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Canadian federal election, 1980

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Politics of Canada


The House of Commons after the 1980 election
The House of Commons after the 1980 election

The 1980 Canadian federal election was called when the minority Progressive Conservative government led by Joe Clark was defeated on a motion of no confidence in the Canadian House of Commons. The motion related to the government's budget, and particularly its proposal to increase the federal excise tax on gasoline by 18 cents per Imperial gallon. Clark and his government had also been under attack for its perceived inexperience, for example, in its handling of its 1979 election campaign commitment to move Canada's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau had resigned from the leadership of the Liberal Party following its defeat in 1979. Trudeau quickly came out of retirement to lead the party to victory, winning 34 more seats than in the 1979 Canadian election. This enabled the Liberals to form a majority government that would last until its defeat in the 1984 election.

The Social Credit Party lost its last five seats in the Canadian House of Commons, and rapidly declined into obscurity after this election.

Contents

Results

Popular vote map showing seat totals by province
Popular vote map showing seat totals by province

Despite winning at least one seat in every province and territory, the Progressive Conservatives lost to the Liberals, who won a majority government. This was mainly because the Liberals won all but one seat in Quebec, and won a majority of the seats in Ontario, Canada's two most populous provinces. The Liberals were shutout of Western Canada.

National


Party Party Leader # of cands Seats Popular Vote
Before After % Change # % % Change
Liberal Pierre Trudeau 282 147 4,855,425 44.40 +8.52
Progressive Conservative Joe Clark 282 103 3,552,994 32.49 -7.62
New Democratic Ed Broadbent 280 32 2,150,368 19.67 +1.78
Social Credit Fabien Roy 81 0 185,486 1.70 -2.91
Rhinoceros Cornelius the First 121 0 110,286 1.01 n/a
Marxist-Leninist Hardial Bains 177 0 14,697 0.13 n/a
Libertarian 58 0 14,656 0.13 n/a
Union Populaire 54 0 14,474 0.13 -0.04
Communist William Kashtan 52 0 6,022 0.06 -0.02
Independent 110 0   30,067 0.27 -0.18
Vacant 282  
  1,497 264 10,934,475 100.0
Other elections: 1972, 1974, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1993

Sources: http://www.elections.ca,History of Federal Ridings since 1867


Province by Province breakdown


Party Name BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE NL NT YK Total
Liberal Seats:       2 52 74 7 5 2 5     147
Popular Vote: 22.2 22.2 24.2 28.0 41.9 68.2 50.1 39.9 46.8 47.0 35.8 39.6 44.3
Progressive Conservative Seats: 16 21 7 5 38 1 3 6 2 2 1 1 103
Vote: 41.5 64.9 38.9 35.7 35.5 12.6 32.5 38.7 46.3 36.0 24.7 40.6 32.5
New Democratic Seats: 12   7 7 5           1   32
Vote: 35.3 10.3 36.3 33.5 21.9 9.1 16.2 20.9 6.5 16.7 38.4 19.8 19.8
Social Credit Seats:                          
Vote: 0.1 1.0     0.1 5.9             1.7
Other Seats:                          
Vote: 0.9 1.6 0.5 0.8 0.7 4.2 1.1 0.6 0.3 0.2 1.1   1.7

Source: Political Database of the Americas

Notes

Preceded by:
1979 Canadian election

Canadian federal elections

Followed by:
1984 Canadian election

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