1988 Canadian federal election

1988 Canadian federal election

November 21, 1988

295 seats in the House of Commons
148 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout75.3%[1] ()
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Brian Mulroney John Turner Ed Broadbent
Party Progressive Conservative Liberal New Democratic
Leader's seat Charlevoix Vancouver Quadra Oshawa
Last election 211 seats, 50.03% 40 seats, 28.02% 30 seats, 18.81%
Seats before 203 38 32
Seats won 169[a] 83 43
Seat change 34 45 11
Popular vote 5,667,543 4,205,072 2,685,263
Percentage 43.02% 31.92% 20.38%
Swing 7.01pp 3.89pp 1.57pp


The Canadian parliament after the 1988 election

Prime Minister before election

Brian Mulroney
Progressive Conservative

Prime Minister after election

Brian Mulroney
Progressive Conservative

The 1988 Canadian federal election was held November 21, 1988, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 34th Parliament of Canada.

National results

For a complete list of MPs elected in the 1988 election see 34th Canadian Parliament.

Party Party leader # of
candidates
Seats Popular vote
1984 Dissol. Elected % Change # % Change
  Progressive Conservative Brian Mulroney 295 211 203 169 -19.9% 5,667,543 43.02% -7.02pp
  Liberal John Turner 294 40 38 83 +107.5% 4,205,072 31.92% +3.89pp
  New Democratic Party Ed Broadbent 295 30 32 43 +34.4% 2,685,263 20.38% +1.57pp
Reform Preston Manning 72 * - - * 275,767 2.09% *
Christian Heritage Ed Vanwoudenberg 63 * - - * 102,533 0.78% *
Rhinoceros Cornelius I 74 - - - - 52,173 0.40% -0.39pp
Green Seymour Trieger 68 - - - - 47,228 0.36% +0.14pp
Confederation of Regions Elmer Knutson 51 - - - - 41,342 0.31% -0.68pp
Libertarian Dennis Corrigan 88 - - - - 33,135 0.25% +0.06pp
  No affiliation 100 - - -   24,516 0.19% -0.12pp
  Independent 55 1 4 - - 22,982 0.17% -0.01pp
Commonwealth of Canada Gilles Gervais 58 - - - - 7,467 0.06% -0.21pp
Communist George Hewison 51 - - - - 7,066 0.05% -0.01pp
Social Credit Harvey Lainson 9 - - - - 3,407 0.03% -0.10pp
     Vacant 5  
Total 1,573 282 282 295 +4.6% 13,175,494 100%  

Note:

"% change" refers to change from previous election

169 83 43
Progressive Conservative Liberal NDP

Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
PC
43.02%
Liberal
31.92%
NDP
20.38%
Reform
2.09%
Others
2.59%
Seat totals
PC
57.29%
Liberal
28.14%
NDP
14.58%


Results by province

Party name BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE NL NT YK Total
  Progressive Conservative Seats: 12 25 4 7 46 63 5 5 - 2 - - 169
  Popular Vote: 35.3 51.8 36.4 36.9 38.2 52.7 40.4 40.9 41.5 42.2 26.4 35.3 43.0
  Liberal Seats: 1 - - 5 43 12 5 6 4 5 2 - 83
  Vote: 20.4 13.7 18.2 36.5 38.9 30.3 45.4 46.5 49.9 45.0 41.4 11.3 31.9
  New Democratic Party Seats: 19 1 10 2 10 - - - - - - 1 43
  Vote: 37.0 17.4 44.2 21.3 20.1 14.4 9.3 11.4 7.5 12.4 28.3 51.4 20.38
Total seats 32 26 14 14 99 75 10 11 4 7 2 1 295
Parties that won no seats:
Reform Vote: 4.8 15.4   3.3                 2.1
Christian Heritage Vote:   1.1     1.4             2.0 0.8
Rhinoceros Vote:           1.2             0.4
Green Vote:                         0.4
Confederation of Regions Vote:             4.3           0.3
Libertarian Vote:                         0.3
Commonwealth of Canada Vote:           0.2             0.1
Communist Vote:                         0.1
Social Credit Vote:                         xx
  Other Vote:                         0.4

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote.

Note: Parties that captured less than 1% of the vote in a province are not recorded.

Notes

  • Number of parties: 11
    • First appearance: Christian Heritage Party, Reform Party
    • Final appearance: Confederation of Regions Party, Social Credit Party
    • Final appearance before hiatus: Communist Party (returned in 2000), Rhinoceros Party (returned in 2006)

References

  1. "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Elections Canada. 21 November 1988. Archived from the original on 4 September 2024. Retrieved 11 January 2014.

Notes

  1. Includes Beaver River MP John Dahmer, who died five days after the election, before being sworn in, with the seat being lost in the subsequent by-election.

Further reading

  • Argyle, Ray. Turning Points: The Campaigns That Changed Canada - 2011 and Before (2011) excerpt and text search ch 14