1972 Canadian federal election

The 1972 Canadian federal election was held on October 30, 1972, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 29th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in a slim victory for the governing Liberal Party, which won 109 seats, compared to 107 seats for the opposition Progressive Conservatives. A further 48 seats were won by other parties and independents. On election night, the results appeared to give 109 seats to the Tories, but once the counting had finished the next day, the final results gave the Liberals a minority government and left the New Democratic Party led by David Lewis holding the balance of power. See 29th Canadian parliament for a full list of MPs elected.

1972 Canadian federal election
October 30, 1972
264 seats in the House of Commons
133 seats needed for a majority
Turnout76.7%[1] (1.0pp)
  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 155 seats, 45.37% 72 seats, 31.36%
Seats before 147 73
Seats won 109 107
Seat change 38 34
Popular vote 3,717,804 3,388,980
Percentage 38.42% 35.02%
Swing 6.95pp 3.59pp
  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 Témiscamingue
Last election 22 seats, 16.96% 14 seats, 5.28%1
Seats before 25 15
Seats won 31 15
Seat change 6 0
Popular vote 1,725,719 730,759
Percentage 17.83% 7.55%
Swing 0.87pp 2.27pp
Popular vote by province, with graphs indicating the number of seats won. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote by province but instead via results by each riding.
The Canadian parliament after the 1972 election
Prime Minister before election

Pierre Trudeau
Liberal

 Prime Minister after election

Pierre Trudeau
Liberal

Overview

The election was the second fought by Liberal leader, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. The Liberals entered the election high in the polls, but the spirit of Trudeaumania had worn off, and a slumping economy hurt his party. The Tories were led by Robert Stanfield, the former premier of Nova Scotia, who had an honest but bumbling image. The Tories tried to capitalize on the public's perception that the Liberals were mismanaging the economy with the slogan, "A Progressive Conservative government will do better."

The Liberals campaigned on the slogan, "The Land is Strong", and television ads illustrating Canada's scenery. The slogan quickly became much derided, and the party had developed few real issues to campaign on. As a result, their entire campaign was viewed as being one of the worst managed in recent decades.

Party platforms

Liberal Party:

Progressive Conservative Party:

  • increase the discipline in government spending, and increase the power of the Auditor General of Canada to fight waste and inefficiency in government;
  • ban strikes in essential services;
  • introduce price and wage controls if necessary to control inflation;
  • require foreign-owned companies operating in Canada to have a majority of Canadians on their boards of directors;
  • introduce an incentive to encourage Canadians to invest in small businesses;
  • develop a national economic strategy in co-operation with the provincial governments;
  • expand re-training opportunities for unemployed workers;
  • adjust tariffs to encourage secondary processing in Canada of Canada's natural resources;
  • eliminate the 11% sales tax on building materials;
  • eliminate 3% increase in personal income tax rates scheduled for January 1, 1973, and reduce rates by 4% on July 1, 1973;
  • adjust old age security payments regularly to reflect changes in the cost of living;
  • index tax brackets to inflation so that taxes do not rise as the cost of living rises;
  • provide assistance to set up residential land banks to reduce the cost of housing.

New Democratic Party:

  • eliminate 3% increase in personal income tax rates scheduled for January 1, 1973, and reduce rates by 8% for ordinary Canadians;
  • introduce controls on prices and rents, but not on wages;
  • create a $4300 million program to fund public works during winter months to reduce unemployment;
  • increase old age security payments, but eliminate them for wealthy senior citizens;
  • legislate greater autonomy for Canadian trade unions that are branches of international unions;
  • tough tax laws for corporations;
  • eliminate "corporate welfare", i.e., grants and subsidies for corporations, and use this money to build housing and transportation infrastructure, and fund municipal services to create jobs.

Social Credit Party:

  • reform the monetary system in line with social credit theories;
  • increase old age security payments to $200 per month beginning at age 60, and to $150 per month for spouses of seniors regardless of age.

National results

The voter turn-out was 76.7%.

One independent candidate was elected: Roch LaSalle was re-elected in his Quebec riding. LaSalle had left the PC caucus to protest the party's failure to recognize Quebec's right to self-determination, and was the only candidate to win the support of the separatist Parti Québécois.

