Canadian federal election, 2000

On November 28, 2000, Canada held a federal election.

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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:
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.