The 1993 Canadian federal election was held on October 25, 1993, to elect members to the House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Considered to be a major political realignment, it was one of the most eventful elections in Canada's history. Two new regionalist parties emerged and the election marked the worst defeat for a governing party at the federal level and worst ever suffered by a governing party in the Western democratic world. In a landslide, the Liberal Party, led by Jean Chrétien, won a majority government.
The election was called on September 8, 1993, by the new Progressive Conservative Party (PC) leader, Prime Minister Kim Campbell, near the end of her party's five-year mandate. When she succeeded longtime Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and assumed office in June, the party was deeply unpopular due to the failure of the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords, the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, and the early 1990s recession. The PCs were further weakened by the emergence of new parties that were competing for its core supporters. Campbell's initial efforts helped the party recover somewhat in pre-election polls before the writs were issued. However, this momentum did not last, and the Progressive Conservatives suffered the most lopsided defeat for a Canadian governing party at the federal level, which was also the worst ever suffered by a governing party in the Western democratic world, losing all but 2 of their 156 seats and more than half of their vote from 1988. The Progressive Conservatives also launched a controversial attack ad during the campaign.
The Western-based Reform Party won over many traditional PC voters, particularly social conservatives, the Christian right, and many alienated Western Canadians. The popularity of Preston Manning, and profound Western discontent with the PCs, led the Reform Party to replace the PCs as the major right-wing party in the Commons, although it won only one seat east of Manitoba. Though the Progressive Conservatives recovered slightly in the 1997 election, they lost seats in 2000 and would never be a major force in Canadian politics again. In 2003, the Progressive Conservative Party disappeared entirely when it merged with the larger Canadian Alliance (successor of the Reform Party) to create the new Conservative Party of Canada.
The sovereigntist Bloc Québécois won almost half of the popular vote in Quebec and became the Official Opposition. To date, this is the only time that a party committed to the political secession of a region of Canada has become the Official Opposition of Canada. The traditional third party, the New Democratic Party (NDP), collapsed to nine seats only one election after having what was then its best performance. It remains the NDP's worst result in a federal election since its formation and the only election where the party polled fewer than one million votes.
Background
The Liberal Party had dominated Canadian politics for much of the 20th century. The party had been in office for all but 22 years between 1896 and 1984, with the Conservatives/Progressive Conservatives only forming government six times during this period.
Mulroney era
In 1984, Brian Mulroney led the Progressive Conservatives to a majority government with the most seats in Canadian history, winning a majority of the seats in every province. The Liberals lost 95 seats in the worst defeat for a governing party at the federal level at the time. The PCs made a strong showing in Quebec, a province where they had held few seats for much of the century. Between 1896 and 1984, they had only managed to win the majority of seats in that province once, in their 1958 landslide—the only other time besides 1984 that a party won more than 200 seats in an election. After winning only one seat in Quebec (out of 75) in 1980, the Tories won 58 seats in 1984, leaving the Liberals with almost no seats outside of Montreal.