2008 Canadian federal election

The **2008 Canadian federal election**  was held on October 14, 2008, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the previous parliament had been dissolved by Governor General Michaëlle Jean on September 7, 2008.

The election resulted in a second but stronger minority government for Harper's Conservatives. While they were a dozen seats away from a majority government, the Liberal Party led by Stéphane Dion lost 18 seats as the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois made some gains. Following the election, the Liberals and New Democrats tried to form a coalition government and topple the Conservatives from power, but were unsuccessful in doing so.

## Results

|rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="width:15%"|Party|rowspan="2"|Leader|rowspan="2"|Candidates|colspan="6"|Votes|colspan="5"|Seats|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="text-align:left;"|Stephen Harper|307|5,209,069|165,002|37.65||124||19|25|6|style="text-align:left;"|Stéphane Dion|307|3,633,185|846,230|26.26||103||26|5|31|style="text-align:left;"|Jack Layton|308|2,515,288|74,309|18.18||29||8|11|3|style="text-align:left;"|Gilles Duceppe|75|1,379,991|173,210|9.98||51||2|1|3|style="text-align:left;"|Elizabeth May|303|937,613|273,545|6.78|||71|94,844|12,984|0.69||1||1|1|–|style="text-align:left;"|Ron Gray|59|26,475|1,677|0.19|–|style="text-align:left;"|Anna Di Carlo|59|8,565|415|0.06|–|style="text-align:left;"|Dennis Young|26|7,300|4,298|0.05|0.03|style="text-align:left;"|Sinclair Stevens|10|5,860|8,291|0.04|-0.05|style="text-align:left;"|Miguel Figueroa|24|3,572|550|0.03|0.01|style="text-align:left;"|Connie Fogal|20|3,455|2,647|0.02|-0.02|style="text-align:left;"|Blair Longley|8|2,298|6,873|0.02|-0.05|style="text-align:left;"|François Gourd|7|2,122|2,122|0.02|_New_|style="text-align:left;"|Tom Hickey|3|1,713|1,713|0.01|_New_|style="text-align:left;"|Barbara Wardlaw|6|1,611|410|0.01|–|style="text-align:left;"|Liz White|4|527|455|–|–|style="text-align:left;"|Conrad Schmidt|1|425|425|–|_New_|style="text-align:left;"|Western Block|style="text-align:left;"|Doug Christie|1|195|899|–|-0.01|style="text-align:left;"|Roger Poisson|2|186|186|–|_New_|
|**Total**|1,601|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|colspan="4" style="text-align:left;"|Rejected ballots|94,799|3,255|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|colspan="4" style="text-align:left;"|Turnout|13,929,093|979,610|58.83%|5.84|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|colspan="4" style="text-align:left;"|Registered voters|23,677,639|623,024|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

## Infobox (election)

- **election name**: 2008 Canadian federal election
- **country**: Canada
- **type**: parliamentary
- **party colour**: no
- **party name**: no
- **previous election**: 2006 Canadian federal election
- **previous year**: 2006
- **previous mps**: List of House members of the 39th Parliament of Canada
- **next election**: 2011 Canadian federal election
- **next year**: 2011
- **elected mps**: List of House members of the 40th Parliament of Canada
- **seats for election**: 308 seats in the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons
 155 seats needed for a majority
- **opinion polls**: Opinion polling in the Canadian federal election, 2008
- **turnout**: 58.8% (5.9Percentage Point, pp)
- **image size**: x160px
- **leader1**: Stephen Harper
- **leader since1**: 2004 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election, March 20, 2004
- **leaders seat1**: Calgary Southwest
- **last election1**: 124 seats, 36.27%
- **seats before1**: 127
- **seats1**: 143
- **seat change1**: 16
- **popular vote1**: 5,209,069
- **percentage1**: 37.65%
- **swing1**: 1.38percentage points, pp
- **leader2**: Stéphane Dion
- **leader since2**: 2006 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, December 2, 2006
- **leaders seat2**: Saint-Laurent—Cartierville
- **last election2**: 103 seats, 30.23%
- **seats before2**: 95
- **seats2**: 77
- **seat change2**: 18
- **popular vote2**: 3,633,185
- **percentage2**: 26.26%
- **swing2**: 3.97percentage points, pp
- **image3**: Gilles Duceppe 2011-04-01 (cropped).jpg
- **leader3**: Gilles Duceppe
- **leader since3**: 1997 Bloc Québécois leadership election, March 15, 1997
- **leaders seat3**: Laurier—Sainte-Marie
- **last election3**: 51 seats, 10.48%
- **seats before3**: 48
- **seats3**: 49
- **seat change3**: 1
- **popular vote3**: 1,379,991
- **percentage3**: 9.98%
- **swing3**: 0.50percentage points, pp
- **leader4**: Jack Layton
- **leader since4**: 2003 New Democratic Party leadership election, January 24, 2003
- **leaders seat4**: Toronto—Danforth (federal electoral district), Toronto—Danforth
- **last election4**: 29 seats, 17.48%
- **seats before4**: 30
- **seats4**: 37
- **seat change4**: 7
- **popular vote4**: 2,515,288
- **percentage4**: 18.18%
- **swing4**: 0.70percentage points, pp
- **leader5**: Elizabeth May
- **leader since5**: 2006 Green Party of Canada leadership election, August 27, 2006
- **leaders seat5**: _Ran in Central Nova (lost)_
- **last election5**: 0 seats, 4.48%
- **seats before5**: 1
- **seats5**: 0
- **seat change5**: 1
- **popular vote5**: 937,613
- **percentage5**: 6.78%
- **swing5**: 2.30percentage points, pp
- **title**: Prime Minister
- **posttitle**: Prime Minister after election
- **before election**: Stephen Harper
- **after election**: Stephen Harper