One candidate with no affiliation was elected: Lucien Lamoureux, in the Ontario riding of Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry. Lamoureux, originally elected as a Liberal, had been serving as Speaker of the House of Commons. He ran without affiliation in order to preserve his impartiality as Speaker. He retired after this Parliament, and did not run in the 1974 election.

The Liberals won a minority government, with the New Democratic Party led by David Lewis holding the balance of power. Requiring NDP support to continue, the government would move to the political left, including the creation of Petro-Canada.

↓
109 107 31 15 2
Liberal Progressive Conservative NDP SC O
Party Party leader # of
candidates		 Seats Popular vote
1968 Dissol. Elected % Change # % Change
  Liberal Pierre Trudeau 263 155 147 109 -29.7% 3,717,804 38.42% -6.95pp
  Progressive Conservative Robert Stanfield 264 72 73 107 +48.6% 3,388,980 35.02% +3.59pp
  New Democratic Party David Lewis 252 22 25 31 +40.9% 1,725,719 17.83% +0.87pp
Social Credit1 Real Caouette 164 14 15 15 +7.1% 730,759 7.55% +2.27pp
  Independent2 53 1 2 1 - 56,685 0.59% +0.14pp
  No affiliation3 26     1   23,938 0.25%  
  Unknown 93     -   32,013 0.33%  
  Rhinoceros4 Cornelius I 1 - - - - 1,565 0.02% +0.02pp
     Vacant 4  
Total 1,117 264 264 264 -0.4% 9,677,463 100%  
Sources: Elections Canada;History of Federal Ridings since 1867; Toronto Star, October 30, 1972

Notes:

"% change" refers to change from previous election

1 Indicates increase from total Social Credit + Ralliement creditiste seats/vote in 1968.

2 Roch LaSalle, who was elected in 1968 as a Progressive Conservative, won re-election as an independent.

3 Lucien Lamoureux who was elected as a Liberal but served as Speaker of the House, won re-election with no party affiliation.

4 The Rhinoceros Party ran a total of 12 candidates, but because it was not recognized by Elections Canada as a registered party, its candidates were listed as independents.

Vote and seat summaries
Popular vote
Liberal
 
 38.42%
PC
 
 35.02%
NDP
 
 17.83%
Social Credit
 
 7.55%
Others
 
 1.18%
Seat totals
Liberal
 
 41.29%
PC
 
 40.53%
NDP
 
 11.74%
Social Credit
 
 5.68%
Independents
 
 0.76%

Results by province
Party name BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE NL NT YK Total
  Liberal Seats: 4 - 1 2 36 56 5 1 1 3 - - 109
  Popular Vote: 28.9 25.0 25.3 30.9 38.2 48.9 43.1 33.9 40.5 44.8 29.3 32.2 38.4
  Progressive Conservative Seats: 8 19 7 8 40 2 5 10 3 4 - 1 107
  Vote: 33.0 57.6 36.9 41.6 39.1 17.4 46.8 53.4 51.9 49.0 30.9 53.0 35.0
  New Democratic Party Seats: 11 - 5 3 11 - - - - - 1 - 31
  Vote: 35.0 12.6 35.9 26.3 21.5 6.8 6.3 12.3 7.5 4.7 39.8 11.6 17.8
  Social Credit Seats: - - - - - 15 - - - -     15
  Vote: 2.6 4.5 1.8 0.7 0.4 24.3 3.2 0.3 0.1 0.2     7.6
  Independent Seats: - - - - - 1 -     -   - 1
  Vote: 0.2 xx xx 0.1 0.2 1.7 0.3     0.4   3.1 0.6
  No affiliation Seats: - - - - 1 -   -         1
  Vote: xx 0.1 xx xx 0.5 0.2   xx         0.2
Total seats: 23 19 13 13 88 74 10 11 4 7 1 1 264
Parties that won no seats:
  Unknown Vote: 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.7 0.4 0.1   0.9     0.3
Rhinoceros Vote:           0.1             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 11 January 2014.
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