Canadian federal election, 1958

From Freepedia

Canada Image:Flag of Canada.svg This article is part of the series Politics of Canada

Executive The Crown (Queen Elizabeth II) Governor General (Michaëlle Jean) Prime Minister (Paul Martin) Cabinet

Legislative Parliament Senate Speaker of the Senate Government Leader in the Senate Opposition Leader in the Senate Canadian Senate divisions House of Commons Speaker of the House Government Leader in the House Leader of the Official Opposition Political parties in Canada Electoral districts Elections in Canada - Summary

Judicial Supreme Court Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Lower Courts of Appeal Constitution Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Regions Provinces and territories

edit

Politics Portal Politics (by country) State leaders -  Legislatures Elections by country - by calendar Parties by country - by name

Image:Cdn1958.PNG

The Canadian federal election of 1958 was the 24th general election in Canada's history. It was held to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons just nine months after the 23rd election. It transformed Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's minority into the largest ever majority government in Canadian history.

Diefenbaker had called a snap election to capitalize on two factors:

• nationally: the Liberals had just chosen a new leader, Lester Pearson, who, although well known around the world because of his work for the United Nations, was not well known by Canadians.

• in Quebec: Quebec had been largely Liberal since the Conscription Crisis of 1917, but upon the resignation of former Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, the province had no favourite son leader, as they had since 1948, and were open to new options. Diefenbaker formed an alliance with Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis and his conservative Union Nationale party, allowing Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservatives to sweep what had been a Liberal stronghold for a generation.

National results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
				1957	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Progressive Conservative	John Diefenbaker	265	111	208	+87.4%	3,908,633	53.66%	+14.85%
	Liberal	Lester B. Pearson	264	104	49	-53.8%	2,432,953	33.40%	-7.35%
	Cooperative Commonwealth	M.J. Coldwell	169	25	8	-68.0%	692,668	9.51%	-1.20%
	Liberal-Labour		1	1	1	-	11,956	0.16%	-
	Social Credit	Solon Low	82	19	-	-	188,356	2.59%	-3.99%
	Independent		9	2	-	-	14,211	0.20%	-0.87%
	Independent Liberal		10	2	-	-	12,054	0.17%	-1.25%
	Labour Progressive	Tim Buck	18	-	-	-	9,769	0.13%	+0.02%
	Candidats des électeurs	Réal Caouette	1	-	-	-	8,276	0.11%	-0.01%
	Independent PC		5	1	-	100%	2,097	0.03%	-0.19%
	Socialist		2	*	-	*	1,113	0.02%	*
	Capital familial	H-G Grenier	1	*	-	*	968	0.01%	*
	Radical chrétien		1	*	-	*	687	0.01%	*
	Independent SC		1	-	-	-	361	x	-0.04%
	Ouvrier canadien		1	*	-	*	243	x	*
	Independent Conservative		1	*	-	*	122	x	*
Total			831	265	265	-	7,284,467	100.00%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

"Previous" refers to to standings at previous election, not to standings in the House of Commons at dissolution.

* The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Results by province

Party Name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NW	YK	Total
	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	18	17	16	14	67	50	7	12	4	2	1	-	208
		Vote (%):	49.4	59.9	51.4	56.7	56.4	49.6	54.1	57.0	62.2	45.2	54.5	42.8	53.7
	Liberal	Seats:	-	-	-	-	14	25	3	-	-	5	1	-	48
		Vote (%):	16.1	13.7	19.6	21.6	32.1	45.6	43.4	38.4	37.5	54.4	43.3	57.2	33.4
	Cooperative Commonwealth	Seats:	4	-	1	-	3	-	-	-	-	-			8
		Vote (%):	24.5	4.4	28.4	19.6	10.5	2.3	1.8	4.5	0.3	0.2			9.5
	Liberal-Labour	Seats:					1								1
		Vote (%):					0.5								0.2
Total Seats			22	17	17	14	85	75	10	12	4	7	1	1	265
Parties that won no seats:
	Social Credit	Vote (%):	9.6	21.6	0.4	1.8	0.3	0.6	0.7						2.6
	Independent	Vote (%):			xx	xx	0.1	0.6							0.2
	Independent Liberal	Vote (%):						0.6				0.2			0.2
	Labour Progressive	Vote (%):	0.4	0.3	0.1	0.4	0.1	0.1							0.1
	C. des électeurs	Vote (%):						0.4							0.1
	Independent PC	Vote (%):		0.1			0.1								xx
	Socialist	Vote (%):					xx	xx							xx
	Capitale familiale	Vote (%):						xx							xx
	Radical chrétien	Vote (%):						xx							xx
	Independent SC	Vote (%):		0.1											xx
	Ouvrier canadien	Vote (%):						xx							xx
	Ind. Conservative	Vote (%):											2.3		xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

Preceded by: 1957 federal election

Canadian federal elections

Followed by: 1962 federal election