1958 Canadian Federal Election

The Diefenbaker sweep

March 31, 1958 · Diefenbaker & Pearson · 265 seats, 133 for a majority

The Diefenbaker sweep: 208 of 265 seats, still the largest share of the House ever won, including 50 of Quebec's 75 as Union Nationale machinery swung behind him. 'Follow John' carried every province.

Prime Minister before

John Diefenbaker

Progressive Conservative

Prime Minister (continued)

John Diefenbaker

Progressive Conservative

Government formed

Progressive Conservative

majority government

Turnout

79.4%

The result

Progressive Conservative
John Diefenbaker · +96 seats · 53.7%
208
seats
Liberal
Lester B. Pearson · -57 seats · 33.8%
48
seats
CCF
Major James Coldwell · -17 seats · 9.5%
8
seats
Social Credit
Solon Earl Low · -19 seats · 2.6%
0
seats

1 further seat went to parties and independents outside the main contenders listed above.

The result by province & territory

Seats won and vote share in each province and territory. Blank cells mean the party did not contest the province; the results table splits allied labels (Liberal-Conservatives, farmers' candidates, independents) that the headline figures group together.

Progressive Conservative
BC 18 (49.4%)AB 17 (59.9%)SK 16 (51.4%)MB 14 (56.7%)ON 67 (56.4%)QC 50 (49.6%)NB 7 (54.1%)NS 12 (57.0%)PE 4 (62.2%)NL 2 (45.2%)YT 1 (54.5%)NT 0 (42.8%)
208
seats
Liberal
BC 0 (16.1%)AB 0 (13.7%)SK 0 (19.6%)MB 0 (21.6%)ON 14 (32.1%)QC 25 (45.6%)NB 3 (43.4%)NS 0 (38.4%)PE 0 (37.5%)NL 5 (54.4%)YT 0 (43.3%)NT 1 (57.2%)
48
seats
Co-operative Commonwealth
BC 4 (24.5%)AB 0 (4.4%)SK 1 (28.4%)MB 0 (19.6%)ON 3 (10.5%)QC 0 (2.3%)NB 0 (1.8%)NS 0 (4.5%)PE 0 (0.3%)NL 0 (0.2%)
8
seats
Liberal-Labour
ON 1 (0.5%)
1
seats
Total seats
265