Canadian federal election, 1965 Totally Explained

Everything about Canadian Federal Election 1965 totally explained

The Canadian federal election of 1965 was held on November 8 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 27th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson was re-elected with a larger number of seats in the House. Although the Liberals lost a small share of the popular vote, they were able to win more seats, but fell just short of having a majority. Notably, this election marked the last time that a conservative party didn't win an absolute majority of the vote in Alberta.
   The Liberals campaigned on their record of having kept the promises made in the 1963 campaign, job creation, lowering income taxes, higher wages, higher family allowances and student loans. They promised to implement a national medicare program by 1967, and the Canada Pension Plan system of public pensions. They urged voters to give them a majority for "five more years of prosperity". The party campaigned under the slogans, "Good Things Happen When a Government Cares About People", and, "For Continued Prosperity".
   The Progressive Conservative Party of John Diefenbaker, campaigning with the slogan, "Policies for People, Policies for Progress", lost a small number of seats. Despite losing a second time, Diefenbaker refused to resign as party leader, and was eventually forced from the position by a campaign by the party president Dalton Camp. Diefenbaker ran to succeed himself in the party's 1967 leadership convention, but lost to Robert Stanfield.
   Old age pensions were an important issue in this campaign. The Liberal Party pointed having increased the pension to $75 per month for persons 70 years of age and older, put in place plans to reduce the eligibility age to 65 by 1970, and to add a "Canada Assistance Program" payment for seniors with lower incomes. The PCs promised to increase OAP to $100 per month for all those 70 years old and over.
   The New Democratic Party of Tommy Douglas, campaigning under the slogan, "Fed up? Speak up! Vote for the New Democrats!", increased its share of the popular vote by more than four and a half percentage points, but in winning only four extra seats, it continued to fail to make the electoral break-through that was hoped for when the party was founded in 1960.
   The Social Credit Party of Canada was split in two before this election: Réal Caouette led French-Canadian Socreds out of the party into the new Ralliement créditiste (Social Credit Rally), and won more seats than the old party. Robert N. Thompson continued to lead the Social Credit Party in English-speaking Canada, but lost a significant share of the vote.
   This was the first election for the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, a satirical party led by Cornelius the First. The party fielded only one candidate. Cornelius, a resident of the Granby zoo, didn't seek election because Canadian election law doesn't permit rhinoceroses or other zoo animals to seek election.
   In order to govern, the minority Liberals relied on the New Democratic Party, and occasionally other smaller opposition parties in order to remain in power. Pearson announced his intention to resign as Liberal leader in December 1967, and was replaced the following April by Pierre Trudeau.

Party platforms

Liberal Party:

implement a national medicare program by July 1, 1967;
$500 million for medical and dental research over 15 years;
$40 million university scholarship program over 2 years;
improve crop insurance for farmers;
create a national dairy marketing board;
allow full-time farm workers to participate in Unemployment Insurance;
increase old age security payments;
$100 million programs to build roads in northern Canada;
$25 million to support the coal industry in Nova Scotia.

Progressive Conservative Party:

increase grants to universities;

special tax deduction for gifts to universities;

grants to support medical and dental research;

establish a federal government grain agency;

provide grants to farmers;

increase old age security payments from $75 per month to $100 per month for senior citizens over the age of 70;

create a national water conservation program, and divert water from northern Canada to southern regions;

develop hydro-electric potential of Nelson River, Peace River and the Bay of Fundy;

reduce corporate and personal income taxes;

provide tax deductions for home-owners. New Democratic Party:

eliminate university tuition fees;

provide grants for universities' capital costs;

increased funding for technical training;

increase the minimum price for wheat;

increase the old age security payment from $75 per month to $100 per month at age 65;

implement economic planning program that lays down guidelines for wages and prices;

halt unjustified price increases. Social Credit Party:

increased federal aid for education;

introduce a non-compulsory medicare program;

require the Bank of Canada to provide loans for government capital projects. Ralliement des creditistes/Social Credit Rally:

in lieu of a medicare program, provide government allowance to individuals to buy private medical insurance;

subsidize farmers' crop losses;

increase old age security payments to $100 per month immediately, and to $125 per month over time;

require the Bank of Canada to pay $15 million of dividends to Canadians. Source: Globe and Mail newspaper, October 1965.

