Canadian federal election, 2008

The 2008 Canadian federal election (more formally, the 40th Canadian General Election) was held on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the previous parliament had been dissolved by the Governor General on September 7, 2008. The election, like the previous one in 2006, yielded a minority government under the Conservative Party of Canada, led by the incumbent Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.

The election call resulted in the cancellation of four federal by-elections that had been scheduled to occur in September.

Background

In 2007, Parliament passed a law fixing federal election dates every four years and scheduling the next election date as October 19, 2009, but the law does not (and constitutionally cannot) limit the powers of the Governor General to dissolve Parliament at any time, such as when opposition parties bring down the government on a vote of confidence. In this election there was no loss of a non-confidence vote, but the Prime Minister asked the Governor General to call an election. The Governor General granted the Prime Minister's request.

List of Canadian federal general elections

This article provides a summary of results for the general (all seats contested) elections to the House of Commons, the elected lower half of Canada's federal bicameral legislative body, the Parliament of Canada. The number of seats has increased steadily over time, from 180 for the first election to the current total of 338. The current federal government structure was established in 1867 by the Constitution Act.

For federal by-elections (for one or a few seats as a result of retirement, etc.) see List of federal by-elections in Canada. For the eight general elections of the Province of Canada held in 1843 to 1864 before confederation in 1867, see List of elections in the Province of Canada. There were also earlier elections in Canada, such as for the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada (held in 1792–1836, now part of Ontario) and the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada (held in 1792–1834, now part of Quebec).

Two political parties have dominated politics in Canada: the Liberal Party and the historic Conservative party (known as the Progressive Conservative Party from 1943 to 2003). If one regards the modern Conservative Party as the successor to the historic one, then these are the only two parties to have formed a government, although often as the lead party in a minority or coalition government with one or more smaller parties (the 1917 win was by a pro-conscription Unionist coalition of former Liberals and Conservatives).

Stephen Harper

Stephen Joseph Harper PC MP (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician and member of Parliament who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada from February 6, 2006, to November 4, 2015. He was the first prime minister to come from the modern Conservative Party of Canada, which was formed by a merger of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance.

Harper has been the Member of Parliament for the riding of Calgary Heritage in Alberta since 2002 (previously known as Calgary Southwest from 2002 to 2015). Earlier, from 1993 to 1997, he was the MP for Calgary West, representing the Reform Party of Canada. He was one of the founding members of the Reform Party, but did not seek re-election in the 1997 federal election. Harper instead joined and later led the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative lobbyist group. In 2002, he succeeded Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance (the successor to the Reform Party) and returned to parliament as Leader of the Opposition. In 2003, he reached an agreement with Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay for the merger of their two parties to form the Conservative Party of Canada. He was elected as the party's first leader in March 2004.

Electoral calendar 2008

This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, even though they are not elections. By-elections are not included.

January

February

Stéphane Dion

Stéphane Maurice Dion, PhD,PC MP (born 28 September 1955) is a Canadian politician currently serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the present Cabinet, headed by Justin Trudeau. The Member of Parliament of Canada for the riding of Saint-Laurent—Cartierville in Montreal since 1996, he was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons of Canada from 2006 to 2008.

Dion is a former academic who served as a cabinet minister under Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.

Life before politics

Dion was born in Quebec City, the second of five children. His mother, Denyse (née Kormann), was a real-estate agent born in Paris, France, and his father, Léon Dion, was a Quebec academic. Dion was raised in a modest home on Liegeois Boulevard in the Sillery, Quebec, today part of Quebec City. While growing up, he remembers being taunted for his family's secularism in a society which was then predominantly Catholic.

He studied political science at Université Laval in the department co-founded by his father; this was also where he met his future wife, Janine Krieber, a fellow-student in the same program. He obtained BA and MA degrees in 1977 and 1979 respectively (his master's thesis presented an analysis of the evolution of Parti Québécois electoral strategies), after which he and Janine departed together for France.