electionstracker

Canada 1972 federal election

What was the result of the 1972 federal election in Canada?

Liberal Party of Canada won 109 of 264 seats with 37.5% of the vote. 76.7% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Canada
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Liberal Party of Canada won 109 of 264 seats with 37.5% of the vote; 76.7% of registered voters cast a ballot, up 1.1 points on 1968.

  • Liberal Party of Canada 109 −46 seats 37.5% −8.0 points
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Canada 107 +35 seats 34.1% +2.7 points
  • Co-operative Commonwealth Federation / New Democratic Party 31 +9 seats 17.3% +0.3 points
  • Social Credit Party of Canada 15 +15 seats 7.4% +6.6 points
  • Rhinoceros Party 0 0.0%
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Canada 1968 federal election, party by party.

133 of 264 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 37.5%

    Share of the vote won by Liberal Party of Canada

    Liberal Party of Canada won 109 of 264 seats. A majority needs 133.

  2. +35 seats

    Seats gained by Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1968. Liberal Party of Canada lost 46 seats.

  3. 76.7%

    Voter turnout

    Up 1.1 points on 1968.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Liberal Party of Canada109−4637.5−8.03,718,258
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada107+3534.1+2.73,383,530
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation / New Democratic Party31+917.3+0.31,713,528
Social Credit Party of Canada15+157.4+6.6737,972
Independents2+10.4+0.135,421
Rhinoceros Party00.01,565

± is the change against the Canada 1968 federal election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Liberal Party of Canada 3,718,258
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Canada 3,383,530
  • Co-operative Commonwealth Federation / New Democratic Party 1,713,528
  • Social Credit Party of Canada 737,972
  • Independents 35,421
  • Rhinoceros Party 1,565

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

76.7% of the 13,000,778 registered voters cast a ballot (9,974,661 ballots), up 1.1 points on 1968. 9,916,061 of them were valid votes. The highest turnout since 1963 in our data.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Liberal Party of Canada37.5% of votes41.3% of seats
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Canada34.1% of votes40.5% of seats
  • Co-operative Commonwealth Federation / New Democratic Party17.3% of votes11.7% of seats
  • Social Credit Party of Canada7.4% of votes5.7% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 6.7 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 3.4 by votes and 2.8 by seats; Liberal Party of Canada led Progressive Conservative Party of Canada by 3.4 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of