Liberal Party of Canada Parti libéral du Canada | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | LPC PLC |
| Leader | Mark Carney |
| President | Sachit Mehra |
| House leader | Steven MacKinnon |
| Founder | George Brown |
| Founded | July 1, 1867 (158 years, 148 days) |
| Merger of | Parti rouge Clear Grits |
| Headquarters |
|
| Youth wing | Young Liberals of Canada |
| Membership(2025) |  ~400,000[1][a] |
| Ideology | Liberalism (Canadian) Social liberalism[2] |
| Political position | Centre tocentre-left |
| International affiliation | Liberal International[3] |
| Colours | Red |
| Slogan | Canada Strong (2025) |
| Senate[b] | 0 / 105 |
| House of Commons | 170 / 343 |
| Website | |
liberal | |
TheLiberal Party of Canada (LPC;French:Parti libéral du Canada,PLC) is a nationalpolitical party in Canada and has been the governing party at the federal level since 2015. It has been one of the primary contenders for power for much of Canada's history, leading its national government for close to 60% of time.Mark Carney has been itsleader and thePrime Minister of Canada since March 2025.
The Liberal Party espouses the principles ofliberalism,[6][7][8] and generally sits at thecentre[6][9][10] tocentre-left[10][11] of theCanadian political spectrum, with their main rival, theConservative Party, positioned to theirright and theNew Democratic Party positioned to theirleft.[6][12][13] The party is described as "big tent",[14] practising "brokerage politics",[c] attracting support from a broad spectrum of voters.[20] The Liberal Party is the oldest currently active federal political party in the country, and has dominated the federalpolitics of Canada for much of its history.[21][12] As a result, it has sometimes been referred to as Canada's "natural governing party".[22][23][14][24]
The party has been in continual existence since theconfederation of Canada in 1867, and produced both the longest-serving prime minister,William Lyon Mackenzie King, and the prime minister with the longest continuous tenure,Wilfrid Laurier. King and Laurier have adorned Canada's$50 and$5banknotes respectively since 1970. The party first came into power in 1873, with the party's first official leaderAlexander Mackenzie leading the nation for five years. Following close to 20 years in opposition,Wilfrid Laurier led the party to victory in1896 and facilitated many compromises between English and French Canada that shaped the bilingual nation during his 15-years premiership. DuringWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King's 29 years as party leader, the party was in government from 1921 to 1926, from 1926 to 1930, and from 1935 to 1948. In the half century between 1935 and 1984, the party was in power for all but 7 years, winning elections under King,Louis St. Laurent,Lester B. Pearson, andPierre Trudeau, leading the country through a period of significant expansion of the Canadianwelfare state and the emergence of Canada as an independent voice in international affairs. In more recent decades, the party was in government from1993 to2006 led byJean Chrétien and thenPaul Martin, leaders who combined social liberalism with fiscal conservatism through aThird Way philosophy. It suffered its worst electoral defeat in2011, the only national election to date in which the Liberals failed to attain the status of government orofficial opposition. It returned to power in2015 led byJustin Trudeau, son of the previous Prime Minister Trudeau born during the senior Trudeau's premiership. Trudeau was succeeded byMark Carney as party leader and prime minister inMarch 2025.
The Liberals' signature policies and legislative decisions includeuniversal health care, theCanada Pension Plan,Canada Student Loans, the establishment of theRoyal Canadian Navy in 1910, theunification of the armed forces in 1968,multilateralism,official bilingualism, officialmulticulturalism,gun control, thepatriation of theConstitution of Canada and the establishment of theCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, theClarity Act, legalizingsame-sex marriage, medical assistance in dying (MAID) otherwise known aseuthanasia,cannabis, nationalcarbon pricing, expanded access toabortion, national dental care, national pharmacare, a national school lunch program, and a nationalearly learning and child care program.[7][25][26][27]
The Liberals are descended from the mid-19th centuryReformers who advocated forresponsible government throughoutBritish North America.[28] These includedGeorge Brown,Alexander Mackenzie,Robert Baldwin,William Lyon Mackenzie and theClear Grits inUpper Canada,Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia, and thePatriotes andRouges inLower Canada led by figures such asLouis-Joseph Papineau. TheClear Grits andParti rouge sometimes functioned as a united bloc in the legislature of theProvince of Canada beginning in1854, but a united Liberal Party combining both English andFrench Canadian members was not formed until 1867.[28] Their lineage from the Clear Grits led to modern Liberals being nicknamed "Grits".[29]
At the time ofConfederation of the former British colonies of Canada (nowOntario andQuebec),New Brunswick, andNova Scotia, the radical Liberals were marginalized by the more pragmaticConservative coalition assembled under SirJohn A. Macdonald. In the 29 years after Confederation, the Liberals were consigned to opposition, with the exception of one stint in government.[28]Alexander Mackenzie was thede facto leader of the Official Opposition after Confederation and finally agreed to become the first official leader of the Liberal Party in 1873. He was able to lead the party to power for the first time in 1873, after the Macdonald government resigned over thePacific Scandal. Mackenzie subsequently won the1874 election and served as prime minister for an additional four years. During the five years the Liberal government brought in many reforms, including the replacement of open voting bysecret ballot, confining elections to one day and the creation of theSupreme Court of Canada, theRoyal Military College of Canada, and theOffice of the Auditor General; however, the party was only able to build a solid support base in Ontario and in1878 lost the government to Macdonald.[28] The Liberals would spend the next 18 years in opposition.
