Electoral history of Pierre Trudeau

This article is the Electoral history of Pierre Trudeau, the fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada.

With a total of fifteen years and 164 days in office, he is the third longest serving prime minister, after William Lyon Mackenzie King and Sir John A. Macdonald.

Trudeau stood for election to the House of Commons of Canada six times, all for the riding of Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec.

Trudeau ranks third out of twenty-three prime ministers for time in office, serving two terms totalling fifteen years and 164 days.

[1] Trudeau was the fourth of four prime ministers to serve non-consecutive terms, the others being Sir John A. Macdonald, Arthur Meighen and William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Trudeau was the fourth of eight prime ministers from Quebec, the others being Sir John Abbott, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Louis St. Laurent, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau.

He was also the third of five francophone prime ministers, the others being Laurier, St. Laurent, Chrétien, and Justin Trudeau.

Before entering politics, Trudeau was a federal public servant, an academic at the Université de Montréal and a social activist, particularly during the Asbestos Strike and as a founder and frequent contributor to the magazine Cité libre.

[2] Along with two other colleagues from Cité libre, Gerard Pelletier and Jean Marchand, he was invited by Prime Minister Lester Pearson to join the Liberal government in Ottawa to combat the rising Quebec separatism.

However, Clark's minority government was defeated late in 1979, triggering another election in early 1980, which Trudeau won.

Trudeau won on the fourth ballot by the narrow margin of 51.1% over the runner-up, Robert Winters, who had 40.6% of the votes.

He called the election shortly afterwards and won a majority, defeating the Progressive Conservatives led by Robert L. Stanfield.

Trudeau led the Liberals in the 1974 election and was returned to office with a majority government, again defeating Stanfield and the Progressive Conservatives.

Joe Clark, the new leader of the Progressive Conservatives, formed a short-lived minority government.

However, before the Liberals could elect a new leader, the Clark government fell in December 1979 when the opposition parties defeated the budget in the Commons.

His main opponents were Paul Hellyer and Robert Winters, both former ministers in Pearson's governments.