Canadian federal election, 1962

Canadian federal election, 1962
Canada
June 18, 1962
265 seats in the 25th Canadian Parliament
133 seats needed for a majority
Turnout 79.0%[1] (Decrease0.4pp)
  First party Second party
 
Leader John Diefenbaker Lester B. Pearson
Party Progressive Conservative Liberal
Leader since December 14, 1956 January 16, 1958
Leader's seat Prince Albert Algoma East
Last election 208 seats, 53.66% 48 seats, 33.40%
Seats won 116 99
Seat change Decrease92 Increase51
Popular vote 2,865,542 2,846,589
Percentage 37.22% 36.97%
Swing Decrease16.35pp Increase3.57pp
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Robert N. Thompson Tommy Douglas
Party Social Credit New Democratic
Leader since July 7, 1961 August 3, 1961
Leader's seat Red Deer ran in Regina City (lost)
Last election 0 seats, 2.59% 8 seats, 9.51%
Seats won 30 19
Seat change Increase30 Increase11
Popular vote 893,479 1,044,754
Percentage 11.61% 13.57%
Swing Increase9.02pp Increase4.06pp

Prime Minister before election

John Diefenbaker
Progressive Conservative

 Prime Minister-designate

John Diefenbaker
Progressive Conservative

The Canadian federal election of 1962 was held on June 18, 1962 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 25th Parliament of Canada. When the election was called, Progressive Conservative (PC) Prime Minister John Diefenbaker had governed for four years with the then-largest majority in the House of Commons in Canadian history.

This election reduced the PCs 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. For Social Credit, routed from the Commons just four years earlier, this election proved to be their most successful ever - they would never better the 30 seats won, losing seats in 1963 despite gaining a slightly better share of the vote.

Overview

During its term of office, the Diefenbaker government had introduced reforms to social programs, a Canadian Bill of Rights, and other changes. The Tories 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 affected 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 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 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.

The NDP was shut out in Saskatchewan, its political base, where Douglas failed to win his own seat. 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's) 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. Indeed, their win of 30 seats overall represented the party's greatest federal showing ever. They would never again equal, let alone surpass, that number - though the party gained its highest share of the vote in the 1963 election (1962 being its second-highest by a very close margin), it ended up losing 6 seats.

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 could all vote for the first time.

The Canadian parliament after the 1962 election

National results

↓
116 99 30 19 1
Progressive Conservative Liberal SC NDP O

Voter turn-out was 79.0%. [2]

Party Party leader # of
candidates		 Seats Popular vote
1958 Elected % Change # % pp Change
     Progressive Conservative John Diefenbaker 265 208 116 -44.2% 2,865,542 37.2% -16.35
     Liberal Lester B. Pearson 263 48 99 +106.3% 2,846,589 37% +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 Labor-Progressive Party results from previous election.

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
PC
  
 37.22%
Liberal
  
 36.97%
NDP
  
 13.57%
Social Credit
  
 11.61%
Others
  
 0.63%
Seat totals
PC
  
 43.77%
Liberal
  
 37.36%
Social Credit
  
 11.32%
NDP
  
 7.17%
Others
  
 0.38%

Results by province

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

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pomfret, R. "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Elections Canada. Elections Canada. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  2. ↑ http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/compilations/ElectionsAndRidings/ResultsParty.aspx
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