_-_medium_crop.jpg)
In their early history, the Liberals were the party ofcontinentalism and opposition toimperialism. The Liberals also became identified with the aspirations of Quebecers as a result of the growing hostility of French Canadians to the Conservatives. The Conservatives lost the support of French Canadians because of the role of Conservative governments in the execution ofLouis Riel[30] and their role in theConscription Crisis of 1917, and especially theiropposition to French schools in provinces besides Quebec.
It was not untilWilfrid Laurier became leader that the Liberal Party emerged as a modern party. Laurier was able to capitalize on theConservatives' alienation of French Canada by offering the Liberals as a credible alternative. Laurier was able to overcome the party's reputation foranti-clericalism that offended the still-powerfulQuebec Roman Catholic Church. In English-speaking Canada, the Liberal Party's support forreciprocity made it popular among farmers, and helped cement the party's hold in the growingprairie provinces.[31]
Laurier led the Liberals to power in the1896 election (in which he became the first Francophone Prime Minister) and oversaw a government that increasedimmigration to settleWestern Canada. Laurier's government created the provinces ofSaskatchewan andAlberta out of theNorth-West Territories and promoted the development of Canadian industry.[31]
Until the early part of the century, the Liberal Party was a loose coalition of local, provincial, and regional bodies with a strong national party leader and caucus, but with an informal and regionalized extra-parliamentary organizational structure. There was no national membership of the party. An individual became a member by joining a provincial Liberal party. Laurier called the party's first national convention in 1893 to unite Liberal supporters behind a programme and build the campaign that successfully brought the party to power in 1896, but no efforts were made to create a formal national organization outside Parliament.
As a result of the party's defeats in the1911 and1917 federal elections, Laurier attempted to organize the party on a national level by creating three bodies: the Central Liberal Information Office, the National Liberal Advisory Committee, and the National Liberal Organization Committee. However, the advisory committee became dominated by members of Parliament and all three bodies were underfunded and competed with both local and provincial Liberal associations and the national caucus for authority. The party did organize thenational party's second convention in 1919 to electWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King as Laurier's successor (Canada's firstleadership convention), yet following the party's return to power in the1921 federal election the nascent national party organizations were eclipsed by powerful ministers and local party organizations largely driven bypatronage.
As a result of both the party's defeat in the1930 federal election and theBeauharnois scandal, which highlighted the need for distance between the Liberal Party's parliamentary wing and campaign fundraising,[32] a central coordinating organization, the National Liberal Federation, was created in 1932 withVincent Massey as its first president. With the Liberal return to power, the national organization languished except for occasional national committee meetings, such as in 1943 when Mackenzie King called a meeting of the federation (consisting of the national caucus and up to seven voting delegates per province) to approve a new platform for the party in anticipation of the end of World War II and prepare for a post-war election.[33] No national convention was held, however, until 1948; the Liberal Party held only three national conventions prior to the 1950s – in 1893, 1919 and 1948.[34] The National Liberal Federation remained largely dependent on provincial Liberal parties and was often ignored and bypassed the parliamentary party in the organization of election campaigns and the development of policy. With the defeat of the Liberals in the1957 federal election and in particular1958, reformers argued for the strengthening of the national party organization so it would not be dependent on provincial Liberal parties and patronage. A national executive and Council of presidents, consisting of the presidents of each Liberal riding association, were developed to give the party more co-ordination and national party conventions were regularly held in biennially where previously they had been held infrequently. Over time, provincial Liberal parties in most provinces were separated from provincial wings of the federal party and in a number of cases disaffiliated. By the 1980s, the National Liberal Federation was officially known as the Liberal Party of Canada.[35]
Under Laurier, and his successorWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King, the Liberals promoted Canadian sovereignty and greater independence within theBritish Commonwealth. InImperial Conferences held throughout the 1920s, Canadian Liberal governments often took the lead in arguing that the United Kingdom and thedominions should have equal status, and against proposals for an 'imperial parliament' that would have subsumed Canadian independence. After theKing–Byng Affair of 1926, the Liberals argued that theGovernor General of Canada should no longer be appointed on the recommendation of the British government. The decisions of the Imperial Conferences were formalized in theStatute of Westminster, which was actually passed in 1931, the year after the Liberals lost power.
