The 1957 Canadian federal election was held June 10, 1957, to select the 265 members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 23rd Parliament of Canada. In one of the great upsets in Canadian political history, the Progressive Conservative Party led by John Diefenbaker brought an end to 22 years of Liberal rule. The Conservatives won 112 seats overall to the Liberals’ 105.
About 1957 Canadian federal election in brief
The 1957 Canadian federal election was held June 10, 1957, to select the 265 members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 23rd Parliament of Canada. In one of the great upsets in Canadian political history, the Progressive Conservative Party led by John Diefenbaker brought an end to 22 years of Liberal rule. The Liberal Party had governed Canada since 1935, winning five consecutive elections. Under Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent, the government gradually built a welfare state. The Tories were seen as the party of the wealthy and English-speaking Canada, and drew about 30% of the vote in the federal elections. After over two decades in opposition, the Tories were closely associated with that role in the public eye. The Conservatives won 112 seats overall to the Liberals’ 105. With the remaining seats won by other parties, the PC party only had a plurality in the Commons, but the margin was sufficient to make John Diewenb Baker Canada’s first Tory Prime Minister since R. B. Bennett in 1935. The Liberals won a fifth successive mandate in 1953, with St. Laurent content to exercise a highly relaxed leadership style. In the 1953 election, the party won 51 out of the 265 seats in the House of Commons. In 1956, Tory leader George A. Drew unexpectedly resigned due to ill health. In his place, the Tory party elected the fiery and charismatic Diefensbaker. None had come close to defeating the Liberals in their 21 years out of power in 1945; the best performance was in 1945, when John Bracken secured 67 seats for the Tories, though the Liberals had won 125 seats and maintained their majority.
In 1957, the Liberals lost an additional seat to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Tories picked up two seats from the Liberals, and the Liberals were forced to form a minority government despite losing the popular vote to the Tories. The next election was in 1958, when the Tories won 67 seats; the Liberals won 125 seats, though they had won their majority, and maintained a majority of seats and maintained the party’s majority. The election was also the first in which the Tories gained seats in Quebec, and they were successful; though they gained few seats inQuebec, they won 112 seats overall. In 1958, the Conservatives gained two seats in Ontario, and in 1959, they gained three seats in New Brunswick. In 1960, the PCs gained two more seats in Manitoba, and one in Prince Edward Island, and two in Ontario. In 1961, they lost two seats to the New Brunswick Party, which had won the previous election in the previous term. In 1962, they picked up one seat in Ontario and lost two additional seats in Nova Scotia, leaving the Tories in a minority. In 1964, the Conservative Party of Canada won a seat in the Newfoundland and Labrador by a narrow margin. In 1966, they were re-elected by a slim majority of one seat. In 1967, they regained a seat from the Newfoundlanders. In 1968, they became the first party to win an election in Newfoundland.
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