# 1988 Canadian federal election

The 1988 Canadian federal election was held on November 21, 1988, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 34th Parliament of Canada. It was an election largely fought on a single issue: the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA); the Progressive Conservative Party campaigned in favour of it, whereas the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP) campaigned against it.
The incumbent prime minister, Brian Mulroney, led his Progressive Conservative Party to a second majority government. Mulroney was the party's first leader since John A. Macdonald to win a second majority government.
The Liberal Party experienced a recovery after its 1984 wipeout, more than doubling its seat count. The New Democratic Party won its largest number of seats up to the time (they would beat the 1988 record in 2011).
The election was the last won by the Progressive Conservatives, the last until 2011 in which a right-of-centre party formed a majority government, and the last where a right-of-centre party won the most seats in Quebec during a federal election. It was also the last election in Canadian history in which only three parties would be elected to Parliament. With Mulroney winning a majority, the agreement was passed into law, even though a majority of the voters had voted for parties opposing free trade.

## Background

Brian Mulroney led the Progressive Conservative Party to a landslide majority government victory in the 1984 federal election. Despite this achievement, scandals including patronage damaged his polling numbers. However, in his fourth year in office in 1988, his popularity began to recover; a poll a few days before the election call showed the Progressive Conservatives ahead of the Liberal Party and New Democratic Party.
The Liberal Party led by John Turner suffered a heavy defeat in the 1984 election. Despite this, Turner stayed on as leader and was preparing to campaign for the second election. However, the Liberal Party was in financial and political disarray; by 1986 the party was heavily in debt and the expenses of the national organization continued to rise. Turner's office experienced significant staff turnover, and leaving members were willing to recount stories of the office's disfunction to the press, resulting in Turner's leadership being nicknamed a "reign of error". Some pundits believed the Liberals would permanently drop to third place.
In 1988, Mulroney reached an agreement on free trade with the United States. Turner's Liberal Party and Ed Broadbent's New Democratic Party opposed the agreement; Turner believed that the agreement would "Americanize" Canada. Mulroney used his large majority to pass the bill through the House of Commons; however, the Liberal-dominated Senate demanded an election before they would pass it. The election was called on October 1.

## Campaign

The Liberals had some early struggles, notably during one day in Montreal where three different costs were given for the proposed Liberal daycare program. When asked by reporters about the incident, Turner's chief of staff responded using vulgar language. The campaign was also hampered by a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) report that stated there was a movement in the backroom to replace Turner with Jean Chrétien, even though Turner had passed a leadership review in 1986 with 76.3 percent of delegates rejecting a leadership convention.
Turner strongly campaigned against free trade, arguing that it would cost many Canadian jobs. His October 25 debate performance helped polls suggest a Liberal government; a week after the debate, the Liberals were six points ahead of the PCs. The Liberal surge prompted the PCs to stop the relatively calm campaign they had been running and instead run a more negative campaign, capitalizing on the perceived lack of public confidence in Turner, his perceived inability to lead the Liberal Party, and arguing that he only opposed free trade because of political opportunism. The PCs' poll numbers started to rebound.