The Liberals also promoted the idea of Canada being responsible for its own foreign and defence policy. Initially, it was Britain which determined external affairs for the dominion. In 1905, Laurier created theDepartment of External Affairs, and in 1909 he advisedGovernor GeneralEarl Grey to appoint the firstSecretary of State for External Affairs toCabinet. It was also Laurier who first proposed the creation of aCanadian Navy in 1910. Mackenzie King recommended the appointment by Governor GeneralLord Byng ofVincent Massey as the first Canadianambassador to Washington in 1926, marking the Liberal government's insistence on having direct relations with the United States, rather than having Britain act on Canada's behalf.
In the period just before and after theSecond World War, the party became a champion of 'progressive social policy'.[36] As prime minister for most of the time between 1921 and 1948, King introduced several measures that led to the creation of Canada'ssocial safety net. Bowing to popular pressure, he introduced the mother's allowance, amonthly payment to all mothers with young children. He also reluctantly introducedold age pensions whenJ. S. Woodsworth required it in exchange for hisCo-operative Commonwealth Federation party's support of King'sminority government.
Louis St. Laurent succeeded King as Liberal leader on August 7, 1948, and as prime minister on November 15, 1948. In the1949 and1953 federal elections, St. Laurent led the Liberal Party to two large majority governments. As prime minister he oversaw the joining ofNewfoundland in Confederation as Canada's tenth province, he establishedequalization payments to the provinces, and continued with social reform with improvements in pensions and health insurance. In 1956, Canada played an important role in resolving theSuez Crisis, and contributed to the United Nations force in theKorean War. Canada enjoyed economic prosperity during St. Laurent's premiership and wartime debts were paid off. ThePipeline Debate proved the Liberal Party's undoing. Their attempt to pass legislation to build anatural gas pipeline fromAlberta to central Canada was met with fierce disagreement in the House of Commons. In 1957,John Diefenbaker'sProgressive Conservatives won a minority government and St. Laurent resigned as prime minister and Liberal leader.[37]
.jpg)
Lester B. Pearson was easily elected Liberal leader at the party's1958 leadership convention. However, only months after becoming Liberal leader, Pearson led the party into the1958 federal election that saw Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservatives win the largest majority government, by percentage of seats, in Canadian history.[38] The Progressive Conservatives won 208 of the 265 seats in the House of Commons, while the Liberals were reduced to just 48 seats. Pearson remained Liberal leader during this time and in the1962 election managed to reduce Diefenbaker to a minority government. In the1963 election Pearson led the Liberal Party back to victory, forming a minority government. Pearson served as prime minister for five years, winning a second election in1965. While Pearson's leadership was considered poor and the Liberal Party never held a majority of the seats in parliament during his premiership, he left office in 1968 with an impressive legacy.[39] Pearson's government introducedMedicare, a new immigration act, the Canada Pension Plan, Canada Student Loans, theCanada Assistance Plan, and adopted theMaple Leaf as Canada's national flag.[40]
_(cropped).jpg)
UnderPierre Trudeau, the mission of a progressive social policy evolved into the goal of creating a "just society".[41] In the late 1970s, Trudeau stated that his Liberal Party adhered to the "radical centre".[42][43]
The Liberal Party under Trudeau promotedofficial bilingualism and passed theOfficial Languages Act, which gave French and English languages equal status in Canada.[28] Trudeau hoped that the promotion of bilingualism would cement Quebec's place in Confederation, and counter growing calls for an independent Quebec. The party hoped the policy would transform Canada into a country where English and French Canadians could live together, and allow Canadians to move to any part of the country without having to lose their language. Although this vision has yet to fully materialize, official bilingualism has helped to halt the decline of the French language outside of Quebec, and to ensure that all federal government services (including radio and television services provided by the government-ownedCanadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada) are available in both languages throughout the country.[44]
The Trudeau Liberals are also credited with support forstate multiculturalism as a means of integrating immigrants into Canadian society without forcing them to shed their culture,[45] leading the party to build a base of support among recent immigrants and their children.[46] This marked the culmination of a decades-long shift in Liberal immigration policy, a reversal of pre-war racial attitudes that spurred discriminatory policies such as theChinese Immigration Act of 1923[47] and theMS St. Louis incident.[48]
The most lasting effect of the Trudeau years has been thepatriation of theConstitution of Canada and the creation of theCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[49][50] Trudeau's Liberals supported the concept of a strong, central government, and foughtQuebec separatism, other forms ofQuebec nationalism, and the granting of "distinct society" status to Quebec; however, such actions served as rallying cries for sovereigntists, and alienated many Francophone Quebeckers.
.jpg)
After Trudeau's retirement in 1984, many Liberals, such asJean Chrétien andClyde Wells, continued to adhere to Trudeau's concept of federalism. Others, such asJohn Turner, supported the failedMeech Lake andCharlottetown Constitutional Accords, which would have recognized Quebec as a "distinct society" and would have increased the powers of the provinces to the detriment of the federal government.
