by Dennis Raphael,
York University
Fact of the day: not to take anything away from the Conservatives' hard-fought victory, but the mandate they won is the weakest in Canadian history. That is, the seat share of the incoming Conservative government (124 seats out of 308 or 40.3 percent) is the lowest of any party ever. Here's the complete list of winning parties and their share of the seats in parliament (ranked from strongest mandate to weakest):
YEAR — PARTY — SEAT SHARE (percentage)
1958 PC 78.5 percent
1984 PC 74.8 percent
1940 LIBERAL 72.7 percent
1949 LIBERAL 72.5 percent
1935 LIBERAL 69.8 percent
1878 CONSERVATIVE 66.5 percent
1882 CONSERVATIVE 66.2 percent
1917 CONSERVATIVE 65.1 percent
1904 LIBERAL 65.0 percent
1874 LIBERAL 64.6 percent
1953 LIBERAL 64.5 percent
1900 LIBERAL 62.0 percent
1908 LIBERAL 60.2 percent
1911 CONSERVATIVE 60.2 percent
1993 LIBERAL 60.0 percent
1968 LIBERAL 58.7 percent
1988 PC 57.3 percent
1891 CONSERVATIVE 57.2 percent
1887 CONSERVATIVE 57.2 percent
2000 LIBERAL 57.1 percent
1930 CONSERVATIVE 55.9 percent
1867 CONSERVATIVE 55.8 percent
1896 LIBERAL 55.4 percent
1974 LIBERAL 53.4 percent
1980 LIBERAL 52.1 percent
1997 LIBERAL 51.5 percent
1872 CONSERVATIVE 51.5 percent
1965 LIBERAL 49.4 percent
1921 LIBERAL 49.4 percent
1963 LIBERAL 48.7 percent
1979 PC 48.2 percent
1926 LIBERAL 47.3 percent
1925 CONSERVATIVE 47.3 percent
2004 LIBERAL 43.8 percent
1962 PC 43.8 percent
1957 PC 42.3 percent
1972 LIBERAL 41.3 percent
2006 CONSERVATIVE 40.3 percent
Related addresses:
URL 1: www.democraticspace.com/blog/
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