On November 28, 2000, Canada held a federal election.
| 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 | |||||
| Other elections: 1984 1988 1993 1997 2000 2004 Canadian federal elections |
|||||
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 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. 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.
- 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 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.