Trudeau stepped down as prime minister and party leader in 1984, as the Liberals were slipping in polls. At that year's leadership convention, Turner defeated Chrétien on the second ballot to become party leader and (following Trudeau's resignation) prime minister.[51] Immediately, upon taking office, Turner called a snap election, citing favourable internal polls. However, the party was hurt bynumerous patronage appointments, many of which Turner had made supposedly in return for Trudeau retiring early. Also, they were unpopular in their traditional stronghold of Quebec because of the constitution repatriation which excluded that province. The Liberals lost power in the1984 election, and were reduced to only 40 seats in the House of Commons. The Progressive Conservatives won a majority of the seats in every province, including Quebec. The 95-seat loss was the worst defeat in the party's history, and the worst defeat at the time for a governing party at the federal level. What was more, theNew Democratic Party, successor to theCo-operative Commonwealth Federation, won only ten fewer seats than the Liberals, and some thought that the NDP underEd Broadbent would push the Liberals to third-party status.[52]
The party began a long process of reconstruction.[28] A small group of young Liberal MPs, known as theRat Pack, gained fame by criticizing the Progressive Conservative government ofBrian Mulroney at every turn. Also, despite public and backroom attempts to remove Turner as leader, he managed to consolidate his leadership at the 1986 review.
The1988 election was notable for Turner's strong opposition to theCanada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement negotiated byProgressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Although most Canadians voted for parties opposed tofree trade, Mulroney's "Tories" were returned with a majority government, and implemented the deal. The Liberals recovered from their near-meltdown of 1984, however, winning 83 seats and ending much of the talk of being eclipsed by the NDP, who won 43 seats.[28]
Turner announced that he would resign as leader of the Liberal Party on May 3, 1989. The Liberal Party set aleadership convention for June 23, 1990, inCalgary. Five candidates contested the leadership of the party, with formerDeputy Prime MinisterJean Chrétien, who had served in every Liberal cabinet since 1965, andPaul Martin, MP and former CEO ofCanada Steamship Lines, as the frontrunners. A key moment in that race took place at an all-candidates debate in Montreal, where the discussion quickly turned to the Meech Lake Accord. Martin, favouring Meech, attempted to force Chrétien to abandon his nuanced position on the deal and declare for or against it. When Chrétien refused to endorse the deal, young Liberal delegates crowding the hall began to chant "vendu" ("sellout" in French) and "Judas" at Chrétien. The incident damaged Chrétien's reputation in Quebec, and lead to a lasting animosity between Chrétien and Martin. Chrétien won on the first ballot.[53]
Chrétien's Liberals campaigned in the1993 election on the promise of renegotiating theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and eliminating theGoods and Services Tax (GST). Just after thewrit was dropped for the election, they issued theRed Book, an integrated and coherent approach to economic, social, environmental and foreign policy. This was unprecedented for a Canadian party.[28] Taking full advantage of the inability of Mulroney's successor,Kim Campbell, to overcome a large amount of antipathy toward Mulroney, they won a strong majority government with 177 seats—the third-best performance in party history, and their best since 1949. The Progressive Conservatives were cut down to only two seats, suffering a defeat even more severe than the one they had handed the Liberals nine years earlier. The Liberals were re-elected with a considerably reduced majority in1997, but nearly tied their 1993 total in2000. To this date, Chrétien is the last Liberal Prime Minister to secure a majority inthree federal elections.
For the next decade, the Liberals dominated Canadian politics in a fashion not seen since the early years of Confederation. This was because of the splintering of the Progressive Conservative's electoral coalition. The PCs' Western support, for all practical purposes, transferreden masse to the Western-basedReform Party, which replaced the PCs as the largest right-wing party in Canada; however, the party was unable to overcome perceptions of extremism and that it was merely a Westernprotest party, and was virtually non-existent east of Manitoba. Meanwhile, the Quebec nationalists who had once supported the Tories largely switched their support to the sovereigntistBloc Québécois, while the Tories' Ontario support largely moved to the Liberals. With a divided opposition, the Liberals were able to reap large majorities—especially in Ontario, where the party won all but one seat in 1993, all but two in 1997 and all but three in 2000. However, there was some disappointment as Liberals were not able to recover their traditional dominant position in Quebec, despite being led by a Quebecer.
.svg){kind=logo}
While the Chrétien Liberals campaigned from the left, their time in power is most marked by the cuts made to many social programs, including health transfers, in order to balance the federal budget.[54] Although Chrétien had supported the Charlottetown Accord while in opposition, in government he opposed major concessions to Quebec and other provincialist factions. In contrast to their promises during the 1993 campaign, they implemented only minor changes to NAFTA, embraced the free trade concept and—with the exception of the replacement of the GST with theHarmonized Sales Tax in some Atlantic provinces—broke their promise to replace the GST.
