On May 22, 1979, an Albertan would become the youngest Canadian Prime Minister in the country's history.
Despite Pierre Trudeau's Liberals winning 40 per cent of the popular vote, the Progressive Conservatives managed to win the most seats, with 136 to the Liberals' 114. Under the leadership of Ed Broadbent, the NDP party won 26, while the Social Credit Party (led by Fabien Roy) won six.
The man behind the PC's winning government was Joe Clark, only 36. He was elected at the party's convention in 1976 and entered the political realm at just 28 years old. In the 1967 Alberta provincial election, he was an unsuccessful candidate. He ran again, unsuccessfully in 1971, but was successful in winning the Rocky riding in the federal election that same year.
However, he was unpopular with some party members who thought him to be inexperienced or too socially liberal, so much so that it forced Clark to run in a different riding (Yellowhead) when the Rocky Mountain riding was merged into the new riding of Bow River, along with Palliser, in the lead up the 1979 election. According to John Sawatsky's book Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition, Stanley Schumacher, the Tory MP for Palliser, refused to step down.
Clark could pin his win on Southern Ontario, portions of the Maritimes, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Interior of British Columbia.
Vancouver Island and the coastal regions of BC were dominated by the NDP. The 1979 election saw the creation of the Comox—Powell River riding, which elected NDPer Raymond Skelly. Skelly had beaten the PC's Al Lazerte, Liberal Jack Pearsall and the Communist Party's Sy Pederson, with 44.28 per cent of the vote.
Clark's minority government lasted only nine months but was instrumental in the "Canadian Caper," a joint rescue operation with the CIA to rescue six American diplomats during the Iranian Revolution on Nov. 4, 1979. Two CIA agents joined the diplomats in Tehran, where they were disguised as a Canadian film crew working on scouting locations for the science fiction movie Argo.
A promise to cut taxes to stimulate the economy during his campaign ultimately led to his downfall. The budget he proposed while in office instead focused on slowing economic activity by curbing inflation. A gasoline tax proposed in the budget also worked against him. Clark also refused to work with the Social Credit Party, the party most politically aligned with the Progressive Conservatives. The Liberals supported the NDP's finance critic Bob Rae's sub-amendment to the budget motion and stated the House of Commons did not approve the budget. Five of the six (one crossed the line and joined the Tories) Social Credit MPs abstained from the vote, while one was on Clark's side. Every NDP and Liberal (bar one) supported Rae's motion.
"This house condemns the government for its budget which will place an unfair and unnecessary burden of higher gasoline prices, higher gasoline prices, higher fuel prices, and higher taxes on middle and lower income Canadians," said Liberal MP Herb Gray, during the first session of the 31st Parliament.
The budget fiasco led to the 1980 election. Despite resigning after his defeat to Clark in 1979, Trudeau returned as the Liberals' leader.
Trudeau led the Liberals to another majority government, winning 147 seats. Clark's party won 103. The NDP won 32 seats, while the Social Credit Party was wiped off the board. No other party won a seat. The Social Credit Party continued to exist until 1993, but had become a shell of its former self, having lost relevance following the death of its leader, Réal Caoutette, in 1976. The 1979 election was the last time the party won a seat in the federal election.
Skelly was reelected in the Comox—Powell River riding.
The election had some regional politics. The Liberals did not win a single vote west of Manitoba and took half of their seats in Quebec. Clark's party only had one seat in Quebec, and was strong in the Atlantic and out west, except for the coastal areas of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, where the NDP had a stronghold. The NDP also had pockets in the interior of BC and northern Manitoba.
One of Trudeau's first challenges in his second premiership was the 1980 Quebec sovereignty referendum. The referendum took place on May 20 and was defeated by 59.56 per cent to 40.44 per cent. The Quebec provincial government, led by Parti Québécois, had been planning on the referendum since they were elected to power in 1976. Trudeau was so against the separation of Quebec that Parti Québécois refused to implement a referendum while Trudeau was in office. However, the quick fall of Clark's government (who did not want to be involved in the referendum) did not happen before a referendum was promised for 1980 in the summer of 1979.
