1962 Canadian Federal Election

June 18, 1962 · Diefenbaker & Pearson · 265 seats, 133 for a majority

Diefenbaker's 208-seat colossus shrank to a minority of 116 as Social Credit's créditiste wing took 26 seats in Quebec under Réal Caouette and the economy soured with the devalued 'Diefenbuck'.

Prime Minister before

John Diefenbaker

Progressive Conservative

Prime Minister (continued)

John Diefenbaker

Progressive Conservative

Government formed

Progressive Conservative

minority government

Turnout

79.0%

The result

Progressive Conservative
John Diefenbaker · -89 seats · 37.2%
116
seats
Liberal
Lester B. Pearson · +49 seats · 37.0%
99
seats
Social Credit
Robert N. Thompson · +30 seats · 11.6%
30
seats
New Democratic
Tommy Douglas · +10 seats · 13.6%
19
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 6 (27.3%)AB 15 (42.8%)SK 16 (50.4%)MB 11 (41.6%)ON 35 (39.2%)QC 14 (29.6%)NB 4 (46.5%)NS 9 (47.3%)PE 4 (51.3%)NL 1 (36.0%)NT 0 (42.3%)YT 1 (54.9%)
116
seats
Liberal
BC 4 (27.3%)AB 0 (19.4%)SK 1 (22.8%)MB 1 (31.3%)ON 43 (41.0%)QC 35 (39.2%)NB 6 (44.4%)NS 2 (42.4%)PE 0 (43.3%)NL 6 (59.0%)NT 1 (45.0%)YT 0 (46.2%)
99
seats
Social Credit
BC 2 (14.2%)AB 2 (29.2%)SK 0 (4.6%)MB 0 (6.8%)ON 0 (1.8%)QC 26 (26.0%)NB 0 (3.6%)NS 0 (0.8%)PE 0 (0.2%)NL 0 (0.1%)
30
seats
New Democratic
BC 10 (30.9%)AB 0 (8.4%)SK 0 (22.1%)MB 2 (19.7%)ON 6 (17.2%)QC 0 (4.4%)NB 0 (5.3%)NS 1 (9.4%)PE 0 (5.2%)NL 0 (4.9%)
19
seats
Liberal-Labour
ON 1 (0.6%)
1
seats
Total seats
265