List of snap elections in Canada

The following is a list of Canadian elections, both federal and provincial, that have been regarded by all or some observers as snap elections:

• New Brunswick general election, 1865
  • Issue: Canadian confederation
  • Result: Pro-confederates under Premier Samuel Leonard Tilley are defeated, but later return to power after the new anti-confederate government is forced from office.
• Canadian federal election, 1911
  • Issues: Reciprocity with the United States; the Naval Bill
  • Result: Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals are defeated.
• Canadian federal election, 1917
  • Issue: Conscription Crisis of 1917. (The election was supposed to be held in 1916, but due to the emergency of the First World War, the government postponed the election, largely in hope that a coalition government could be formed, as was the case in Britain.)
  • Result: Prime Minister Robert Borden's Unionists, an alliance of pro-conscription politicians, increase their majority. The vote in Canada is heavily divided along anglophone and francophone lines.
• Canadian federal election, 1958
  • Reason: Newly elected Liberal leader Lester Pearson made a speech demanding that the Conservatives hand back power without an election^[1] because of the recent economic decline. Diefenbaker responded by revealing a formerly classified Liberal file that predicted the economic malaise, so the "arrogant" label that had attached to Liberals in 1957 stayed. Also, the resignation of Louis St. Laurent had also left Quebec with no favourite son leader and the Conservatives also harnessed the powerful political machine of the provincial Union Nationale. The Conservatives thus hoped to obtain a majority government.
  • Result: Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservatives win the largest majority up to that time at the federal level.
• Quebec general election, 1962
  • Reason: Obtain a clear mandate to nationalize the electricity industry.
  • Result: Premier Jean Lesage's Liberals win an increased majority.
• Quebec general election, 1976
  • Reason: Counting on a boost from his successful rescue of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal after cost overruns and construction delays by the Montreal municipal government, Liberal Premier Robert Bourassa called an early election well before the five-year maximum term ended.
  • Result: The separatist Parti Québécois, led by René Lévesque, defeated the incumbent Liberals in a landslide to form government for the first time and set the stage for the Quebec referendum, 1980. The once-powerful Union Nationale (Quebec) made a modest comeback, winning 11 seats under Rodrigue Biron, and for the first time won significant support from some anglophone voters. Bourassa lost his seat and resigned as Liberal leader to pursue an academic career, before leading the Liberals back to power in 1985.
• Alberta general election, 1982
  • Reason: Surging support for separatism, marked by a victory for the separatist Western Canada Concept in a by-election held earlier in the year.
  • Result: Premier Peter Lougheed's Tories win a massive majority, with the WCC failing to retain its recently won seat or win any others.
• Canadian federal election, 1984
  • Reason: Newly minted Liberal leader John Turner was persuaded by internal polls that he was well ahead of the opposition. He also wanted to present a "new" party, different from his predecessor Pierre Trudeau. Turner did not have a seat in the Commons, and his election call was just four days after being sworn in. However, the Liberals had been elected in 1980 and Turner would constitutionally be allowed to wait until 1985 to call an election.
  • Result: Turner's 200 patronage appointments, mostly on the recommendation of Trudeau, nullified attempts to distance himself from Trudeau's policies and practices. The Liberal's Quebec stronghold was also nullified as Conservative leader Brian Mulroney was a native of that province. The Progressive Conservatives win the largest majority ever at the federal level, while the Liberals end up with 40 seats, only ten more than the NDP's 30.
• Alberta general election, 1989
  • Reason: Opposition support evenly divided between NDs and Liberals.
  • Result: Premier Donald Getty's Tories win a slightly reduced majority, but Getty loses his own seat and must run in a by-election.
• Ontario general election, 1990
  • Reason: Favourable opinion polls, as the ruling Liberals are still above the 50% mark. Premier David Peterson allegedly wanted to call an election before the full effects of the looming recession could be felt. Some within his party oppose the early election call (they had won a huge majority in 1987).
  • Result: The Liberals are beset by controversies and scandals right after the campaign started, with unions and interest groups expressing their cynicism about the snap election. Bob Rae's NDP managed an electoral upset, slightly outpolling the Liberals in the popular vote but winning enough seats for a majority. Peterson loses his own seat and resigns the party leadership.