## National results

The Progressive Conservatives won a reduced but strong majority government with 169 seats, and the free trade agreement would go into effect on January 1, 1989. Mulroney was the first Conservative prime minister since John A. Macdonald to win more than one majority. In an ironic reversal of most prior federal elections, the PCs owed their majority to their success in Quebec, where they achieved the best result in party history by winning 63 of 75 seats.
Despite the Liberals more than doubling their seat count from 38 to 83, the results were considered a disappointment for Turner, after polls in mid-campaign predicted a Liberal victory. This second election loss sealed Turner's fate; he would eventually resign in 1990, and was succeeded by Jean Chrétien, who proved to be a more effective leader and when in government, accepted free trade with the United States and did not overturn CUSFTA.
Despite the New Democratic Party enjoying their best result at the time (winning 43 seats), Ed Broadbent resigned as leader in 1989. Some NDP members were disappointed by the fact that they didn't become the Official Opposition.
Popular vote :
| Party | Party leader | # of candidates | 1984 | Dissol. | Elected | % change | # | % | Change |
| Progressive Conservative | Brian Mulroney | 295 | 211 | 203 | 169 | -19.9% | 5,667,543 | 43.02% | -7.02pp |
| Liberal | John Turner | 294 | 40 | 38 | 83 | +107.5% | 4,205,072 | 31.92% | +3.89pp |
| New Democratic Party | Ed Broadbent | 295 | 30 | 32 | 43 | +34.4% | 2,685,263 | 20.38% | +1.57pp |
| Reform | Preston Manning | 72 | * | - | - | * | 275,767 | 2.09% | * |
| Christian Heritage | Ed Vanwoudenberg | 63 | * | - | - | * | 102,533 | 0.78% | * |
| Rhinoceros | Cornelius the First | 74 | - | - | - | - | 52,173 | 0.40% | -0.39pp |
| Green | Seymour Trieger | 68 | - | - | - | - | 47,228 | 0.36% | +0.14pp |
| Confederation of Regions | Elmer Knutson | 51 | - | - | - | - | 41,342 | 0.31% | -0.68pp |
| Libertarian | Dennis Corrigan | 88 | - | - | - | - | 33,135 | 0.25% | +0.06pp |
| No affiliation | No affiliation | 100 | - | - | - | | 24,516 | 0.19% | -0.12pp |
| Independent | Independent | 55 | 1 | 4 | - | - | 22,982 | 0.17% | -0.01pp |
| Commonwealth of Canada | Gilles Gervais | 58 | - | - | - | - | 7,467 | 0.06% | -0.21pp |
| Communist | George Hewison | 51 | - | - | - | - | 7,066 | 0.05% | -0.01pp |
| Social Credit | Harvey Lainson | 9 | - | - | - | - | 3,407 | 0.03% | -0.10pp |
| Vacant | Vacant | Vacant | Vacant | 5 | | | | | |
| Total | Total | 1,573 | 282 | 282 | 295 | +4.6% | 13,175,494 | 100% | |
Note:
"% change" refers to change from previous election

## Vote and seat summaries

Popular vote
PC
43.02%
Liberal
31.92%
NDP
20.38%
Reform
2.09%
Others
2.59% :
Seat totals
PC
57.29%
Liberal
28.14%
NDP
14.58% :
A number of unregistered parties also contested the election. The Western Canada Concept party, led by Doug Christie, fielded three candidates in British Columbia. The Western Independence Party ran one candidate in British Columbia, seven in Alberta, and three in Manitoba (although one of the Manitoba candidates appears to have withdrawn before election day).
The Liberal candidate in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Emmanuel Feuerwerker, withdrew from the race after suffering a heart attack, resulting in the Liberals not running a candidate in all 295 ridings during this election.
The Marxist–Leninist Party fielded candidates in several ridings.
Blair T. Longley campaigned in British Columbia as a representative of the "Student Party". Newspaper reports indicate that this was simply a tax-avoidance scheme.
The moribund Social Credit Party fielded nine candidates, far short of the 50 required for official recognition. However, the Chief Electoral Officer allowed the party's name to appear on the ballot by virtue of its half-century history as a recognized party. It would be the last time that the party, which had been the third-largest or fourth-largest party in Canada at its height, would fight an election under its own name. The party was deregistered before the 1993 election after it failed to nominate enough candidates to keep its registration.

