1965 Canadian Federal Election
November 8, 1965 · Diefenbaker & Pearson · 265 seats, 133 for a majority
Pearson called an early election seeking a majority and missed it by two seats, prompting Tommy Douglas's quip that the country had spent sixty million dollars to buy the same Parliament. It was Diefenbaker's last campaign as leader.
Prime Minister before
Lester B. Pearson
Liberal
Prime Minister (continued)
Lester B. Pearson
Liberal
Government formed
Liberal
minority government
Turnout
74.8%
The result
| Share of House | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Lester B. Pearson | 131 | +3 | 3,099,521 | 40.2% | -1.3 | |
| Progressive Conservative | John Diefenbaker | 97 | +2 | 2,500,113 | 32.4% | -0.3 | |
| New Democratic | Tommy Douglas | 21 | +4 | 1,381,658 | 17.9% | +4.7 | |
| Ralliement créditiste | Réal Caouette | 9 | -10 | 359,258 | 4.7% | — | |
| Social Credit | Robert N. Thompson | 5 | +1 | 282,454 | 3.7% | -8.3 |
2 further seats 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 | 730.0% | 022.4% | 024.0% | 131.0% | 5143.6% | 5645.6% | 647.5% | 242.0% | 044.1% | 764.1% | 044.8% | 156.2% | 13140.2% |
| Progressive Conservative | 319.2% | 1546.6% | 1748.0% | 1040.7% | 2534.0% | 821.3% | 442.5% | 1048.6% | 453.9% | 032.4% | 155.2% | 039.1% | 9732.4% |
| New Democratic | 932.9% | 08.2% | 026.0% | 324.0% | 921.7% | 012.0% | 09.4% | 09.1% | 02.0% | 01.2% | 04.7% | 2117.9% | |
| Ralliement créditiste | 0<0.1% | 917.5% | 00.4% | 94.7% | |||||||||
| Social Credit | 317.4% | 222.5% | 01.9% | 04.3% | 00.4% | 00.1% | 01.6% | 53.7% | |||||
| Independent | 00.2% | 00.1% | 00.1% | 00.2% | 12.1% | 00.3% | 10.7% | ||||||
| Independent PC | 0<0.1% | 10.6% | 10.2% | ||||||||||
| Total seats | 22 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 85 | 75 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 265 |