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

← 1984 November 21, 1988 1993 →
← 33rd Canadian Parliament
34th Canadian Parliament →

295 seats in the House of Commons
148 seats needed for a majority
Turnout75.3%[1]
  First party Second party Third party
  Brian Mulroney (cropped).jpg Ed Broadbent.jpg
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 Decrease34 Increase45 Increase11
Popular vote 5,667,543 4,205,072 2,685,263
Percentage 43.02% 31.92% 20.38%
Swing Decrease7.02pp Increase3.89pp Increase1.57pp

Canada 1988 Federal Election.svg
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

Notes

References

  1. Pomfret, R. "Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums". Elections Canada. Elections Canada. Retrieved 11 January 2014.

Further reading

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