1980 Canadian federal election explained

Election Name:	1980 Canadian federal election
Country:	Canada
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Party Colour:	no
Party Name:	no
Turnout:	69.3%^[1] (6.4pp)
Previous Election:	1979 Canadian federal election
Previous Year:	1979
Previous Mps:	31st Canadian Parliament
Next Election:	1984 Canadian federal election
Next Year:	1984
Elected Mps:	32nd Canadian Parliament
Seats For Election:	282 seats in the House of Commons
Majority Seats:	142
Election Date:	February 18, 1980
Image1:	Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau 1975 (UPI press photo) (cropped).jpg
Leader1:	Pierre Trudeau
Leader Since1:	April 6, 1968
Leaders Seat1:	Mount Royal
Last Election1:	114 seats, 40.11%
Seats Before1:	114
Seats1:	147
Seat Change1:	33
Popular Vote1:	4,855,425
Percentage1:	44.34%
Swing1:	4.23pp
Leader2:	Joe Clark
Leader Since2:	February 22, 1976
Leaders Seat2:	Yellowhead
Last Election2:	136 seats, 35.89%
Seats Before2:	136
Seats2:	103
Seat Change2:	33
Popular Vote2:	3,552,994
Percentage2:	32.45%
Swing2:	3.44pp
Image4:	Ed Broadbent Le Prince Kibego Njangamwita Nabuvira (cropped).jpg
Leader4:	Ed Broadbent
Leader Since4:	July 7, 1975
Leaders Seat4:	Oshawa
Last Election4:	26 seats, 17.88%
Seats Before4:	27
Seats4:	32
Seat Change4:	5
Popular Vote4:	2,165,087
Percentage4:	19.77%
Swing4:	1.89pp
Image5:	SC
Leader5:	Fabien Roy
Leader Since5:	March 30, 1979
Leaders Seat5:	Beauce (lost re-election)
Last Election5:	6 seats, 4.61%
Seats Before5:	5
Seats5:	0
Seat Change5:	5
Popular Vote5:	185,486
Percentage5:	1.70%
Swing5:	2.91pp
Prime Minister
Posttitle:	Prime Minister after election
Before Election:	Joe Clark
After Election:	Pierre Trudeau

The 1980 Canadian federal election was held on February 18, 1980, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 32nd Parliament of Canada. It was called when the minority Progressive Conservative government led by Prime Minister Joe Clark was defeated in the Commons.

Clark and his government had 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 the hotly disputed territory of Jerusalem.^[2]

Clark had maintained uneasy relations with the conservative-populist Quebec-based Social Credit party, the fourth largest party in the House of Commons, While he needed support from the party's six MPs to get legislation passed, he was unwilling to agree to the conditions they imposed for their support. Clark recruited one Social Credit MP, Richard Janelle, to join the PC caucus.

In December 1979, just six months after the 1979 election, Clark's government could not collect enough votes in the House of Commons to survive. Clark's Minister of Finance, John Crosbie, introduced an austere government budget that proposed to increase the excise tax on gasoline by 18¢ per Imperial gallon (about 4¢ a litre) to reduce the federal government's deficit. The New Democratic Party's finance critic, Bob Rae, proposed a subamendment to the budget motion, stating that the House of Commons did not approve of the budget.^[3] The NDP's 32 MPs were set against the budget. The five remaining Social Credit MPs abstained, upset that the revenues from the increased gas tax were not allocated to Quebec.

In addition, one Tory MP (Alvin Hamilton) was too ill to attend the vote while two others (Flora MacDonald and Lloyd Crouse) were abroad. Meanwhile, the Liberals assembled all but one member of their caucus (Serge Joyal), even going as far as to take two MPs (Maurice Dionne and Claude Lajoie) out of the hospital for the vote.^[4] Rae's subamendment was adopted by a vote of 139–133, bringing down the government and forcing an election.

Former Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who had served since 1968, had announced his resignation as leader of the Liberal Party following its defeat in 1979. However, no leadership convention had been held when Clark's Progressive Conservative government fell. Trudeau quickly rescinded his resignation and led the party to victory, winning 33 more seats than in 1979. That enabled the Liberals to form a majority government.

Clark's Tories campaigned under the slogan, "Real change deserves a fair chance," but less than a third of voters voted to give Clark another chance. The loss of the budget vote just seven months into his mandate and his subsequent defeat in the February 18 general election resulted in his ouster as leader by Brian Mulroney in 1983.

