The Canadian federal election of 1958 was the 24th general election in Canada's history. It was held to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 of the 24th Parliament

24th Canadian Parliament

The 24th Canadian Parliament was in session from May 12, 1958 until April 19, 1962. The membership was set by the 1958 federal election on March 31, 1958, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1962 election.It was controlled by a...

 of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 on March 31, 1958, just nine months after the 23rd election

Canadian federal election, 1957

The Canadian federal election of 1957 was held June 10, 1957, to select the 265 members of the House of Commons of Canada. In one of the great upsets in Canadian political history, the Progressive Conservative Party , led by John Diefenbaker, brought an end to 22 years of Liberal rule, as the...

. It transformed Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

 John Diefenbaker

John Diefenbaker

John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...

's minority

Minority government

A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...

 into the largest ever majority government

Majority government

A majority government is when the governing party has an absolute majority of seats in the legislature or parliament in a parliamentary system. This is as opposed to a minority government, where even the largest party wins only a plurality of seats and thus must constantly bargain for support from...

 (by percentage of seats) in Canadian history

History of Canada

The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Canada has been inhabited for millennia by distinctive groups of Aboriginal peoples, among whom evolved trade networks, spiritual beliefs, and social hierarchies...

 and the second largest percentage of the popular vote.

Overview

Diefenbaker called a snap election

Snap election

A snap election is an election called earlier than expected. Generally it refers to an election in a parliamentary system called when not required , usually to capitalize on a unique electoral opportunity or to decide a pressing issue...

 and capitalized on three factors:

• Nationally, the Liberals
  Liberal Party of Canada
  The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
  
   had just chosen a new leader, Lester Pearson, who had given an ill-advised speech in Commons that asked Diefenbaker to give power back to the Liberals without an election because of a recent economic downturn. Diefenbaker seized on the error by showing a classified Liberal document saying that the economy would face a downturn in that year. This contrasted heavily with the Liberals' 1957 campaign promises, and would make sure the "arrogant" label would remain attached to the Liberal party.

• A turnaround in Quebec: Quebec had been largely Liberal since the Conscription Crisis of 1917
  Conscription Crisis of 1917
  The Conscription Crisis of 1917 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War I.-Background:...
  
  , but upon the resignation of former Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent
  Louis St. Laurent
  Louis Stephen St. Laurent, PC, CC, QC , was the 12th Prime Minister of Canada from 15 November 1948, to 21 June 1957....
  
  , the province had no favourite son
  Favorite son
  A favorite son is a political term.*At the quadrennial American national political party conventions, a state delegation sometimes nominates and votes for a candidate from the state, or less often from the state's region, who is not a viable candidate...
  
   leader, as they had since 1948, and were open to new options. Diefenbaker used Quebec Premier
  Premier of Quebec
  The Premier of Quebec is the first minister of the Canadian province of Quebec. The Premier is the province's head of government and his title is Premier and President of the Executive Council....
  
   Maurice Duplessis
  Maurice Duplessis
  Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis served as the 16th Premier of the Canadian province of Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and 1944 to 1959. A founder and leader of the highly conservative Union Nationale party, he rose to power after exposing the misconduct and patronage of Liberal Premier Louis-Alexandre...
  
  's Union Nationale party machine, allowing Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservatives to sweep what had been a Liberal stronghold for a generation.

• A collapse in support for the Social Credit Party
  Social Credit Party of Canada
  The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...
  
   which lost all 19 of its seats. Prior to the 1957 election Social Credit were seen as a credible threat to replace the Tories as the main right wing party in the country, but the popularity of the Diefenbaker government persuaded many Social Credit supporters to abandon their party. This allowed the Tories to pick up not only Social Credit seats, but also proved decisive in many seats previously held by the Liberals and CCF due to vote splitting
  Vote splitting
  Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate....
  
   between the Conservatives and Social Credit. Notably, the Tories swept all seventeen seats in Alberta
  Alberta
  Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
  
  , where they had previously held just three seats to Social Credit's thirteen. Although Social Credit would rebound and win seats in the next two decades, it would never seriously challenge the P.C. party for dominance.

