Canadian federal election, 2000

The Liberals had called the election a month before and throughout the campaign had been expected to easily win a third consecutive majority government, which they did. The election was regarded as a great success by Jean Chrétien and the Liberals, but as a failure for every other party. Without important issues or a very exciting campaign voter turn-out reached a record low.

Voter turn-out: 61.2%

The parties:

• The Liberals campaigned on their successful economic record and their relatively scandal-free seven years in office and were successful. The Liberals moved 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 un-employment rules that hurt seasonal workers.

• The 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 with accusations of wanting to introduce a two-tier health care system and for threatening gay rights and abortion rights, all of which they denied. The Alliance ended up winning only two Ontario ridings. This lead 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, this was proven not to be true. They did, however, retain their official opposition status and improved by six seats moving 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 seats fell from 44 to 38. Many analyists thought the party would do worse, but the other parties split the vote on federalist VS separatist issues.

• 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 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 within the timeframe of the 2000 US presidential election. This made many satire TV show's in Canada, including This Hour has 22 Minutes

Party	Party Leader	Seats		Popular Vote
		Before	After	#	%
Bloc Québécois	Gilles Duceppe	44	38	1,377,727	10.7
Canadian Action Party	Paul T. Hellyer	0	0	27,103	0.2
Canadian Alliance	Stockwell Day	58	66	3,276,929	25.5
Communist Party of Canada	Miguel Figueroa	0	0	8,776	0.1
The Green Party of Canada	Joan Russow	0	0	104,402	0.8
Liberal Party of Canada	Jean Chrétien	161	172	5,252,031	40.8
Marijuana Party	Marc-Boris St-Maurice	0	0	66,258	0.5
Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada	Sandra L. Smith	0	0	12,068	0.1
Natural Law Party of Canada	Neil Paterson	0	0	16,577	0.1
New Democratic Party	Alexa McDonough	19	13	1,093,868	8.5
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada	Joe Clark	15	12	1,566,998	12.2
Independent		4	0	17,445	0.1
No Affiliation		0	0	37,591	0.3
Vacant		0	301
		301
Source: http://www.elections.ca

Province-by-Province results. Seats and Popular Vote.

Party Name	North	B.C.	Alb	Sask	Man	Ont	Que	NB	NS	PEI	NL	Canada/Total
Liberal Party Seats	3	5	2	2	5	100	36	6	4	4	5	172
Pop Vote	45.8%	27.7%	20.9%	20.7%	32.5%	51.5%	44.2%	41.7%	36.5%	47.0%	44.9%	40.8%
Canadian Alliance Seats		27	23	10	4	2						66
Pop Vote	17.6%	49.4%	58.9%	47.7%	30.4%	23.6%	6.2%	15.7%	9.6%	5.0%	3.9%	25.5%
Bloc Quebecois Seats							38					38
Pop Vote							39.9%					10.7%
NDP Seats		2		2	4	1		1	3			13
Pop Vote	26.8%	11.3%	5.4%	26.2%	20.9%	8.3%	1.8%	11.7%	24.0%	9.0%	13.1%	8.5%
Progressive Conservative Party Seats			1		1		1	3	4		2	12
Pop Vote	8.6%	7.3%	13.5%	4.8%	14.5%	14.4%	5.6%	30.5%	29.1%	38.4%	34.5%	12.2%
Green Party Seats
Pop Vote	1.0%	2.1%
Others Seats
Others Pop Vote	0.2%	2.2%	1.3%	0.6%	1.7%	2.2%	2.3%	0.4%	0.8%	0.6%	3.6%	2.3%
Party Name	North	B.C.	Alb	Sask	Man	Ont	Que	NB	NS	PEI	NL	Canada/Total

Note. Parties that capture less than 1% of the vote in a province are not recorded. Parties that capture more than 1% in a province, but less than 1% nationally, do not have national numbers.

Preceded by: 1997 Canadian election

Canadian federal elections

Followed by: 2004 Canadian election

Referenced By