• Canadian federal election, 1997
  • Reason: Favourable opinion polls. Some government MPs opposed the snap election, as cleanup from the devastating Red River Flood was still underway. This was also the second shortest majority mandate in Canadian history, after Laurier's 1908-1911 term.
  • Result: Jean Chrétien's Liberals barely retain their majority, though they easily have the plurality of seats to continue governing. The NDP and Progressive Conservatives win enough seats, mainly at the expense of the Liberals in the Atlantic provinces, to regain official party status.
• Canadian federal election, 2000
  • Reason: Prime Minister Jean Chrétien planned to call an election before the newly formed Canadian Alliance could consolidate itself outside of its western Canadian base. The call was also to take advantage of newly elected leader Stockwell Day's lack of experience as a federal politician. (Day also dared Chrétien to call an election.)
  • Result: In a campaign lacking important issues and record low turnout, Chrétien's Liberals were re-elected with an increased majority, taking back seats in Atlantic Canada that they lost to the NDP and Progressive Conservatives in the previous election.
• Quebec general election, 2008
  • Reason: In the previous election of 2007, Premier Jean Charest's Liberals were re-elected but only as a minority government. The election was called, claiming the need for a mandate to tackle the late 2000s financial crisis.
  • Result: The Quebec Liberal Party was returned with a majority and the Parti Québécois under Pauline Marois came second as support for Mario Dumont's ADQ collapsed.
• Quebec general election, 2012
  • Reason: Faced with student protests and corruption allegations, Liberal Premier Jean Charest called a snap election to seek a fourth consecutive mandate, pitting the Liberals against Pauline Marois's Parti Québécois a second time.
  • Result: Pauline Marois's Parti Québécois is elected to form a minority government, with a massive decline in the Liberals' vote and Premier Charest losing his seat. The Coalition Avenir Québec, in its first electoral test, came in third place but coming close to beating the Liberals' in the popular vote.
• Quebec general election, 2014
  • Reason: Premier Pauline Marois's Parti Québécois sought a majority government having won government in 2012 in minority. Marois called an election due to favourable opinion polls and facing imminent defeat on the 2014-15 provincial budget.
  • Result: The Quebec Liberal Party under Philippe Couillard won a majority government defeating the incumbent Parti Québécois government, becoming the first single-term government since 1970. It marked the lowest seat total for the Parti Québécois since 1989 and its smallest share of the popular vote since 1970, with Pauline Marois losing her own riding. The Coalition Avenir Québec under François Legault made minor gains in terms of seats despite receiving a smaller share of the popular vote than in the 2012 election.
• Ontario general election, 2014
  • Reason: The Ontario New Democrats announced that they would not support the minority Liberal government's budget. Facing certain defeat on the budget in the Legislative Assembly, Premier Kathleen Wynne called an election before the eventual budget vote.
  • Result: The Liberals regained majority government, Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak resigned after losing a second election, while the NDP remained in third place.
• Alberta general election, 2015
  • Reason: Premier Jim Prentice called for an election on April 7, 2015, a year earlier than expected, because he "needed a mandate to implement a tough budget" that proposed higher taxes, fees, and cuts in government spending.^[2]
  • Result: Rachel Notley, representing the NDP, won a majority government for the first time in their history, ending the Progressive Conservative's 43-year reign in government. The Wildrose Party became the official opposition, while the Progressive Conservatives went down to 10 seats, their worst defeat since the 1967 election.

Notes

1. At the time, Pearson's demand was not seen to be as unreasonable as it would be today, and appeared as though it could be backed by more than the threat of a backlash among the voters. Barely three decades had passed since the King-Byng Affair, when then-Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was compelled by then-Governor General Julian Byng to resign when Byng would not grant a dissolution of parliament. Pearson may have believed that the Governor General then in office (Vincent Massey, who had been appointed under Louis St. Laurent) would cite that precedent if Diefenbaker requested a dissolution only nine months after the last election. Massey's granting of Diefenbaker's request for a dissolution entrenched the constitutional convention that the Sovereign's representative would never refuse a request for dissolution.
2. "NDP wins stunning majority in Alberta election, Jim Prentice resigns". May 7, 2015.