National results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1957 Canadian federal election, 1957 The Canadian federal election of 1957 was held June 10, 1957, to select the 265 members of the House of Commons of Canada. In one of the great upsets in Canadian political history, the Progressive Conservative Party , led by John Diefenbaker, brought an end to 22 years of Liberal rule, as the...	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change	Progressive Conservative Progressive Conservative Party of Canada The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....	John Diefenbaker John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...	265	111	208	+87.4%	3,908,633	53.66%	+14.85%	Liberal Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...	Lester B. Pearson Lester B. Pearson Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE was a Canadian professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat, and politician, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis...	264	104	48	-53.8%	2,432,953	33.40%	-7.35%	Co-operative Commonwealth Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...	M.J. Coldwell	169	25	8	-68.0%	692,668	9.51%	-1.20%	Liberal Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative... -Labour		1	1	1	0%	11,956	0.16%	-	Social Credit Social Credit Party of Canada The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...	Solon Low Solon Earl Low Solon Earl Low was a Canadian politician in the 20th century.Low was born in Cardston, Alberta, and was a farmer, school teacher and school principal. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1935 provincial that swept the Social Credit Party of Alberta to power...	82	19	-	-100%	188,356	2.59%	-3.99%	Independent		9	2	-	-100%	14,211	0.20%	-0.87%	Independent Liberal		10	2	-	-100%	12,054	0.17%	-1.25%	Labour Progressive	Tim Buck Tim Buck Timothy "Tim" Buck was a long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada...	18	-	-	-	9,769	0.13%	+0.02%	Candidats des électeurs	Réal Caouette Réal Caouette David Réal Caouette was a Canadian politician from Quebec. He was a Member of Parliament and leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada and founder of the Ralliement des créditistes...	1	-	-	-	8,276	0.11%	-0.01%	Independent PC		5	1	-	-100%	2,097	0.03%	-0.19%	Socialist Socialist Party of Canada There have been two different but related political parties in Canada that called themselves the Socialist Party of Canada . The current Socialist Party is an electorally inactive and unregistered federal political party in Canada...		2	*	-	*	1,113	0.02%	*	Capital familial Henri-Georges Grenier Henri-Georges Grenier was a perennial candidate who ran unsuccessfully in thirteen federal elections and by-elections between 1945 and 1980 in Quebec, Canada, and in at least one provincial by-election...	H-G Grenier Henri-Georges Grenier Henri-Georges Grenier was a perennial candidate who ran unsuccessfully in thirteen federal elections and by-elections between 1945 and 1980 in Quebec, Canada, and in at least one provincial by-election...	1	*	-	*	968	0.01%	*	Radical chrétien Radical chrétien Radical chrétien was a label used by several candidates in Canadian federal elections in the 1950s and 1960s.In the 1958 federal election, Georges Rousseau unsuccessfully sought election in Mercier riding in Quebec as a Radical chrétien candidate...		1	*	-	*	687	0.01%	*	Independent SC		1	-	-	-	361	x	-0.04%	Ouvrier canadien Parti ouvrier canadien In the March 31 , 1958 Canadian federal election, Jean-Jacques Rouleau, who listed his profession as ‘technician’, unsuccessfully sought election in Chapleau riding in Quebec as a candidate of the Parti ouvrier canadien . He won 204 votes, 0.8% of the popular vote.* See also: List of political...		1	*	-	*	243	x	*	Independent Conservative		1	*	-	*	122	x	*
Total			831	265	265	-	7,284,467	100.00%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

"Previous" refers to standings at previous election, not to standings in the House of Commons at dissolution.

* The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Results by province

>

Party name			BC British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...	AB Alberta Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...	SK Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....	MB Manitoba Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...	ON Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....	QC Quebec Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....	NB New Brunswick New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...	NS Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...	PE Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...	NL Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...	NW Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...	YK Yukon Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....	Total	Progressive Conservative Progressive Conservative Party of Canada The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....	Seats:	18	17	16	14	67	50	7	12	4	2	1	-	208	Vote (%):	49.4	59.9	51.4	56.7	56.4	49.6	54.1	57.0	62.2	45.2	54.5	42.8	53.7	Liberal Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...	Seats:	-	-	-	-	14	25	3	-	-	5	-	1	48	Vote (%):	16.1	13.7	19.6	21.6	32.1	45.6	43.4	38.4	37.5	54.4	43.3	57.2	33.4	Co-operative Commonwealth Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...	Seats:	4	-	1	-	3	-	-	-	-	-			8	Vote (%):	24.5	4.4	28.4	19.6	10.5	2.3	1.8	4.5	0.3	0.2			9.5	Liberal-Labour Liberal-Labour (Canada) The Liberal-Labour banner has also been used several times by candidates in Canadian elections:In the early twentieth century when the idea of trade unionists running for elected office under their own banner gained ground, several working class candidates on the provincial or federal level were...	Seats:					1								1	Vote (%):					0.5								0.2
Total Seats		22	17	17	14	85	75	10	12	4	7	1	1	265
Parties that won no seats:
Social Credit Social Credit Party of Canada The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...	Vote (%):	9.6	21.6	0.4	1.8	0.3	0.6	0.7						2.6	Independent	Vote (%):			xx	xx	0.1	0.6							0.2	Independent Liberal	Vote (%):						0.6				0.2			0.2	Labour Progressive	Vote (%):	0.4	0.3	0.1	0.4	0.1	0.1							0.1	C. des électeurs	Vote (%):						0.4							0.1	Independent PC	Vote (%):		0.1			0.1								xx	Socialist Socialist Party of Canada There have been two different but related political parties in Canada that called themselves the Socialist Party of Canada . The current Socialist Party is an electorally inactive and unregistered federal political party in Canada...	Vote (%):					xx	xx							xx	Capitale familiale Henri-Georges Grenier Henri-Georges Grenier was a perennial candidate who ran unsuccessfully in thirteen federal elections and by-elections between 1945 and 1980 in Quebec, Canada, and in at least one provincial by-election...	Vote (%):						xx							xx	Radical chrétien Radical chrétien Radical chrétien was a label used by several candidates in Canadian federal elections in the 1950s and 1960s.In the 1958 federal election, Georges Rousseau unsuccessfully sought election in Mercier riding in Quebec as a Radical chrétien candidate...	Vote (%):						xx							xx	Independent SC	Vote (%):		0.1											xx	Ouvrier canadien Parti ouvrier canadien In the March 31 , 1958 Canadian federal election, Jean-Jacques Rouleau, who listed his profession as ‘technician’, unsuccessfully sought election in Chapleau riding in Quebec as a candidate of the Parti ouvrier canadien . He won 204 votes, 0.8% of the popular vote.* See also: List of political...	Vote (%):						xx							xx	Ind. Conservative	Vote (%):											2.3		xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections
• List of political parties in Canada
• 24th Canadian Parliament
  24th Canadian Parliament
  The 24th Canadian Parliament was in session from May 12, 1958 until April 19, 1962. The membership was set by the 1958 federal election on March 31, 1958, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1962 election.It was controlled by a...
  
  

External links

• The Elections of 1957 and 1958, by P.E. Bryden