Party leader Réal Caouette campaigned against poverty, government indifference, and "la grosse finance" (big finance). The Canadian social credit movement would never be represented at the federal level in English Canada again.

↓
155	72	22	14	1
Liberal	Progressive Conservative	NDP	RC	O

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats				Popular vote
				1965	Dissolution	Elected	% Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Pierre Trudeau	262	131	128	154	+18.3%	3,686,801	45.37%	+5.18pp
	Progressive Conservative	Robert Stanfield	263	97	94	72	-25.8%	2,554,397	31.43%	-0.98pp
	New Democratic Party	Tommy Douglas	263	21	22	22	+4.8%	1,378,263	16.96%	-0.95pp
	Ralliement créditiste	Réal Caouette	72	9	8	14	+55.6%	360,404	4.43%	-0.22pp
	Independent		29	1	2	1	-	36,543	0.45%	-0.23pp
	Liberal-Labour	Pierre Trudeau	1			1		10,144	0.12%
	Social Credit	A.B. Patterson	32	5	4	-	-100%	68,742	0.85%	-2.82pp
	Independent Liberal		11	-	-	-	-	16,785	0.21%	-0.01pp
	Communist	William Kashtan	14	-	-	-	-	4,465	0.05%	x
	Independent PC		5	1	-	-	-100%	2,762	0.03%	-0.14pp
	Démocratisation Économique		5			-		2,651	0.03%
	Franc Lib		1			-		2,141	0.03%
	Independent Conservative		1	-	-	-	-	632	0.01%	x
	Reform		1			-		420	0.01%
	Rhinoceros	Cornelius I	1			-		354	x	x
	Conservative		1	-	-	-	-	339	x	x
	Esprit social	H-G Grenier	1	-	-	-	-	311	x	x
	Socialist Labour		1	-	-	-	-	202	x	x
	Republican		1			-		175	x
	New Canada	Fred Reiner	1			-		148	x
	National Socialist		1			-		89	x
	Vacant				6
	Total		967	265	265	264	-0.4%	8,126,768	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867, Toronto Star, June 24, 1968.

Notes:

"% change" refers to change from previous election

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

"Dissolution" refers to party standings in the House of Commons immediately prior to the election call, not the results of the previous election.

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
Liberal			45.37%
PC			31.36%
NDP			16.96%
Ralliement créditiste			4.43%
Others			1.88%

Seat totals
Liberal			58.33%
PC			27.27%
NDP			8.33%
Ralliement créditiste			5.30%
Others			0.76%

Results by province

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NT	YK	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	16	4	2	5	63	56	5	1	-	1	1	-	154
		Popular vote:	41.8	35.7	27.1	41.5	46.2	53.6	44.4	38.0	45.0	42.8	63.8	47.0	45.4
	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	-	15	5	5	17	4	5	10	4	6	-	1	72
		Vote:	18.9	51.0	37.0	31.4	32.0	21.4	49.7	55.2	51.8	52.7	23.4	48.0	31.4
	New Democratic	Seats:	7	-	6	3	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	22
		Vote:	32.6	9.4	35.7	25.0	20.6	7.5	4.9	6.7	3.2	4.4	12.8	5.0	17.0
	Ralliement créditiste	Seats:						14	-						14
		Vote:						16.4	0.7						4.4
	Independent	Seats:	-	-	-	-	1	-	-						1
		Vote:	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.6	0.6	0.2						0.4
	Liberal-Labour	Seats:					1								1
		Vote:					0.3								0.1
Total seats:			23	19	13	13	88	74	10	11	4	7	1	1	264
Parties that won no seats:
	Social Credit	Vote:	6.4	1.9		1.5	xx					0.1			0.8
	Independent Liberal	Vote:		1.5			0.1	0.2							0.2
	Communist	Vote:	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1	xx							0.1
	Independent PC	Vote:		0.2			xx	xx	0.1	0.1					xx
	Démocratisation Écon.	Vote:						0.1							xx
	Franc Lib	Vote:						0.1							xx
	Independent Cons.	Vote:				0.2									xx
	Reform	Vote:	0.1												xx
	Rhinoceros	Vote:						xx							xx
	Conservative	Vote:						xx							xx
	Espirit social	Vote:						xx							xx
	Socialist Labour	Vote:					xx								xx
	Republican	Vote:	xx												xx
	New Canada	Vote:					xx								xx
	National Socialist	Vote:					xx								xx

Notes

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote.

For a full list of those elected in the 1968 election, see 28th Canadian parliament.

• Voter turnout: 75.7% of the eligible population voted.

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 28th Canadian Parliament

Further reading

• Argyle, Ray. Turning Points: The Campaigns That Changed Canada - 2011 and Before (2011) excerpt and text search ch 13
• Sullivan, Martin. Mandate '68: The Year of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Doubleday, Toronto, 1968.