After a proposal for Quebec independence was narrowly defeated in the1995 Quebec referendum, the Liberals passed the "Clarity Act", which outlines the federal government's preconditions for negotiating provincial independence.[55] In Chrétien's final term, he supportedsame-sex marriage,[56][57]decriminalizing the possession of small quantities of marijuana,[58] and ratified theKyoto Protocol.[59] On March 17, 2003, Chrétien announced thatCanada would not support the invasion of Iraq,[60] which caused friction with the United States.[61] However, a poll conducted byEKOS for theToronto Star andLa Presse shortly afterwards showed widespread approval of Chrétien's decision by the Canadian public: 71 per cent of those questioned approved of the government's decision to not enter the United States-led invasion, with 27 per cent expressing disapproval.[62]
In Chrétien's final weeks as prime minister, he introduced legislation to reduce the maximum allowable donation to a political party or candidate to $5,000. The move came as a surprise even to Liberal supporters, as Chrétien had not done anything about election financing at any other point in his ten years in office. Political observers suggested that the move allowed Chrétien to retire on a positive note while saddling Martin, his longstanding rival and successor, with the burden of having to fight an election under the strict new rules.[63]
.jpg)
Martin succeeded Chrétien as party leader and prime minister in 2003. Despite the personal rivalry between the two, Martin wasMinister of Finance during the 1990s and was the architect of the Liberals' economic policies. Chrétien left office with a high approval rating and Martin was expected to make inroads into Quebec and Western Canada, two regions of Canada where the Liberals had not attracted much support since the 1980s and 1990s, respectively.
The political situation changed with the revelation of thesponsorship scandal, in which advertising agencies supporting the Liberal Party received grossly inflated commissions for their services. Having faced a divided conservative opposition for the past three elections, Liberals were seriously challenged by competition from the newly unitedConservative Party led byStephen Harper. Theinfighting between Martin and Chrétien's supporters also dogged the party. Nonetheless, by criticizing the Conservatives' social policies, the Liberals were able todraw progressive votes from the NDP, which made the difference in several close races. In the2004 election, the Liberals retained enough support to continue as the government, though they were reduced to a minority.
In the midst of various court rulings in 2003 and 2004 that allowed for the legalization ofsame-sex marriage in seven provinces and one territory, the Martin government proposed a bill to legalizesame-sex marriage across Canada. The House of Commons passed theCivil Marriage Act in late June 2005 in a late-night, last-minute vote before Parliament closed down, theSenate passed it in July 2005, and it receivedRoyal Assent on July 20. This made Canada the fourth country in the world to allow same-sex marriages.[64][65] In November 2005, the Martin government brokered a deal between first ministers and aboriginal leaders known as theKelowna Accord, which sought to improve the education, skills training, housing and health care of aboriginal peoples by providing $5 billion in funding over five years.[66]
Following the release of the firstGomery Report, the Liberals dropped in polls. Nonetheless, Martin turned down the NDP's conditions for continued support, as well as rejecting an opposition proposal which would schedule a February 2006 election in return for passing several pieces of legislation. The Liberals thus lost a confidence vote on November 28, and Martin advised Governor GeneralMichaëlle Jean to dissolve Parliament and call an election forJanuary 2006.
The Liberal campaign was dogged from start to finish by the sponsorship scandal, which was brought up by aRoyal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) criminal investigation into the leak of the income trust announcement. Numerous gaffes, contrasting with a smoothly run Conservative campaign, put Liberals as many as ten points behind the Conservatives in opinion polling. They managed to recover some of their momentum by election night, but not enough to retain power. They won 103 seats, a net loss of 30 from when the writs were dropped, compared to 124 for the Conservatives. Martin resigned as Liberal leader on March 18.[67]
Theensuing leadership election was set for December 2, 2006, inMontreal.[68] Eight candidates entered the contest, but onlyMichael Ignatieff,Bob Rae,Stéphane Dion andGerard Kennedy were considered to be the capable of garnering enough support to be able to win the leadership, with Ignatieff and Rae being considered thefront-runners.[69][70] Although Ignatieff lead on the first two ballots, on the third ballot Dion picked up enough support from the eliminated Kennedy to leapfrog both Rae and Ignatieff, eliminating Rae. On the fourth and final ballot, Dion defeated Ignatieff to become leader of the Liberal Party.[71]
Dion campaigned on environmental sustainability during the leadership race, which later evolved into the "Green Shift": a proposal for a nationalcarbon tax that would be offset by reductions to income tax rates.[72] The plan was a key policy for the party in the2008 federal election, but it was not well received and was continuously attacked by both the Conservatives and NDP.[73][74][75][76] On election night, the Liberal Party won 26.26 per cent of the popular vote and 77 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. At that time, their popular support was the lowest in the party's history, and weeks later Dion announced he would step down as Liberal leader once his successor was chosen.[77]
