1963 Canadian Federal Election
April 8, 1963 · Diefenbaker & Pearson · 265 seats, 133 for a majority
The collapse of Diefenbaker's government over nuclear warheads for Bomarc missiles let Lester Pearson form a minority government, beginning the five-year Parliament that produced medicare, the pension plan and the flag.
Prime Minister before
John Diefenbaker
Progressive Conservative
Prime Minister after
Lester B. Pearson
Liberal
Government formed
Liberal
minority government
Turnout
79.2%
The result
| Share of House | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Lester B. Pearson | 128 | +29 | 3,276,996 | 41.5% | +4.5 | |
| Progressive Conservative | John Diefenbaker | 95 | -21 | 2,591,613 | 32.8% | -4.4 | |
| Social Credit | Robert N. Thompson | 24 | -6 | 940,703 | 11.9% | +0.3 | |
| New Democratic | Tommy Douglas | 17 | -2 | 1,044,701 | 13.2% | -0.3 |
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.
| Liberal | 732.3% | 122.1% | 024.1% | 233.8% | 5145.8% | 4745.6% | 647.3% | 546.7% | 246.4% | 764.5% | 041.0% | 043.2% | 12841.5% |
| Progressive Conservative | 423.4% | 1445.3% | 1753.7% | 1042.3% | 2735.0% | 819.5% | 440.4% | 746.9% | 252.0% | 030.1% | 149.6% | 156.8% | 9532.8% |
| Social Credit | 213.3% | 225.8% | 03.9% | 07.0% | 02.0% | 2027.3% | 08.6% | 00.1% | 09.4% | 2411.9% | |||
| New Democratic | 930.3% | 06.5% | 018.2% | 216.7% | 616.2% | 07.1% | 03.7% | 06.4% | 01.6% | 04.2% | 1713.2% | ||
| Liberal-Labour | 10.6% | 10.2% | |||||||||||
| Total seats | 22 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 85 | 75 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 265 |