1968 Canadian federal election

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264 seats in theHouse of Commons 133 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	75.7%[1] ( 0.9pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Pierre Trudeau Robert Stanfield Tommy Douglas Party Liberal Progressive Conservative New Democratic Leader since April 6, 1968 September 9, 1967 August 3, 1961 Leader's seat Mount Royal Halifax Burnaby—Coquitlam ran inBurnaby—Seymour (lost) Last election 131 seats, 40.18% 97 seats, 32.41% 21 seats, 17.91% Seats before 128 94 22 Seats won 154 72 22 Seat change 26 22 0 Popular vote 3,686,801 2,554,397 1,378,263 Percentage 45.37% 31.43% 16.96% Swing 5.18pp 0.98pp 0.95pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Réal Caouette A.B. Patterson Party Ralliement créditiste Social Credit Leader since September 1, 1963 March 9, 1967 Leader's seat Témiscamingue Fraser Valley ran inFraser Valley East (lost) Last election 9 seats, 4.66% 5 seats, 3.66% Seats before 8 3 Seats won 14 0 Seat change 6 3 Popular vote 360,404 68,742 Percentage 4.43%[i] 0.85% Swing 0.22pp 2.82pp
Popular vote by province, with graphs indicating the number of seats won. As this is anFPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote by province but instead via results by each riding.
The Canadian parliament after the 1968 election
Prime Minister before election Pierre Trudeau Liberal Prime Minister after election Pierre Trudeau Liberal

The1968 Canadian federal election was held on June 25, 1968, to elect members of theHouse of Commons of Canada of the28th Parliament ofCanada.

In April 1968,Prime MinisterLester Pearson of theLiberal Party resigned as party leader as a result of declining health and failing to win amajority government in two attempts. Hewas succeeded by hisMinister of Justice and Attorney GeneralPierre Trudeau, who called an election immediately after becoming prime minister. Trudeau's charisma appealed to Canadian voters; his popularity became known as "Trudeaumania" and helped him win a comfortable majority.Robert Stanfield'sProgressive Conservatives lost seats whereas theNew Democratic Party's support stayed the same.

Prime MinisterLester B. Pearson had announced in December 1967 that he would retire early in the following year, calling a newleadership election for the following April to decide on a successor. In February 1968, however, Pearson's government nearly fell before the leadership election could even take place, when it was unexpectedly defeated on a tax bill. Convention dictated that Pearson would have been forced to resign and call an election had the government been defeated on a full budget bill, but after taking legal advice,Governor GeneralRoland Michener decreed that he would only ask for Pearson's resignation if an explicit motion of no confidence were called in his government. Ultimately, theNew Democratic Party andRalliement créditiste were not willing to topple the government over the issue, and even had they done so, Pearson would have been entitled to advise Michener not to hold an election until after the new Liberal leader had been chosen, but the incident made it clear that Pearson's successor could not feasibly hope to hold out until the next statutory general election date of November 1970, and would in all likelihood be forced to call an election much sooner.^[2]

Pierre Trudeau, who was a relative unknown until he was appointed to the cabinet by Pearson, won a surprise victory overPaul Martin Sr.,Paul Hellyer andRobert Winters in the party's leadership election on April 6. He was sworn in as prime minister on April 20.

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As had been widely expected^{[according to whom?]}, Trudeau called an immediate election after he was sworn in as prime minister. Bilingual Trudeau soon captured the hearts and minds of the nation, the period leading up to the election being dubbed "Trudeaumania." The Liberal campaign was dominated by Trudeau's personality^{[citation needed]}. 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 a proposed expansion of social programs.