The Socreds' abstention on the crucial budget vote, even if not decisive (the vote would still have passed by 139–138 had they opposed it), contributed to a perception that the party had become irrelevant since the death of iconic leader Réal Caouette in 1976. In 1980 it ran 20 fewer candidates than it had run in 1979 and lost more than three-fifths of its vote share. It won no seats - Liberal challengers defeated all of the incumbent SC MPs. But four of its incumbent MPs did post respectable second-place finishes. Having lost its presence in the House of Commons for the first time since the 1958 Canadian federal election, Social Credit rapidly declined into obscurity. It was never a serious contender to win seats again, although the party nominally continued to exist until 1993.

The new House was very regionally polarized. The Liberals were shut out of seats west of Manitoba, although receiving more than 20 percent of the vote in each western province. The Liberal party piled up massive seat counts in the two most populous provinces to achieve their victory. Liberal candidates collected more than two thirds of the votes cast in Quebec, and the party took half its seats in just that one province. The Tories won only one seat out of 75 in Quebec, although taking 12 percent of the vote there. The Tories won 43 percent of the seats in the four Atlantic provinces, which helped them elect more than a hundred MPs overal. All but 14 of them were elected in ridings west of Quebec.

Opinion polling

National polling showed:

Evolution of voting intentions at national level

Polling firm	Last day of survey	Source	LPC	PC	NDP	SC	Other		Sample
Election 1980	February 18, 1980		44.34	32.45	19.77	1.70	1.74
Gallup	February 1980	^[5]	style='background:#F8C1BE'	48	28	23
CTV	February 15, 1980		style='background:#F8C1BE'	43	33	22
CTV	February 1, 1980	^[6]	style='background:#F8C1BE'	46	33	17		4
Gallup	January 1980	^[7]	style='background:#F8C1BE'	49	28	20
Gallup	September 1979	^[8]	style='background:#F8C1BE'	41	37	19		3
Gallup	July 1979		style='background:#F8C1BE'	43	38	20		3
Gallup	June 1979	^[9]	style='background:#F8C1BE'	40	38	18
Election 1979	May 22, 1979		40.11	35.89	17.88	4.61	1.51

Quebec

Evolution of voting intentions at national level

Polling firm	Last day of survey	Source	LPC	PC	NDP	SC	Other		Sample
Election 1980	February 18, 1980		68.2	12.6	9.1	5.9	4.2
QIPO	December 22, 1979	^[10]	style='background:#F8C1BE'	74	11	11	4
Election 1979	May 22, 1979		61.7	13.5	5.1	16.0	3.7

National results

Party	Party leader	of candidates	Seats				Popular vote
1979			Dissolution	Elected	% Change		%	Change	Liberal	Pierre Trudeau	282	114	114	147	+28.9%	4,855,425	44.34%	+4.23pp	Progressive Conservative	Joe Clark	282	136	136	103	align="right"	-24.3%	3,552,994	32.45%	align="right"	-3.44pp	New Democratic Party	Ed Broadbent	280	26	27	32	+23.1%	2,165,087	19.77%	+1.89pp	Fabien Roy	81	6	5	align="right"	-	align="right"	-100%	185,486	1.70%	align="right"	-2.91pp	Cornelius I	121	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-		110,597	1.01%	+0.46pp	Hardial Bains	177	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	14,728	0.13%	+0.01pp		58	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	14,656	0.13%	align="right"	-0.01pp		54	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	14,474	0.13%	align="right"	-0.04pp	Independent		55	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	14,472	0.13%	align="right"	-0.13pp	Unknown		41	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	12,532	0.11%	align="right"	-0.07pp		52	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	6,022	0.05%	align="right"	-0.02pp	No affiliation		14	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	3,063	0.03%	+0.03pp
Total			1,497	282	282	282	-	10,949,536	100%
Sources: Elections Canada,History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

"% change" refers to change from previous election.

Changes to party standings from previous election: Social Credit MP Richard Janelle crossed the floor to join the PC Party. PC MP John Diefenbaker died during the parliamentary session. New Democrat MP Stan Hovdebo was elected in the subsequent by-election.

