The 1972 Canadian federal election was held on October 30, 1972, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 29th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in a slim victory for the governing Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, which won 109 seats, compared to 107 seats for the opposition Progressive Conservatives led by Robert Stanfield. Trudeau's Liberals experienced a decline in support as a result of rising unemployment.
A further 48 seats were won by other parties and independents. On election night, the results appeared to give 109 seats to the Tories, but once the counting had finished the next day, the final results gave the Liberals a minority government and left the New Democratic Party led by David Lewis holding the balance of power.
Overview
The election was the second fought between Liberal leader, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield. The Liberals entered the election campaign with a 10-point lead over the Progressive Conservatives, but the spirit of Trudeaumania had worn off, and a slumping economy and rising unemployment hurt his party. Stanfield's Tories tried to capitalize on the public's perception that the Liberals were mismanaging the economy with the slogan, "A Progressive Conservative government will do better."
The Liberals campaigned on the slogan, "The Land is Strong", and television ads illustrating Canada's scenery. The slogan quickly became much derided, and the party had developed few real issues to campaign on. As a result, their entire campaign was viewed as being one of the worst managed in recent decades.
Party platforms
Liberal Party: increase bilingualism in the Canadian civil service; re-introduce a bill controlling foreign take-overs of Canadian businesses; specialized programs to reduce unemployment; a program to expand and create new parks across Canada, including Toronto's "Harbourfront" and Mont-Sainte-Anne near Quebec City; make-work programs to create jobs; reduce abuse of Unemployment Insurance; and incentives to reduce pollution.
Progressive Conservative Party: increase the discipline in government spending, and increase the power of the Auditor General of Canada to fight waste and inefficiency in government; ban strikes in essential services; introduce price and wage controls if necessary to control inflation; require foreign-owned companies operating in Canada to have a majority of Canadians on their boards of directors; introduce an incentive to encourage Canadians to invest in small businesses; develop a national economic strategy in co-operation with the provincial governments; expand re-training opportunities for unemployed workers; adjust tariffs to encourage secondary processing in Canada of Canada's natural resources; eliminate the 11% sales tax on building materials; eliminate 3% increase in personal income tax rates scheduled for January 1, 1973, and reduce rates by 4% on July 1, 1973; adjust old age security payments regularly to reflect changes in the cost of living; index tax brackets to inflation so that taxes do not rise as the cost of living rises; provide assistance to set up residential land banks to reduce the cost of housing.
New Democratic Party: eliminate 3% increase in personal income tax rates scheduled for January 1, 1973, and reduce rates by 8% for ordinary Canadians; introduce controls on prices and rents, but not on wages; create a $430 million program to fund public works during winter months to reduce unemployment; increase old age security payments, but eliminate them for wealthy senior citizens; legislate greater autonomy for Canadian trade unions that are branches of international unions; tough tax laws for corporations; eliminate "corporate welfare", i.e., grants and subsidies for corporations, and use this money to build housing and transportation infrastructure, and fund municipal services to create jobs.
Social Credit Party: reform the monetary system in line with social credit theories; increase old age security payments to $200 per month beginning at age 60, and to $150 per month for spouses of seniors regardless of age.
National results
The voter turn-out was 76.7%.
One independent candidate was elected: Roch La Salle was re-elected in the Quebec riding of Joliette. La Salle had left the PC caucus to protest the party's failure to recognize what he considered Quebec's right to self-determination, and was the only candidate to win the support of the separatist Parti Québécois.