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Canadian federal election, 2000

Elections and parties in Canada

List of election results Politics of Canada Political parties Canadian federal elections Canadian election results: 1867 - 1872 - 1874 - 1878 - 1882 1887 - 1891 - 1896 - 1900 - 1904 1908 - 1911 - 1917 - 1921 - 1925 1926 - 1930 - 1935 - 1940 - 1945 1949 - 1953 - 1957 - 1958 - 1962 1963 - 1965 - 1968 - 1972 - 1974 1979 - 1980 - 1984 - 1988 - 1993 1997 - 2000 - 2004 - Summaries

On November 28, 2000, Canada held a federal election.

The governing Liberals won a third consecutive majority government easily, as they had been expected to do when the election was called in October, and throughout the campaign. The election was regarded as a great success by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and the Liberal Party, but a a failure for every other party. Without important issues or a very exciting campaign, voter turn-out reached a record low.

Voter turn-out: 64.1% (corrected from initial reporting of 61.2%) The parties:

• The Liberals campaigned on their successful economic record and their relatively scandal-free seven years in office. The Liberals increased their number of seats in the Canadian House of Commons from 155 seats to 172 seats. The Liberals also regained ground in eastern Canada that they lost during the 1997 election due to a change to unemployment rules that hurt seasonal workers.

• The Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (Canadian Alliance) went into the election with great hopes. New leader Stockwell Day was expected to appeal far more to the crucial Ontario voters, and the Canadian Alliance was hoping for major improvements. The Alliance campaigned on tax cuts, an end to the federal gun registration program, and family values. The campaign was dogged by accusations that the party would allow private health care to operate along-side the public Medicare system and introduce two-tier health care, and for threatening gay rights and abortion rights, all of which the party denied. Day's personal image also suffered, particularly due to gaffes along the campaign trail. The Alliance ended up winning only two Ontario ridings. This led to the eventual downfall of Day the next year. At one point, the Alliance was at 30.5% in the polls, and some thought they could take government. While they did not do so, they did, however, retain their official opposition status, and increased their numbers in the House of Commons by six seats, from 60 to 66.

• The Bloc Québécois failed to attract much interest in their campaign, and Gilles Duceppe, despite performing well in the debates, was not a very popular leader in Quebec. The Bloc's seat total fell from 44 to 38. Many analysts thought the party would do worse, but the other parties split the federalist vote in Quebec, allowing the Bloc to win many seats that they would not have won if the federalist vote had been united.

• The New Democratic Party campaigned intensely on the issue of medicare, but failed to make much headway with voters. Their seat count fell from 21 to 13. The NDP's vote remained high in eastern Canada, especially Nova Scotia, where it traditionally has not done so well.

• The Progressive Conservatives, despite great hope of regaining their lost glory under former Prime Minister Joe Clark, had a very disappointing election, falling from 20 to 12 seats, and being almost exclusively confined to the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland. The party, however, in getting the 12 seats needed for Official party status in the House of Commons, and was able to stop the total implosion of the party.

One interesting sidenote was that the entire election was started, took place, finished, and a winner was chosen, all while the votes were being counted in the 2000 US presidential election. This made many satire TV shows in Canada, including This Hour has 22 Minutes.

Results

National

Party	Party Leader	# of cands	Seats			Popular Vote
			Before	After	% Change	#	%	Change
Liberal	Jean Chrétien	301	161	172		5,252,031	40.85%	+2.39%
Canadian Alliance	Stockwell Day	298	58	66		3,276,929	25.49%	+6.13%1
Bloc Québécois	Gilles Duceppe	75	44	38		1,377,727	10.72%	+0.04%
New Democratic	Alexa McDonough	298	19	13		1,093,868	8.51%	-2.54%
Progressive Conservative	Joe Clark	291	15	12		1,566,998	12.19%	-6.65%
Green	Joan Russow	111	0	0		104,402	0.81%	+0.38%
Marijuana	Marc-Boris St-Maurice	73	0	0		66,258	0.52%	n/a2
Canadian Action	Paul T. Hellyer	70	0	0		27,103	0.21%	+0.08%
Natural Law	Neil Paterson	69	0	0		16,577	0.13%	-0.16%
Marxist-Leninist	Sandra L. Smith	84	0	0		12,068	0.09%	0.00%
Communist	Miguel Figueroa	52	0	0		8,776	0.09%	n/a2
Independent		29	4	0		17,445	0.14%	-0.32%
No Affiliation		57	0	0		37,591	0.29%	+0.28%
Vacant			0	301
Total		1,808	301			12,857,773	100.0
Other elections: 1988, 1993, 1997, 2000 2004
Sources: http://www.elections.ca

¹ - percentage change from Reform Party of Canada in previous election
² - party was not recognized in previous election

Province by Province breakdown

Party Name		BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NU	NT	YK	Total
Liberal	Seats:	5	2	2	5	100	36	6	4	4	5	1	1	1	172
	Popular Vote:	27.7	20.9	20.7	32.5	51.5	44.2	41.7	36.5	47.0	44.9	69.0	45.3	32.9	40.8
Canadian Alliance	Seats:	27	23	10	4	2									66
	Vote:	49.4	58.9	47.7	30.4	23.6	6.2	15.7	9.6	5.0	3.9		17.6	27.0	25.5
Bloc Québécois	Seats:						38								38
	Vote:						39.9								10.7
New Democratic	Seats:	2		2	4	1		1	3						13
	Vote:	11.3	5.4	26.2	20.9	8.3	1.8	11.7	24.0	9.0	13.1	18.3	26.9	32.1	8.5
Progressive Conservative	Seats:		1		1		1	3	4		2				12
	Vote:	7.3	13.5	4.8	14.5	14.4	5.6	30.5	29.1	38.4	34.5	8.1	10.1	7.6	12.2
Green	Seats:
	Vote:	2.1	0.5	0.4	0.2	0.9	0.6		0.1	0.3		4.5			0.8
Marijuana	Seats:
	Vote:	0.7	0.2		0.1	0.3	1.0	0.1	0.4						0.5
Canadian Action	Seats:
	Vote:	0.8	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2									0.2
Natural Law	Seats:
	Vote:	0.1				0.1	0.3	0.2		0.1	0.1				0.1
Marxist-Leninist	Seats:
	Vote:	0.1				0.1	0.2		0.1						0.1
Communist	Seats:
	Vote:	0.1			0.3	0.1	0.1								0.1
Other	Seats:
	Vote:	0.4	0.4		1.0	0.6	0.2		0.2	0.1	4.4			0.4	0.4
Total seats:		34	26	14	14	101	75	10	11	4	7	1	1	1	301

Source:

Seat by seat breakdown

• Canadian federal election, 2000 (candidates)

Notes

• Number of Parties: 11
  • First appearance: Marijuana Party of Canada
  • Reappearance after hiatus: Communist Party of Canada
  • Final appearance: Natural Law Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
  • First-and-only appearance: Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance

Preceded by: 1997 Canadian election

Canadian federal elections

Followed by: 2004 Canadian election