## Seats which changed hands
### Defeated MPs

Extended content :
| Party | Riding | MP | First elected | Defeated by | Party |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Burin—St. George's | Joe Price | 1984 | Roger Simmons | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Cardigan | Pat Binns | 1984 | Lawrence MacAulay | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Charlottetown | Thomas McMillan | 1979 | George Proud | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Cape Breton Highlands—Canso | Lawrence O'Neil | 1984 | Francis LeBlanc | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Dartmouth | Michael Forrestall | 1965 | Ron MacDonald | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Halifax | Stewart McInnes | 1984 | Mary Clancy | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | South West Nova | Gerald Comeau | 1984 | Coline Campbell | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Miramichi | Bud Jardine | 1984 | Maurice Dionne | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Moncton | Dennis Cochrane | 1984 | George Rideout | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Restigouche—Chaleur | Al Girard | 1984 | Guy Arseneault | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Gatineau—La Lièvre | Claudy Mailly | 1984 | Mark Assad | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Lasalle (contested LaSalle—Émard) | Claude Lanthier | 1984 | Paul Martin | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Charlevoix (contested Laurier—Sainte-Marie) | Charles Hamelin | 1984 | Jean-Claude Malepart | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Essex-Kent | James Eber Caldwell | 1984 | Jerry Pickard | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Etobicoke North | Bob Pennock | 1984 | Roy MacLaren | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Haldimand—Norfolk | Bud Bradley | 1979 | Bob Speller | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Hamilton West | Peter Peterson | 1984 | Stan Keyes | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Kent | Elliott Hardey | 1984 | Rex Crawford | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Kingston and the Islands | Flora MacDonald | 1972 | Peter Milliken | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Lambton—Middlesex | Sidney Fraleigh | 1984 | Ralph Ferguson | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Leeds—Grenville | Jennifer Cossitt | 1982 by-election | Jim Jordan | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | London East | Jim Jepson | 1984 | Joe Fontana | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Nepean—Carleton (contested Nepean) | William Tupper | 1984 | Beryl Gaffney | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Nipissing | Moe Mantha Sr. | 1984 | Bob Wood | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Ottawa—Carleton (contested Ottawa South) | Barry Turner | 1984 | John Manley | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Ottawa West | David Daubney | 1984 | Marlene Catterall | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Parkdale—High Park | Andrew Witer | 1984 | Jesse Flis | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Sault Ste. Marie | Jim Kelleher | 1984 | Steve Butland | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Scarborough West | Reg Stackhouse | 1984 | Tom Wappel | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | York—Scarborough (contested Scarborough—Agincourt) | Paul McCrossan | 1984 | Jim Karygiannis | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Timmins—Chapleau | Aurèle Gervais | 1984 | Cid Samson | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Welland (contested Welland—St. Catharines—Thorold) | Allan Pietz | 1984 | Gilbert Parent | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Willowdale | John Oostrom | 1984 | Jim Peterson | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Saint Boniface | Léo Duguay | 1984 | Ron Duhamel | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Mackenzie | Jack Scowen | 1984 | Vic Althouse | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Saskatoon West (contested Saskatoon—Clark's Crossing) | Ray Hnatyshyn | 1974 | Chris Axworthy | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | The Battlefords—Meadow Lake | John Kenneth Gormley | 1984 | Len Taylor | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Edmonton East | William Lesick | 1984 | Ross Harvey | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Kootenay East | Stan Graham | 1984 | Sid Parker | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Kootenay West (contested Kootenay West—Revelstoke) | Robert Brisco | 1984 (1974) | Lyle Kristiansen | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Mission—Port Moody (contested Mission—Coquitlam) | Gerry St. Germain | 1983 by-election | Joy Langan | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Nanaimo—Alberni (contested Nanaimo—Cowichan) | Ted Schellenberg | 1984 | David Stupich | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Okanagan—Similkameen (contested Okanagan—Similkameen—Merritt) | Fred King | 1979 | Jack Whittaker | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Esquimalt—Saanich (contested Saanich—Gulf Islands) | Patrick Crofton | 1984 | Lynn Hunter | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Western Arctic | Dave Nickerson | 1984 | Ethel Blondin | █ Liberal |
| █ New Democratic | St. John's East | Jack Harris | 1987 by-election | Ross Reid | █ Progressive Conservative |
| █ New Democratic | Broadview—Greenwood | Lynn McDonald | 1982 by-election | Dennis Mills | █ Liberal |
| █ New Democratic | Hamilton Mountain | Marion Dewar | 1987 by-election | Beth Phinney | █ Liberal |
| █ New Democratic | Kenora—Rainy River | John Edmund Parry | 1984 | Bob Nault | █ Liberal |
| █ New Democratic | Ottawa Centre | Mike Cassidy | 1984 | Mac Harb | █ Liberal |
| █ New Democratic | Thunder Bay—Nipigon | Ernie Epp | 1984 | Joe Comuzzi | █ Liberal |
| █ New Democratic | Winnipeg North Centre | Cyril Keeper | 1984 | David Walker | █ Liberal |
| █ New Democratic | Winnipeg North | David Orlikow | 1962 | Rey Pagtakhan | █ Liberal |
| █ Liberal | Outremont | Lucie Pépin | 1984 | Jean-Pierre Hogue | █ Progressive Conservative |

