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Encyclopedia > Canadian federal election, 1958
The 24th general election was held just nine months after the 23rd and transformed Prime Minister John Diefenbaker 's minority into the largest ever majority government in Canadian history .
Diefenbaker had called a snap election to capitalize on two factors:
nationally: the Liberals had just chosen a new leader, Lester Pearson , who, though well known around the world because of his work for the United Nations , was not well known by Canadians.
National results
Party Party Leader # of candidates Seats Popular Vote Previous After % Change # % Change Progressive Conservative John Diefenbaker 265 111 208 +87.4% 3,908,633 53.66% +14.85% Liberal Lester B. Pearson 264 104 49 -53.8% 2,432,953 33.40% -7.35% Cooperative Commonwealth M.J. Coldwell 169 25 8 -68.0% 692,668 9.51% -1.20% Liberal -Labour 1 1 1 - 11,956 0.16% - Social Credit Solon Low 82 19 - 188,356 2.59% -3.99% Independent 9 2 - 14,211 0.20% -0.87% Independent Liberal 10 2 - 12,054 0.17% -1.25% Labour Progressive Tim Buck 18 - - 9,769 0.13% +0.02% Candidats des électeurs Réal Caouette 1 - - 8,276 0.11% -0.01% Independent PC 5 1 - 2,097 0.03% -0.19% Socialist 2 - - 1,113 0.02% n.a. Capital familial H-G Grenier 1 - - 968 0.01% n.a. Radical chrétien 1 - - 687 0.01% n.a. Independent SC
1 - - 361 x -0.04% Ouvrier canadien 1 - - 243 x n.a. Independent Conservative 1 - - 122 x n.a. Total 831 265 265 - 7,284,467 100.00% Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867 (http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/process/house/hfer/hfer.asp?Language=E )
Notes:
"Previous" refers to to standings at previous election, not to standings in the House of Commons at dissolution.
n.a. = not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election
x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote
Results by province
xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote