1988 Canadian federal election

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.

1988 Canadian federal election

November 21, 1988
295 seats in the House of Commons 148 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	75.3%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Brian Mulroney John Turner Ed Broadbent Party Progressive Conservative Liberal New Democratic Leader since June 11, 1983 June 16, 1984 July 7, 1975 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 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 7.02pp 3.89pp 1.57pp
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.
Prime Minister before election Brian Mulroney Progressive Conservative Prime Minister after election Brian Mulroney Progressive Conservative

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.

1988 Canadian Federal Election Media

• 

  1988 Canadian Federal Election

• 

    NDP: 43 seats

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)

Further reading

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