### Open seats that changed hands

Extended content :
| Party | Candidate | Incumbent retiring from the House | Riding | Won by | Party |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Morrissey Johnson | Morrissey Johnson | Bonavista—Trinity—Conception | Fred Mifflin | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Gordon Lank | Melbourne Gass | Malpeque | Catherine Callbeck | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Jean Gauvin | Roger Clinch | Gloucester | Doug Young | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Reg Jewell | George Hees | Northumberland | Christine Stewart | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Jack Arthur | Jack Ellis | Prince Edward—Hastings | Lyle Vanclief | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Eric J. Cameron | Norman Warner | Stormont—Dundas | Bob Kilger | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Sedluk Bryan Pearson | Thomas Suluk | Nunatsiaq | Jack Iyerak Anawak | █ Liberal |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Valerie Kordyban | Lorne McCuish | Prince George—Bulkley Valley | Brian Gardiner | █ New Democratic |
| █ Progressive Conservative | Geoff Young | Allan McKinnon | Victoria | John F. Brewin | █ New Democratic |
| █ Independent | N/A | Tony Roman | York North | Maurizio Bevilacqua | █ Liberal |

### New seats

| Old riding | New riding | New seat won by | Party |
| Mississauga North | Mississauga East | Albina Guarnieri | █ Liberal |
| Mississauga North | Mississauga West | Robert Horner | █ Progressive Conservative |

## Results by province

| Party name | Party name | Party name | BC | AB | SK | MB | ON | QC | NB | NS | PE | NL | NT | YK | Total |
| | Progressive Conservative | Seats: | 12 | 25 | 4 | 7 | 46 | 63 | 5 | 5 | - | 2 | - | - | 169 |
| | Progressive Conservative | Popular vote: | 35.3 | 51.8 | 36.4 | 36.9 | 38.2 | 52.7 | 40.4 | 40.9 | 41.5 | 42.2 | 26.4 | 35.3 | 43.0 |
| | Liberal | Seats: | 1 | - | - | 5 | 43 | 12 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 2 | - | 83 |
| | Liberal | Vote: | 20.4 | 13.7 | 18.2 | 36.5 | 38.9 | 30.3 | 45.4 | 46.5 | 49.9 | 45.0 | 41.4 | 11.3 | 31.9 |
| | New Democratic Party | Seats: | 19 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 43 |
| | New Democratic Party | Vote: | 37.0 | 17.4 | 44.2 | 21.3 | 20.1 | 14.4 | 9.3 | 11.4 | 7.5 | 12.4 | 28.3 | 51.4 | 20.38 |
| Total seats | Total seats | Total seats | 32 | 26 | 14 | 14 | 99 | 75 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 295 |
| Parties that won no seats: ||||||||||||||||
| | Reform | Vote: | 4.8 | 15.4 | | 3.3 | | | | | | | | | 2.1 |
| | Christian Heritage | Vote: | | 1.1 | | | 1.4 | | | | | | | 2.0 | 0.8 |
| | Rhinoceros | Vote: | | | | | | 1.2 | | | | | | | 0.4 |
| | Green | Vote: | | | | | | | | | | | | | 0.4 |
| | Confederation of Regions | Vote: | | | | | | | 4.3 | | | | | | 0.3 |
| | Libertarian | Vote: | | | | | | | | | | | | | 0.3 |
| | Commonwealth of Canada | Vote: | | | | | | 0.2 | | | | | | | 0.1 |
| | Communist | Vote: | | | | | | | | | | | | | 0.1 |
| | Social Credit | Vote: | | | | | | | | | | | | | xx |
| | Other | Vote: | | | | | | | | | | | | | 0.4 |
xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote.
Note: Parties that captured less than 1% of the vote in a province are not recorded.

## Election milestones

Until the 2011 federal election, the 1988 election was the most successful in the New Democratic Party's history. The party dominated in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, won significant support in Ontario and elected its first (and, until the 2008 election, only) member from Alberta.
This was the second election contested by the Green Party, and it saw a more than 50 percent increase in its vote, but it remained a minor party.
The election was the last for Canada's Social Credit Party. The party won no seats, and won an insignificant portion of the popular vote.
This was the first election for the newly founded Reform Party which for this vote only contested seats in Western Canada. The party at this stage was filled to a large extent with former Socreds along with some former PC supporters disaffected at the perceived lack of support from the Mulroney government for western interests. It was led by Preston Manning, who was himself a one time Socred candidate and the son of longtime Alberta Social Credit premier Ernest Manning.
Reform won no seats and was not yet considered a major party at the national level. However, Deborah Grey would win the first seat for Reform, Beaver River in Alberta, in a by-election held four months later. Grey, who had finished a distant fourth running in the same riding in the general election, succeeded rookie Progressive Conservative MP John Dahmer. Dahmer died of pancreatic cancer before taking office.
For the Progressive Conservatives, this was the last federal election they would ever win.