However, the2008–2009 Canadian parliamentary dispute made Dion's continued leadership untenable: an agreement to form acoalition government between the with NDP faced public opposition if it meant Dion was to be become prime minister, even if only until the leadership election.[78] Dion thus resigned as leader on December 8, with caucus selecting Ignatieff as interim leader.[79] However, Harperprorogued Parliament before aconfidence vote could be scheduled. When parliament resumed on January 28, 2009, the Ignatieff Liberals agreed to support the budget as long as it included regular accountability reports, which the Conservatives accepted. This ended the possibility of the coalition government with the New Democrats.[80] Ignatieff wasformally named leader on May 2, 2009.[81]
By the time Ignatieff was confirmed as party leader, the Liberal Party had a comfortable lead over the governing Conservatives.[82][83][84] Support fell over the summer as Ignatieff was characterized of "missing in action", and Ignatieff announced on August 31, 2009, that the Liberals would not support the minority Conservative government when Parliament resumed.[85][86][87] A month later, on October 1, the Liberals put forth a non-confidence motion; however, the NDP abstained from voting and the Conservative government survived.[88] The attempt to force an election, just a year after the previous one, was viewed as a miscalculation, as polls showed that most Canadians did not want another election.[89] Afterwards, popularity for Ignatieff and his party continued to fall.[90] Over the next year and a half, with the exception of a brief period in early 2010, support for the Liberals remained below 30 per cent, and behind the Conservatives.[91]
Shortly after the Harper government was found to be inContempt of Parliament over theCanadian Afghan detainee issue, Ignatieff successfully introduced a motion of no confidence against the government, beginning the2011 election.[92] The Liberals had considerable momentum when the writ was dropped, and Ignatieff successfully squeezed NDP leaderJack Layton out of media attention by issuing challenges to Harper for one-on-one debates.[93][94][95] However, opponents frequently criticized Ignatieff's perceived political opportunism, particularly during theLeaders' debates when Layton criticized Ignatieff for having a poor attendance record for Commons votes: "You know, most Canadians, if they don't show up for work, they don't get a promotion." Ignatieff failed to defend himself against these charges, and the debates were said to be a turning point in the campaign.[96]
On election day, the Liberals took the biggest loss in their history. The result was a third-place finish, with only 19 per cent of the vote and returning 34 seats in the House of Commons. Notably, their support in Toronto and Montreal, their power bases for the last two decades, all but vanished. The Conservatives won 40 per cent of the vote and formed a majority government, while the NDP won 31 per cent of the vote and formed the Official Opposition.[97] It marked the first time the Liberals were unable to form either government or the official opposition. Ignatieff was defeated in his own riding and announced his resignation as Liberal leader shortly after. Bob Rae was chosen as theinterim leader on May 25, 2011.[98]
Pundits widely viewed the 2011 election as apolitical realignment and questioned the Liberal Party's viability.The Economist said, "the election represents the biggest realignment of Canadian politics since 1993";[99]Maclean's writerAndrew Coyne wrote that "the Conservatives are now in a position to replace the Liberals as thenatural governing party in Canada."[100] Books such asThe Big Shift byJohn Ibbitson andDarrell Bricker, andPeter C. Newman'sWhen the Gods Changed: The Death of Liberal Canada, asserted that the Liberals had become an "endangered species".[101][102]
_(cropped).jpg)
On April 14, 2013,Justin Trudeau, son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, waselected leader of the Liberal Party on the first ballot, winning 80% of the vote.[103] Following his win, support for the Liberal Party increased considerably, and the party moved into first place in public opinion polls.[104][105] In response, the Conservatives ran a series of ads attempting to "[paint] him as a silly dilettante unfit for public office" and the surge levelled off in the following year.[106]
In 2014, Trudeau removed all Liberal senators from the Liberal Party caucus. In announcing this, Trudeau said the purpose of the unelected upper chamber is to act as a check on the power of the prime minister, but the party structure interferes with that purpose.[5] Following this move, Liberal senators chose to keep the designation "Liberal" and sit together as a caucus, albeit not one supported by the Liberal Party of Canada. This independent group continued to refer to itself in publications as theSenate Liberal Caucus until 2019.[107]
By the time the2015 federal election was called, the Liberals had fallen back to third place. Trudeau and his advisors mounted a campaign based on economic stimulus in the hopes of regaining the mantle of being the party that best represented change from the New Democrats.[108] The campaign was successful, and the Liberals won the election in a dramatic fashion: with 39.5 percent of the popular vote and 184 seats, it was the first time a party had won a parliamentary majority after placing third in a previous general election.[109][110][111]Chantal Hébert deemed the result "a Liberal comeback that is headed straight for the history books",[112] whileBloomberg's Josh Wingrove and Theophilos Argitis similarly described it as "capping the biggest political comeback in the country’s history."[113] Spencer McKay, writing for theNational Post, suggested that "maybe we've witnessed a revival of Canada's 'natural governing party'".[114]