National results

Party	Party leader	# of candidates	Seats				Popular vote
Party	Party leader	# of candidates	1963	Dissolution	Elected	% Change	#	%	Change	Liberal	Lester Pearson	265	128	128	131	+2.3%	3,099,521	40.18%	-1.34%	Progressive Conservative	John Diefenbaker	265	93	95	97	+4.3%	2,500,113	32.41%	-0.31%	New Democrats	Tommy Douglas	255	17	17	21	+23.5%	1,381,658	17.91%	+4.67%	Ralliement créditiste	Real Caouette	77	9	359,258	4.66%	Social Credit	R.N. Thompson	86	24	24	5	-79.2%	282,454	3.66%	-8.26%	Independent	24	-	1	52,155	0.68%	+0.61%	Independent PC	4	-	-	1	13,198	0.17%	+0.15%	Independent Liberal	10	-	-	-	-	16,738	0.22%	+0.03%	Communist	William Kashtan	12	-	-	-	-	4,285	0.06%	x	New Capitalist	Frank O'Hearn	3	-	1,009	0.01%	Ouvrier indépendant	2	-	-	-	-	650	0.01%	-0.01%	Droit vital personnel	H-G Grenier	1	-	465	0.01%	Independent Social Credit	2	-	-	-	-	422	0.01%	x	Independent Conservative	1	-	-	-	-	373	x	x	Rhinoceros	Cornelius I	1	-	321	x	Republican	1	-	297	x	Progressive Workers	1	-	274	x	Socialist Labour	1	-	-	-	-	147	x	x
Total		1,011	265	265	265	-	7,713,338	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes: "% change" refers to change from previous election
x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote ¹ "Previous" refers to the results of the previous election, not the party standings in the House of Commons prior to dissolution.

Results by province

Party name		BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	YK	NW	Total	Liberal	Seats:	7	-	-	1	51	56	6	2	-	7	-	1	131	Popular Vote:	30.0	22.4	24.0	31.0	43.6	45.6	47.5	42.0	44.1	64.1	44.8	56.2	40.2	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	3	15	17	10	25	8	4	10	4	-	1	-	97	Vote:	19.2	46.6	48.0	40.7	34.0	21.3	42.5	48.6	53.9	32.4	55.2	39.1	32.4	New Democrats	Seats:	9	-	-	3	9	-	-	-	-	-	-	21	Vote:	32.9	8.2	26.0	24.0	21.7	12.0	9.4	9.1	2.0	1.2	4.7	17.9	Ralliement créditiste	Seats:			-	9	-		9	Vote:				xx	17.5	0.4		4.7	Social Credit	Seats:	3	2	-	-	-	5	Vote:	17.4	22.5	1.9	4.3	0.4		3.7	Independent	Seats:		1	1	Vote:	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.2	2.1	0.3	0.7	Independent PC	Seats:	-	1	1	Vote:	xx	0.6	0.2
Total seats:		22	17	17	14	85	75	10	12	4	7	1	1	265	Liberal																													Progressive Conservative																													New Democrats																											Ralliement créditiste																		Social Credit																Independent													Independent PC
Parties that won no seats:
Independent Liberal	Vote:					0.8							0.2	Communist	Vote:	0.2	0.1	xx		xx	xx							0.1	New Capitalist	Vote:					xx								xx	Ouvrier Indépendant	Vote:						xx							xx	Droit vital personnel	Vote:						xx							xx	Independent Social Credit	Vote:	xx					xx						xx	Independent Conservative	Vote:					xx							xx	Rhinoceros	Vote:				xx			xx	Republican	Vote:				xx				xx	Progressive Workers	Vote:	xx					xx	Socialist Labour	Vote:		xx				xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular voteFurther Information

Get more info on 'Canadian Federal Election 1965'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://canadian_federal_election__1965.totallyexplained.com">Canadian federal election, 1965 Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.