Conservative Party of Canada in the context of "1988 Canadian federal election"

The 38th Canadian Parliament was in session from October 4, 2004, until November 29, 2005. The membership was set by the 2004 federal election on June 28, 2004, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections, but due to the seat distribution, those few changes significantly affected the distribution of power. It was dissolved prior to the 2006 election.

It was controlled by a Liberal Party minority under Prime Minister Paul Martin and the 27th Canadian Ministry. The Official Opposition was the Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper.

Maritime Union (French: Union des Maritimes) is a proposed political union of the three Maritime provinces of Canada – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island – to form a single new province.

The idea has been proposed at various times throughout Canadian history, most recently in November 2012 by Stephen Greene, John D. Wallace and Mike Duffy, three Conservative Senators from the region. As of 2024, a union of the three Maritime provinces would have a population of approximately 2.1 million, becoming the fifth largest by population, out of eight remaining Canadian provinces.

Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, being the party's co-founder and serving as its first leader from 2004 to 2015. Since 2018, he has also been the chairman of the International Democracy Union.

Harper studied economics, earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1985 and 1991, respectively, from the University of Calgary. He was one of the founders of the Reform Party of Canada and was first elected to Parliament in the 1993 federal election in the riding of Calgary West. He did not seek re-election in 1997, and 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 Official Opposition. In 2003, Harper and Peter MacKay negotiated the merger of the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to form the Conservative Party of Canada. Harper was elected as the party's first leader in 2004. In the 2004 federal election, the Conservative Party lost to the Liberal Party led by Paul Martin. Following the defeat of Martin's government in a motion of no confidence, Harper led the Conservatives to a minority government in the 2006 federal election.

The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; French: Parti libéral du Canada, PLC) is a national political party in Canada and has been the governing party at the federal level since 2015. It has been one of the primary contenders for power for much of Canada's history, leading the national government for close to 60% of time. Mark Carney has been its leader and the Prime Minister of Canada since March 2025.

The Liberal Party espouses the principles of liberalism, and generally sits at the centre to centre-left of the Canadian political spectrum, with their main rival, the Conservative Party, positioned to their right and the New Democratic Party positioned to their left. The party is often described as a "big tent", practising "brokerage politics", attracting support from a broad spectrum of voters. The Liberal Party is the oldest currently active federal political party in the country, and has dominated the federal politics of Canada for much of its history. As a result, it has sometimes been referred to as Canada's "natural governing party".

Papineau (French pronunciation: [papino]; formerly Papineau—Saint-Denis and Papineau—Saint-Michel) is a federal electoral district (riding) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons since 1948. Its population in 2016 was 110,750. Justin Trudeau, the former Prime Minister of Canada and former leader of the Liberal Party, represented the riding from the 2008 federal election until he resigned in 2025. Trudeau became Liberal leader in a 2013 leadership election, succeeding Bob Rae, and prime minister when the Liberals returned to government in the 2015 Canadian federal election, succeeding Conservative leader Stephen Harper.

The name of the riding comes from a street in the Villeray neighbourhood, named after Joseph Papineau.

The 2008 Canadian federal election was held on 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 Governor General Michaëlle Jean on September 7, 2008.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the election due to his belief that there was a lack of cooperation between the minority government Conservatives and the opposition parties, which the former had to rely on to pass legislation; hence Harper argued that Parliament had reached the end of its productiveness.

The 2015 Canadian federal election was held on October 19, 2015, to elect the 338 members of the House of Commons of the 42nd Parliament of Canada. In accordance with the maximum four-year term under a 2007 amendment to the Canada Elections Act, the writs of election for the 2015 election were issued by Governor General David Johnston on August 4. At 11 weeks, the ensuing campaign was one of the longest in Canadian history: It was also the first time since 1979 that a prime minister attempted to remain in office into a fourth consecutive Parliament and the first time since 1980 that someone attempted to win a fourth term of any kind as prime minister. (In both cases, it was Pierre, Justin Trudeau’s father, who attempted in 1979 to win a 4th consecutive term and succeeded in 1980 in winning a fourth term overall.) This is also the most recent election in which a majority government was formed.

The Liberal Party won 184 seats, forming a majority government with its leader Justin Trudeau becoming prime minister. Trudeau and the rest of his cabinet were sworn in on November 4, 2015. The Conservative Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper, won 99 seats, becoming the Official Opposition after nearly a decade on the government benches. The New Democratic Party, led by Tom Mulcair, won 44 seats, becoming the third-largest party in the House of Commons, after having formed the Official Opposition following the 2011 election. The Bloc Québécois won 10 seats, the Green Party won 1 seat, and Strength in Democracy lost all its seats.