Trudeau and the federal government did get involved with the referendum, with officials such as Jean Chrétian and Marc Lalonde making appearances during campaign stops for the 'No' side, where they focused on economic uncertainty. A famous speech by Trudeau put the final nail in the coffin for the 'Yes' vote, leading to a lopsided vote that ensured Quebec remained a province of Canada.
During his second premiership, Trudeau also enacted the Canada Act, 1982 and the Constitution Act, 1982. But by 1984, Trudeau's and the Liberal Party's popularity started to drop. Trudeau resigned and was replaced by John Turner, who had not been in politics for the past nine years, nor was he an MP during the election campaign. He announced he would not run in a by-election, in which a Liberal MP would step aside for him in what would have been a safe victory. Instead, he would run in the Vancouver Quadra riding. Bill Clarke, a Progressive Conservative, had been the riding's MP since 1972. The Liberals were also unpopular in Western Canada, where the Tories and NDP dominated. Turner was hoping to rebuild support for the party there, which was fractured even further by Trudeau's National Energy Program, particularly in the oil-rich Alberta.
Clark's loss in 1980 also contributed to the rise of Brian Mulroney, who replaced Clark as party leader in 1983.
Turner called for an election for Sep. 4, 1984. The election ended up being the first election since 1958 where the Progressive Conservatives won a majority government. They also won the most seats (211) in Canadian election history.
Past blunders by Trudeau and Turner dominated the campaign, particularly around Trudeau's recommendation to appoint over 200 Liberals to patronage posts before his resignation. Turner had the right to withdraw the appointments, but did not and instead appointed more than 70 Liberals to patronage posts. During a televised debate, Turner attacked Mulroney on his patronage plans, which backfired on him. Mulroney demanded Turner's apology for his patronage appointments, as well as Trudeau's. In response, Turner said he had no option.
Mulroney's comeback has become famous.
"You had an option, sir. You could have said, "I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada, and I am not going to ask Canadians to pay the price.' You had an option, sir—to say 'no'—and you chose to say 'yes' to the old attitudes and the old stories of the Liberal Party. That, sir, if I may say respectfully, that is not good enough for Canadians."
The Liberals only won 40 seats, while the NDP won 30. However, Turner was elected to Vancouver Quadra.
Skelly won his third term in Comox—Powell River.
Mulroney's government got to work, reducing many social programs and working to reduce the deficit. Under Trudeau, the deficit had increased to $37.2 billion in 1984. In 1968, the deficit was $667 million. Mulroney also appointed Clark as his Minister of External Affairs. He also privatized some of the Crown's corporations, selling 23 of them, which included Air Canada and Connaught Laboratories (and later Petro-Canada). His government also abolished the National Energy Program, instead introducing the Western Accord on Energy, which permitted the full deregulation of oil prices and allowed international and local supply and demand to dictate pricing.
The Mulroney-led government opposed South Africa's apartheid regime, with Mulroney leading the Commonwealth in sanctioning the South African government and pressuring them to end apartheid and release activist Nelson Mandela from his political imprisonment. In this, Mulroney went against British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who believed it would harm the United Kingdom economically, and United States President Ronald Reagan, who believed Mandela was a communist.
A free trade agreement with the United States was on the table in 1988, which was signed by Mulroney and Reagan on Jan. 2, but wasn't scheduled to take effect until Jan. 1, 1989. Both Liberal and NDP leaders were against the agreement, fearful that it would "Americanize" Canada and erode the country's sovereignty. Both Broadbent and Turner argued it would make Canada the United States' 51st state. Mulroney's government pushed the bill through the House of Commons, but the Senate, dominated by Liberals, demanded an election before it would be passed through the Senate. An election was called for Oct. 1, 1988.