Results by province and territory

Party name	BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NT	YK	Total	Liberal	Seats:	- <	--BC-->	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	2 <	--Man-->	52 <	--Ont-->	74 <	--Que-->	7 <	--NB-->	5 <	--NS-->	2 <	--PEI-->	5 <	--NL-->	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	147 <	--Canada/Total-->	Popular Vote:	22.2 <	--BC-->	22.2 <	--Alb-->	24.3 <	--Sask-->	28.0 <	--Man-->	41.9 <	--Ont-->	68.2 <	--Que-->	50.1 <	--NB-->	39.9 <	--NS-->	46.8 <	--PEI-->	47.0 <	--NL-->	35.8 <	--NT-->	39.6 <	--YK-->	44.3 <	--Canada/Total-->	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	16 <	--BC-->	21 <	--Alb-->	7 <	--Sask-->	5 <	--Man-->	38 <	--Ont-->	1 <	--Que-->	3 <	--NB-->	6 <	--NS-->	2 <	--PEI-->	2 <	--NL-->	1 <	--NT-->	1 <	--YK-->	103 <	--Canada/Total-->	Vote:	41.5 <	--BC-->	64.9 <	--Alb-->	38.9 <	--Sask-->	37.7 <	--Man-->	35.5 <	--Ont-->	12.6 <	--Que-->	32.5 <	--NB-->	38.7 <	--NS-->	46.3 <	--PEI-->	36.0 <	--NL-->	24.7 <	--NT-->	40.6 <	--YK-->	32.4 <	--Canada/Total-->	New Democratic Party	Seats:	12 <	--BC-->	align="right"	-	7 <	--Sask-->	7 <	--Man-->	5 <	--Ont-->	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	align="right"	-	1 <	--NT-->	align="right"	-	32 <	--Canada/Total-->	Vote:	35.3 <	--BC-->	10.3 <	--Alb-->	36.3 <	--Sask-->	33.5 <	--Man-->	21.8 <	--Ont-->	9.1 <	--Que-->	16.2 <	--NB-->	20.9 <	--NS-->	6.6 <	--PEI-->	16.7 <	--NL-->	38.4 <	--NT-->	19.8 <	--YK-->	19.8 <	--Canada/Total-->
Total seats:			28 <	--BC-->	21 <	--Alb-->	14 <	--Sask-->	14 <	--Man-->	95<	--Ont-->	75 <		--Que-->	10 <	--NB-->	11 <	--NS-->	4 <	--PEI-->	7 <	--NL-->	2 <	--NT-->	1 <	--YK-->	282 <	--Canada/Total-->
Parties that won no seats:																Vote:	0.1 <	--BC-->	1.0 <	--Alb-->	xx <	--Sask-->	<	--Man-->	xx <	--Ont-->	5.9 <	--Que-->	<	--NB-->	<	--NS-->	<	--PEI-->	<	--NL-->	<	--NT-->	<	--YK-->	1.7 <	--Canada/Total-->	Vote:	0.4<	--BC-->	0.7 <	--Alb-->	0.1 <	--Sask-->	0.4 <	--Man-->	0.2 <	--Ont-->	3.0 <	--Que-->	0.5 <	--NB-->	0.2 <	--NS-->	<	--PEI-->	<	--NL-->	1.1 <	--NT-->	<	--YK-->	1.0 <	--Canada/Total-->	Vote:	0.1 <	--BC-->	0.1 <	--Alb-->	0.1 <	--Sask-->	0.2 <	--Man-->	0.1 <	--Ont-->	0.2 <	--Que-->	xx <	--NB-->	xx <	--NS-->	xx <	--PEI-->	0.1 <	--NL-->	<	--NT-->	<	--YK-->	0.1 <	--Canada/Total-->	Vote:	<	--BC-->	<	--Alb-->	xx <	--Sask-->	<	--Man-->	0.3 <	--Ont-->	0.1 <	--Que-->	xx <	--NB-->	<	--NS-->	<	--PEI-->	<	--NL-->	<	--NT-->	<	--YK-->	0.1 <	--Canada/Total-->	Vote:	<	--BC-->	<	--Alb-->	<	--Sask-->	<	--Man-->	<	--Ont-->	0.5 <	--Que-->	<	--NB-->	<	--NS-->	<	--PEI-->	<	--NL-->	<	--NT-->	<	--YK-->	0.1 <	--Canada/Total-->	Independent	Vote:	0.3 <	--BC-->	0.3 <	--Alb-->	0.1 <	--Sask-->	xx <	--Man-->	0.1 <	--Ont-->	0.1 <	--Que-->	0.1 <	--NB-->	0.4 <	--NS-->	0.3 <	--PEI-->	0.1 <	--NL-->	<	--NT-->	<	--YK-->	0.1 <	--Canada/Total-->	Non-Affiliated	Vote:	xx <	--BC-->	0.5 <	--Alb-->	0.2 <	--Sask-->	0.1 <	--Man-->	xx <	--Ont-->	0.2 <	--Que-->	0.3 <	--NB-->	<	--NS-->	<	--PEI-->	0.1 <	--NL-->	<	--NT-->	<	--YK-->	0.1 <	--Canada/Total-->	Vote:	0.1 <	--BC-->	0.1 <	--Alb-->	xx <	--Sask-->	0.1 <	--Man-->	0.1 <	--Ont-->	xx <	--Que-->	<	--NB-->	<	--NS-->	<	--PEI-->	<	--NL-->	<	--NT-->	<	--YK-->	0.1 <	--Canada/Total-->	No affiliation	Vote:	<	--BC-->	<	--Alb-->	<	--Sask-->	<	--Man-->	xx <	--Ont-->	0.1 <	--Que-->	0.1 <	--NB-->	<	--NS-->	<	--PEI-->	<	--NL-->	<	--NT-->	<	--YK-->	xx <	--Canada/Total-->

