Canadian federal election, 1974

Canadian federal election, 1974

July 8, 1974

264 seats in the 30th Canadian Parliament 133 seats needed for a majority Turnout 71.0%[1] (5.7pp)   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 109 seats, 38.42% 107 seats, 35.02% Seats before 109 106 Seats won 141 95 Seat change 32 11 Popular vote 4,102,853 3,371,319 Percentage 43.15% 35.46% Swing 4.73pp 0.44pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader David Lewis Réal Caouette Party New Democratic Social Credit Leader since April 24, 1971 October 9, 1971 Leader's seat York South (lost re-election) Témiscamingue Last election 31 seats, 17.83% 15 seats, 7.55% Seats before 31 15 Seats won 16 11 Seat change 15 4 Popular vote 1,467,748 481,231 Percentage 15.44% 5.06% Swing 2.40pp 2.49pp

Prime Minister before election Pierre Trudeau Liberal Prime Minister-designate Pierre Trudeau Liberal

The Canadian federal election of 1974 was held on July 8, 1974 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 30th Parliament of Canada. The governing Liberal Party was reelected, going from a minority to a majority government, and gave Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau his third term. The Progressive Conservatives, led by Robert Stanfield, did well in the Atlantic provinces, and in the West, but the Liberal support in Ontario and Quebec ensured a majority Liberal government.

Overview

A key issue in the election was controlling spiralling inflation. Stanfield had proposed a "90-day wage and price freeze" to break the momentum of inflation. Trudeau had ridiculed this policy as an intrusion on the rights of businesses and employees to set or negotiate their own prices and wages with the catch-phrase, "Zap! You're frozen!" In 1975, Trudeau introduced his own wage and price control system under the auspices of the "Anti-Inflation Board".

The New Democratic Party, led by David Lewis, lost less than two-and-a-half percentage points in the popular vote, but almost half of their seats in the House of Commons.

The Social Credit Party of Canada, led by Réal Caouette, continued to lose ground, and fell to 11 seats, one short of the number required to be recognized as a party in the House of Commons (and therefore qualify for research funds and parliamentary committee memberships). This status was nonetheless extended to the party by the governing Liberals, who believed that Social Credit's support came primarily at the expense of the Tories.

One seat was won in New Brunswick by independent candidate Leonard Jones. Jones, the former mayor of Moncton, had secured the Progressive Conservative nomination, but PC leader Stanfield refused to sign Jones' nomination papers because he was a vocal opponent of official bilingualism, which the PC Party supported. Jones had opposed providing services in French in the City of Moncton even though 30% of the city's population was francophone. Jones ran and won as an independent. After the election, Social Credit leader Caouette invited Jones to join the Socred caucus, which would have given that party enough members for official status. Caouette justified the invitation on the basis that Jones agreed with providing bilingual education at the primary school level. Jones declined Caouette's invitation, and sat as an independent.

National results

The House of Commons after the 1974 election

↓
141	95	16	11	1
Liberal	Progressive Conservative	NDP	SC	O

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats				Popular vote
				1972	Dissolution	Elected	% Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Pierre Trudeau	264	109	109	141	+29.4%	4,102,853	43.15%	+4.73pp
	Progressive Conservative	Robert Stanfield	264	107	106	95	-11.2%	3,371,319	35.46%	+0.44pp
	New Democratic Party	David Lewis	262	31	31	16	-48.4%	1,467,748	15.44%	-2.40pp
	Social Credit	Real Caouette	152	15	15	11	-26.7%	481,231	5.06%	-2.49pp
	Independent		63	1	-	1	-	38,745	0.41%	-0.18pp
	Unknown		28	-	-	-	-	17,124	0.18%	-0.15pp
	Marxist–Leninist	Hardial Bains	104			-		16,261	0.17%
	Communist	William Kashtan	69			-		12,100	0.13%
	No affiliation		3	1	1	-	-100%	551	0.01%	-0.24pp
	Vacant				2
	Total		1,209	264	264	264	-	9,507,932	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Note: "% change" refers to change from previous election

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
Liberal			43.15%
PC			35.46%
NDP			15.44%
Social Credit			5.06%
Others			0.89%

Seat totals
Liberal			53.41%
PC			35.98%
NDP			6.06%
Social Credit			4.17%
Independents			0.38%

Results by province

Party name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NT	YK	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	8	-	3	2	55	60	6	2	1	4	-	-	141
		Popular Vote (%):	33.8	24.8	30.7	27.4	45.1	54.1	47.2	40.7	46.2	46.7	24.7	33.5	43.2
	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	13	19	8	9	25	3	3	8	3	3	-	1	95
		Vote:	41.9	61.2	36.4	47.7	35.1	21.2	33.0	47.5	49.1	43.6	33.2	47.1	35.5
	New Democratic Party	Seats:	2	-	2	2	8	-	-	1	-	-	1	-	16
		Vote:	23.0	9.3	31.5	23.5	19.1	6.6	8.7	11.2	4.6	9.5	42.1	19.5	15.4
	Social Credit	Seats:	-	-	-	-	-	11	-	-		-			11
		Vote:	1.2	3.4	1.1	1.1	0.2	17.1	2.9	0.4		0.1			5.1
	Independent	Seats:	-	-	-	-	-	-	1			-			1
		Vote:	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.3	8.1			0.1			0.4
Total seats:			23	19	13	13	88	74	10	11	4	7	1	1	264
Parties that won no seats:
	Unknown	Vote:	xx	1.0.		0.1	0.1	0.3			0.1				0.2
	Marxist–Leninist	Vote:	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.4	xx	0.1					0.2
	Communist	Vote:	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1							0.1
	No affiliation	Vote:					xx	xx							xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote.

Notes

• Number of parties: 6
  • First appearance: Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada
  • Final appearance: none

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 30th Canadian parliament

References

1. Pomfret, R. "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Elections Canada. Elections Canada. Retrieved 11 January 2014.