The principal opposition to the Liberals was theProgressive Conservative Party (PC Party) led byRobert Stanfield, who had previously served aspremier of Nova Scotia. The PCs started the election campaign with an internal poll showing them trailing the Liberals by 22 points.^[3]

Stanfield proposed introducing guaranteed annual income, though failed to explain the number of citizens that would be covered, the minimum income level, and the cost to implement it. Due to concerns that the term "guaranteed annual income" soundedsocialist, he eventually switched to using the term "negative income tax". These mistakes made the policy hard for voters to understand and harmed the PCs. What also damaged the PCs was the idea ofdeux nations (meaning that Canada was one country housing two nations -French Canadians andEnglish-speaking Canadians).Marcel Faribault, the PCs'Quebec lieutenant andMP candidate, was unclear on whether he supported or opposeddeux nations and Stanfield did not drop him as a candidate. This led to the Liberals positioning themselves as the party that supported one Canada. In mid-June, they ran a full-page newspaper advertisement that implied that Stanfield supporteddeux nations; Stanfield called the ad "a deliberate lie" and insisted he supported one Canada.^[4]

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On the left, former long-timePremier of SaskatchewanTommy Douglas led the New Democratic Party. The ouster of Diefenbaker had damaged the PC brand in Saskatchewan, and played a major role in allowing the NDP to overcome a decade of electoral failre at the federal level in Saskatchewan to win a plurality of seats there^{[citation needed]}. Nevertheless, these gains were balanced out by losses elsewhere in the country. 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 remained a powerful icon for New Democrats.

This was the first Canadian federal election to hold aleaders debate, on June 9, 1968. The debate included Trudeau, Stanfield, Douglas, and in the latter partRéal Caouette, with Caouette speaking French and Trudeau alternating between the languages.A.B. Patterson, leader of the Social Credit Party was not invited to this debate. The assassination ofRobert F. Kennedy three days before cast a pall over the proceedings, and the stilted format was generally seen as boring and inconclusive.^[5]

In this election, for the first time since Confederation, all the MPs were elected as the single member for their district, through First past the post. Previously some had always been elected in multi-member ridings, such as inHalifax and the riding ofQueen's (PEI), throughplurality block voting. From here on, single-winnerFirst past the post would be the only electoral system used to elect MPs.^[6]

No party fielded a full slate of candidates, and several anomalies arose:

• Lucien Lamoureux,Speaker of the House of Commons, opted to follow British tradition and stand for election as an Independent. The Liberals and PCs chose to respect that choice and not field candidates against him inStormont—Dundas, but the NDP decided not to follow suit.
• John Mercer Reid, previously elected as a Liberal inKenora—Rainy River, campaigned under theLiberal-Labour banner.
• Three ridings saw multiple candidates running under the same ticket:

• InRocky Mountain,Douglas Caston and Hugh Gourley ran as PCs, and John McLeod and Collier Maberley stood as Independent Liberals.
• InLangelier, Guy Jean and Michel Roy ran as Créditistes.
• InOkanagan—Kootenay,Howard Earl Johnston and David Wilson McKechnie ran as Socreds

The results of the election were sealed when on the night before the election a riot broke out at theSt. Jean Baptiste Day parade in Montreal.^{[citation needed]} Protesting the prime minister's attendance at the parade, supporters of Quebec independence yelledTrudeau au poteau [Trudeau to the gallows], and threw bottles and rocks. Trudeau, whose lack of military service duringWorld War II 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.

TheSocial Credit Party, having lost two of the five seats it picked up at the previous election via defections (including former leaderRobert N. Thompson, who defected to the Tories in March 1967), lost its three remaining seats. On the other hand, theRalliement des créditistes (Social Credit Rally), theQuébec wing of the party that had split from the English Canadian party, met with great success. Thecréditistes were apopulist option appealing tosocial conservatives and Québecnationalists. 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). TheCanadian social credit movement would never win seats in English Canada again.

Atlantic Canada bucked the national trend, with the Tories making large gains in that region and winning pluralities in all four Atlantic provinces. In that region, the Tory brand was strengthened by the leadership of former Nova Scotian premier Stanfield. Voters in Newfoundland, who were growing increasingly weary of their Liberal administration under founding PremierJoey Smallwood, voted PC for the first time since entering Confederation.

This was the last election until1993 in which the Liberals won at least 150 seats.

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.

  = open seat

  = new riding created in the 1966 redistribution

  = winning candidate was in previous House

  = not incumbent; was previously elected as an MP

  = incumbent had switched allegiance

  = incumbency arose from byelection gain

  = previously incumbent in another riding

  = other incumbents renominated

  = Speaker of the House of Commons

  = Previously a member of one of the provincial/territorial legislatures

  = multiple candidates

  = previously part of a two-member district