The Canadian federal election, 1993 reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Canadian federal election, 1993

The 1993 Canadian federal election was one of the most eventful in Canadian history. While Canada's traditional ruling party, the Liberals, was returned to power, the equally old Progressive Conservative Party was all but annihilated. The election also saw the rise of two new parties: the Bloc Québécois, which became the Official Opposition, and the Reform Party, which also won many seats.

The election was called by Progressive Conservative leader Kim Campbell, who had been Prime Minister for only a few months. She had replaced Brian Mulroney, who was considered one of the most unpopular Prime Ministers in Canadian history because of his failed constitutional reforms and the poor state of the Canadian economy. While she was expected to lose the election, she was forced to call one as the Tories' five-year mandate had almost expired.

From the start of the campaign, it seemed that Jean Chrétien's Liberals would likely form the next government. The Liberals ran a successful campaign, based around the Red Book platform.

More uncertain was how the opposition parties would be divided. Two new parties were fighting in this election. The West produced the Reform Party, a right-wing populist party led by Preston Manning. In Quebec, the Bloc Québécois, a separatist party, rose to the fore under the leadership of ex-Tory cabinet minister Lucien Bouchard. Both parties did very well in the election. Reform swept Alberta, won much of British Columbia, and many seats in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Bloc dominated Quebec, winning enough seats to form the Official Opposition as the second-largest party in Parliament.

Two older parties did not fare so well. The governing Tories were devastated. A poorly-run campaign only exacerbated their problems. Most memorable was an advertisement that attacked Chrétien's paralysed face, which offended many Canadians as a perceived cheap shot against a person's physical disability. The Tories were reduced to two seats, their worst showing ever. Kim Campbell, who lost her own Vancouver riding, resigned as leader of the party after the fiasco. Although the party won a considerable number of votes, their vote was spread out over a wide area, resulting in victories in few seats.

The other national party, the New Democratic Party, also did poorly, falling to nine seats, losing ground in the West to Reform and in Ontario to the Liberals.

Another new party, the National Party, founded by Mel Hurtig, failed to make a significant impression and disbanded after the election.

Fourteen registered political parties contested the election, a Canadian record.

The Liberals won all but one riding in Ontario, and significant support in the Maritimes and on the Prairies. They also won a fair number of seats in Quebec and British Columbia. This gave them a substantial majority in parliament.

Results

National

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9.32%

Party	Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
			Before	After	% Change	#	%	Change
Liberal	Jean Chrétien	295	80	177		5,647,952	41.24%	align="right"
Bloc Québécois	Lucien Bouchard	75	9	54		1,846,024	13.52%	n.a.
Reform	Preston Manning	207	1	52		2,559,245	18.69%	+16.59%
New Democratic	Audrey McLaughlin	294	44	9		939,575	6.88%	align="right"
Progressive Conservative	Kim Campbell	295	157	2		2,186,422	16.04%	align="right"
National	Mel Hurtig	170	0	0		187,251	1.38%	n.a.
Natural Law	Neil Paterson	231	0	0		84,743	0.63%	n.a.
Green		79	0	0		32,690	0.24%	align="right"
Christian Heritage		59	0	0		30,455	0.22%	align="right"
Libertarian		52	0	0		14,630	0.11%	align="right"
Abolitionist	John C. Turmel	80	0	0		9,141	0.07%	n.a.
Canada	Joseph Thauberger	56	0	0		7,506	0.06%	n.a.
Commonwealth	Gilles Gervais	59	0	0		7,316	0.06%	align="right"
Marxist-Leninist	Hardial Bains	51	0	0		5,136	0.04%	+0.04%
Independent		129	1	1		60,434	0.73%
No Affiliation		23	0	0		48,959	0.09%
Vacant			3	295
Total		2,155	295			13,667,671	100.0

n.a. = not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election.

Source: http://www.elections.ca

Other elections: 1984 1988 1993 1997 2000

Canadian federal election results (1980-1999)

Canadian federal elections

Province by Province breakdown

Party Name		BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NT	YK	Total
Liberal	Seats:	6	4	5	12	98	19	9	11	4	7	2		177
	Pop Vote (%):	28.1	25.1	32.1	45.0	52.9	33.0	56.0	52.0	60.1	67.3	73.0	23.2	41.3
Bloc Québécois	Seats:						54							54
	Pop Vote (%):						49.3							13.5
Reform	Seats:	24	22	4	1	1								52
	Pop Vote (%):	36.4	52.3	27.2	22.4	20.1		8.5	13.3	1.0	1.0	6.1	13.1	18.7
New Democratic	Seats:	2		5	1								1	9
	Pop Vote (%):	15.5	4.1	26.6	16.7	6.0	1.5	4.9	6.8	5.2	3.5	6.0	43.4	6.9
Progressive Conservative	Seats:						1	1						2
	Pop Vote (%):	13.5	14.6	11.3	11.9	17.6	13.5	27.9	23.5	32.0	26.7	12.7	17.7	16.0
National	Seats:
	Pop Vote (%):	4.1	2.4	1.0	3.1	1.2	0.1	0.3	1.1	0.5	0.5		2.1	1.4
Natural Law	Seats:
	Pop Vote (%):	0.6	0.6	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.8	0.5	0.9	0.2	0.8	0.9		0.6
Green	Seats:
	Pop Vote (%):	0.7	0.3			0.3	0.1		0.1	0.3		1.4		0.2
Christian Heritage	Seats:
	Pop Vote (%):	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3		0.3	0.3	0.7	0.2		0.4	0.2
Libertarian	Seats:
	Pop Vote (%):	0.3				0.2	0.1							0.1
Abolitionist	Seats:
	Pop Vote (%):					0.1	0.2							0.1
Canada Party	Seats:
	Pop Vote (%):	0.1	0.1	0.3	0.3			0.3						0.1
Commonwealth	Seats:
	Pop Vote (%):						0.2							0.1
Marxist-Leninist	Seats:
	Pop Vote (%):					0.1								0.0
Other	Seats:						1							1
	Pop Vote:	0.3	0.4	1.0	0.1	0.8	1.1	1.3	2.1					0.8

Source: Elections Canada

Notes

• Number of Parties: 14
  • First appearance: Bloc Québécois, Natural Law Party of Canada
  • Reappearance after hiatus: Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
  • Final appearance: Party for the Commonwealth of Canada
  • Final appearance before hiatus: Libertarian Party of Canada (returned in 2004)
  • First-and-only appearance: Abolitionist Party of Canada, National Party of Canada, Canada Party

• 1993 was one of only two elections in Canadian history (the other was 1997) where the official Opposition did not have the majority of the opposition's seats. 54 seats for the Bloc Quebecois, compared to 64 seats for the other opposition parties and indepedents combined.

See also: 35th Canadian parliament

Preceded by: 1988 Canadian election

Canadian federal elections

Followed by: 1997 Canadian election

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