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote.

Notes

• Number of parties: 9
  • First appearance: none
  • Final appearance: Union populaire
  • Final appearance before hiatus: Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada (returned in 1993)

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 33rd Canadian Parliament

Articles on parties' candidates in this election:

• Independent
• Liberal
• Libertarian
• New Democrats
• Progressive Conservative
• Rhinoceros

Further reading

• Book: Byers . R. B. . Canadian annual review of politics and public affairs. 1980 . 1982 . University of Toronto Press . Toronto . 978-1-4426-7194-2 . registration.
• Book: Penniman . Howard . Canada at the Polls, 1979 and 1980: A Study of the Federal General Elections . 1981 . American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research . Washington D.C.. 0844734748 . registration.
• Book: Simpson . Jeffrey . Jeffrey Simpson . Discipline of Power: the Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration . 1996 . University of Toronto Press . Toronto . 978-0-8020-7620-5 . registration.

External links

• Riding map
• The Elections of 1979 and 1980, by Robert Bothwell

Notes and References

1. Web site: Pomfret. R.. Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums. Elections Canada. Elections Canada. 11 January 2014.
2. News: Thompson . Elizabeth . 2017-12-07 . Secret 1979 documents shed new light on why Joe Clark broke Jerusalem embassy promise . 2024-09-08 . CBC News . en .
3. Web site: House of Commons Journals, 31st Parliament, 1st Session . . 1979-12-13 . Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources . Queen's Printer for Canada . 2016-07-09 . Debate was resumed on the motion of Mr. Crosbie (St John's West), seconded by Mr. MacDonald (Egmont),-That this House approves in general the budgetary policy of the Government. And on the motion of Mr. Gray, seconded by Mr. Lalonde, in amendment thereto,-That all the words after the word 'That' be deleted and the following substituted therefor: 'this House condemns the Government for its budget which will place and unfair and unnecessary burden of higher gasoline prices, higher fuel oil prices, and higher taxes on middle and lower income Canadians.' And on the motion of Mr. Rae, seconded by Mr. Knowles, in amendment to the amendment,-That the amendment be amended by changing the period at the end thereof to a comma, and by adding immediately after the words: 'and this House unreservedly condemns the Government for its outright betrayal of election promises to lower interest rates, to cut taxes, and to stimulate the growth of the Canadian economy, without a mandate from the Canadian people for such a reversal.'.
4. News: 14 December 1979 . Emotions fill the Commons as the gov't goes down in defeat . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20200621060909/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=w9EjUEod0xMC&dat=19791214&printsec=frontpage&hl=fr . June 21, 2020 . March 13, 2024 . . 51 . The Canadian Press.
5. News: Each leader takes solace from polls at campaign end. February 18, 1980 . The Globe and Mail . 1.
6. News: Undecided vote soaring in wake of Iran 'caper'. February 4, 1980 . The Citizen . 1.
7. News: Tories have trouble: Student views on politics differ little from parents'. January 30, 1980 . The Globe and Mail . P9 . John . Fraser.
8. News: Liberals still Canadian favorite: Gallup. October 13, 1979 . The Citizen . 1.
9. News: 'Time for change'. July 11, 1979 . The Citizen . 10.
10. News: 58% to vote for Trudeau: Quebec poll. December 26, 1979 . The Montreal Gazette . 1 . Ray . Doucet.