At the2019 federal election, Trudeau's Liberal Party lost 20 seats in the House of Commons (lowering its total from 177 to 157) from the time of dissolution, they still won the most seats of any party—enough seats to allow Trudeau to form a minority government.[115][116] For the first time since 1979, the party that garnered the largest share of the national popular vote did not win the most seats; the Liberals under Trudeau had 33.1 per cent of the popular vote, while the Conservatives underAndrew Scheer had 34.4 per cent.[117][118] It was also the first time a government took power with less than 35 percent of the national popular vote since the Conservatives ofJohn A. Macdonald, in 1867, who had 34.8 per cent of the votes.[119]
In the2021 federal election, Trudeau and the Liberals secured a third mandate and his second minority government after winning 160 seats. However, the Liberals again came in second in the national popular vote, behind the Conservatives.[120] They received 32.6 percent of the popular vote, the lowest percentage of the national popular vote for a governing party in Canadian history.[121]
In March 2022, Trudeau's Liberal Party agreed to aconfidence and supply deal with theNew Democratic Party.[122] In September 2024,Jagmeet Singh announced that he was ending the confidence-and-supply agreement, with NDP sources saying they had "achieved all they could from the agreement."[123][124] Throughout the year, the Liberals faced declining poll numbers and disappointing results inby-elections, including losses insafe seats such asToronto—St. Paul's inToronto andLaSalle—Émard—Verdun inMontreal, and battleground seats such asCloverdale—Langley City inVancouver.[125] The months following these losses saw frequent media stories about internal frustration and discontent with Trudeau's leadership. This appeared to culminate in a caucus meeting where multiple members called on Trudeau to resign. Trudeau emerged from this meeting stating that the party remained "strong and united".[126] On January 6, 2025, Trudeau prorogued parliament and announced his intent to resign as both party leader and prime minister following aleadership election.[127]
On March 9, 2025,Mark Carney waselected leader of the Liberal Party on the first ballot, winning 85.9% of the vote. In the2025 Canadian federal election which was held on April 28, 2025, the Liberal Party under Carney's leadership which not only gain seats in theCanadian House of Commons, but would also win the popular vote for the first time since2015, and over 40% of the popular vote for the first time since2000.[128][129][130][131] The Liberal Party would win 43.7% of the popular vote,[132] the highest margin since1980.
Scholars and political experts have recently used apolitical realignment model to explain what was considered a collapse of a dominant party and put its condition in long-term perspective. According to recent scholarship, there have been fourparty systems in Canada at the federal level since Confederation, each with its own distinctive pattern of social support, patronage relationships, leadership styles, and electoral strategies. Steve Patten identifies four party systems in Canada's political history:[133]
Stephen Clarkson (2005) shows how the Liberal Party has dominated all the party systems, using different approaches. It began with a "clientelistic approach" underLaurier, which evolved into a "brokerage" system of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s underMackenzie King. The 1950s saw the emergence of a "pan-Canadian system", which lasted until the 1990s. The 1993 election – categorized by Clarkson as an electoral "earthquake" which "fragmented" the party system, saw the emergence of regional politics within a four party-system, whereby various groups championed regional issues and concerns. Clarkson concludes that the inherent bias built into the first-past-the-post system, has chiefly benefited the Liberals.[134]
 | This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: Section does not reflect the current 2025 party platform and mandate. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2025) |
The principles of the party are based onliberalism as defined by variousliberal theorists and include individual freedom for present and future generations, responsibility, human dignity, a just society, political freedom, religious freedom, national unity, equality of opportunity, cultural diversity, bilingualism, and multilateralism.[135][136] From the early twentieth century, the Liberal Party has favoured a variety of "big tent" policies from bothright andleft of thepolitical spectrum.[14] When it formed the government from 1993 to 2006, it championedbalanced budgets, and eliminated the budget deficit completely from the federal budget in 1995 by reducing spending onsocial programs or delegating them to the provinces, and promised to replace theGoods and Services Tax in the party's famousRed Book.[137] It also federally legalizedsame-sex marriage in 2005.
During the2021 federal election, the Liberal Party of Canada introduced their platform, which included a "Gender and Diversity Impact Summary" for each chapter,[138] as well as six key categories. These included: the pandemic, housing, health care, the economy, climate change, and reconciliation.[139][140]
Key Liberal policies of the 2021 platform included:
The Liberal Party has been one of two principal contenders for power for most of Canada's history, most often with theConservative Party (or its predecessor parties) as the primary rival. It is often referred to as Canada's "natural governing party" due to its electoral success and endurance.[141][142][143][144] The Liberal Party had formed government following26 of 45 federal elections since theconfederation of Canada in 1867, leading the national government for almost 60% of the time throughout the nation's history. Only once did it fail to form either the government or the official opposition.
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1867 | George Brown | 60,818 | 22.70 | 62 / 180 | 62 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1872 | Edward Blake | 110,556 | 34.70 | 95 / 200 | 33 |  2nd | Opposition |
| 1874 | Alexander Mackenzie | 128,455 | 39.50 | 129 / 206 | 34 | 1st | Majority |
| 1878 | 180,074 | 33.10 | 63 / 206 |  66 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1882 | Edward Blake | 160,547 | 31.10 | 73 / 211 | 10 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1887 | 312,736 | 43.10 | 80 / 215 | 7 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1891 | Wilfrid Laurier | 350,512 | 45.20 | 90 / 215 | 10 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1896 | 401,425 | 41.40 | 117 / 213 | 27 | 1st | Majority | |
| 1900 | 477,758 | 50.30 | 128 / 213 | 11 | 1st | Majority | |
| 1904 | 521,041 | 50.90 | 137 / 214 | 9 | 1st | Majority | |
| 1908 | 570,311 | 48.90 | 133 / 221 | 4 | 1st | Majority | |
| 1911 | 596,871 | 45.82 | 85 / 221 | 48 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1917 | 729,756 | 38.80 | 82 / 235 | 3 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1921 | Mackenzie King | 1,285,998 | 41.15 | 118 / 235 | 36 | 1st | Majority |
| 1925 | 1,252,684 | 39.74 | 100 / 245 | 18 | 2nd | Minority | |
| Opposition | |||||||
| 1926 | 1,397,031 | 42.90 | 116 / 245 | 16 | 1st | Minority | |
| 1930 | 1,716,798 | 45.50 | 89 / 245 | 27 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1935 | 1,967,839 | 44.68 | 173 / 245 | 84 | 1st | Majority | |
| 1940 | 2,365,979 | 51.32 | 179 / 245 | 6 | 1st | Majority | |
| 1945 | 2,086,545 | 39.78 | 118 / 245 | 61 | 1st | Minority | |
| 1949 | Louis St. Laurent | 2,874,813 | 49.15 | 191 / 262 | 73 | 1st | Majority |
| 1953 | 2,731,633 | 48.43 | 169 / 265 | 22 | 1st | Majority | |
| 1957 | 2,702,573 | 40.50 | 105 / 265 | 64 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1958 | Lester Pearson | 2,432,953 | 33.40 | 48 / 265 | 57 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1962 | 2,846,589 | 36.97 | 99 / 265 | 51 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1963 | 3,276,996 | 41.48 | 128 / 265 | 29 | 1st | Minority | |
| 1965 | 3,099,521 | 40.18 | 131 / 265 | 3 | 1st | Minority | |
| 1968 | Pierre Trudeau | 3,686,801 | 45.37 | 154 / 264 | 23 | 1st | Majority |
| 1972 | 3,717,804 | 38.42 | 109 / 264 | 45 | 1st | Minority | |
| 1974 | 4,102,853 | 43.15 | 141 / 264 | 32 | 1st | Majority | |
| 1979 | 4,595,319 | 40.11 | 114 / 282 | 27 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1980 | 4,855,425 | 44.34 | 147 / 282 | 33 | 1st | Majority | |
| 1984 | John Turner | 3,516,486 | 28.02 | 40 / 282 | 107 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1988 | 4,205,072 | 31.92 | 83 / 295 | 43 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1993 | Jean Chrétien | 5,647,952 | 41.24 | 177 / 295 | 94 | 1st | Majority |
| 1997 | 4,994,277 | 38.46 | 155 / 301 | 22 | 1st | Majority | |
| 2000 | 5,252,031 | 40.85 | 172 / 301 | 17 | 1st | Majority | |
| 2004 | Paul Martin | 4,982,220 | 36.73 | 135 / 308 | 37 | 1st | Minority |
| 2006 | 4,479,415 | 30.23 | 103 / 308 | 32 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 2008 | Stéphane Dion | 3,633,185 | 26.26 | 77 / 308 | 26 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 2011 | Michael Ignatieff | 2,783,175 | 18.91 | 34 / 308 | 43 | 3rd | Third party |
| 2015 | Justin Trudeau | 6,928,055 | 39.47 | 184 / 338 | 150 | 1st | Majority |
| 2019 | 6,018,728 | 33.12 | 157 / 338 | 27 | 1st | Minority | |
| 2021 | 5,556,629 | 32.62 | 160 / 338 | 3 | 1st | Minority[d] | |
| 2025 | Mark Carney | 8,595,506 | 43.76 | 169 / 343 | 9 | 1st | Minority |
The party became infused with social liberalism in the 1940s and 1950s.
Two historically dominant political parties have avoided ideological appeals in favour of a flexible centrist style of politics that is often labelled brokerage politics.
... most Canadian governments, especially at the federal level, have taken a moderate, centrist approach to decision making, seeking to balance growth, stability, and governmental efficiency and economy ... .
Canada's party system has long been described as a "brokerage system" in which the leading parties (Liberal and Conservative) follow strategies that appeal across majorsocial cleavages in an effort to defuse potential tensions.
The Clear Grits became supporters of George Brown, and were the nucleus of the Liberal party in Ontario in later times. Thence comes the common use of the term 'Grit' as a colloquial synonym for 'Liberal'.
| National leaders |
|  | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabinets |
| ||||||||
| Parliamentary election candidates | |||||||||
| Related parties |
| ||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
.svg){kind=icon}
.svg)
