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

Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament (MP) for Papineau from 2008 until 2025.

Trudeau was born in Ottawa, Ontario, during the first premiership of his father, Pierre Trudeau. He attended Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from McGill University and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of British Columbia. He then taught at the secondary school level in Vancouver before returning to Montreal in 2002 to further his studies. He served as chair for the youth charity Katimavik and as director of the not-for-profit Canadian Avalanche Association. In 2006, he was appointed as chair of the Liberal Party's Task Force on Youth Renewal. Trudeau was elected to represent the riding of Papineau in the House of Commons in the 2008 federal election. He became the Liberal Party's Official Opposition critic for youth and multiculturalism in 2009 and critic for citizenship and immigration in 2010. In 2011, he was appointed as a critic for secondary education and sport. In 2013, Trudeau was elected as the leader of the Liberal Party. He led the party to a majority government in the 2015 federal election, bringing the party from a third place finish in the previous election with the largest-ever numerical increase of seats by any party in a Canadian election. He became the second-youngest prime minister in Canadian history and the first to be the child of a previous prime minister.

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was a Canadian politician and lawyer who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and again from 1980 to 1984. Between his non-consecutive terms as prime minister, he served as the leader of the Official Opposition from 1979 to 1980.

Trudeau was born and raised in Outremont, Quebec, and studied politics and law. In the 1950s, he rose to prominence as a labour activist in Quebec politics by opposing the conservative Union Nationale government. Trudeau was then an associate professor of law at the Université de Montréal. He was originally part of the social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP), but then joined the Liberal Party in 1965, believing that the NDP could not achieve power. That year, he was elected to the House of Commons, and was quickly appointed as prime minister Lester B. Pearson's parliamentary secretary. In 1967, Trudeau was appointed as minister of justice and attorney general, during which time he liberalized divorce and abortion laws and decriminalized homosexuality. Trudeau's outgoing personality and charisma caused a sensation, termed "Trudeaumania", which helped him win the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1968. He then succeeded Pearson and became prime minister of Canada.

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.

The 1984 Canadian federal election was held on September 4, 1984, to elect members to the House of Commons of the 33rd Parliament of Canada, following the dissolution of the House on July 9. The Progressive Conservative Party, led by Brian Mulroney, won a landslide victory, defeating the incumbent governing Liberal Party led by Prime Minister John Turner. The Progressive Conservatives won 211 seats, the most seats in the House in Canadian political history, and regained power for the first time since 1979. This was the first election since 1958 in which the Progressive Conservatives won a majority government, and is also the only time since 1958 that Canada's governing party received an actual majority of votes cast. It was also the first election since 1962 in which the Progressive Conservatives won the popular vote.

Mulroney's victory came as a result of his building of a 'grand coalition' that comprised social conservatives from the West, Red Tories from the East, Quebec nationalists, and fiscal conservatives. Winning 74.8 percent of the seats in the House of Commons meant he won the second-largest percentage of seats in Canadian history, with only Progressive Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's triumph in the 1958 federal election, at 78.5 percent, being higher. This was the last time that the winning party won every province and territory and the last time that the winning party received over 50 percent of the national popular vote. The Liberals suffered what at that time was the worst defeat for a governing party at the federal level (in terms of percentage of seats), until the new record would be set in 1993 by the Progressive Conservatives themselves. The NDP lost a single seat in the House of Commons.

William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was the prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal, he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. With a total of 21 years and 154 days in office, he remains the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.

King studied law and political economy in the 1890s and later obtained a PhD, the first Canadian prime minister to have done so. In 1900, he became deputy minister of the Canadian government's new Department of Labour. He entered the House of Commons in 1908 before becoming the first federal minister of labour in 1909 under Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. After losing his seat in the 1911 federal election, King worked for the Rockefeller Foundation before briefly working as an industrial consultant. Following the death of Laurier in 1919, King won to the leadership of the Liberal Party. Taking the helm of a party torn apart by the Conscription Crisis of 1917, he unified both the pro-conscription and anti-conscription factions of the party, leading it to victory in the 1921 federal election.

The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; French: Parti libéral du Québec [paʁti libeʁal dy kebɛk], PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955.

The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuanced Canadian nationalist tones that supports Quebec remaining within the Canadian federation, while also supporting reforms that would allow substantial autonomism in Quebec. In the context of federal Canadian politics, it is a more centrist party when compared to Conservative and Liberal parties in other provinces, such as the former British Columbia Liberal Party.

The 2025 Canadian federal election was held on April 28 to elect members of the House of Commons to the 45th Canadian Parliament. Governor General Mary Simon issued the writs of election on March 23, 2025, after Prime Minister Mark Carney advised her to dissolve Parliament. This was the first election to use a new 343-seat electoral map based on the 2021 census. Key issues of the election campaign included the cost of living, housing, crime, and newly imposed tariffs and threats of annexation from Donald Trump, the president of the United States.

The Liberal Party won a fourth term, emerging with a minority government for a third consecutive election; it also marked the first time they won the popular vote since 2015, doing so with the highest vote share for any party in a federal election since 1984, and their own highest vote share since 1980. The party's victory came after a substantial rebound in the polls, noted as being "one of the widest on record in any democracy". The election also saw the highest turnout since 1993, with 69.5% of Canada's 28 million eligible voters casting a ballot.

Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (Canadian French: [ʒɑ̃ kʁetsjẽɪ̯̃]; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and retired politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. He served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1990 to 2003 and as leader of the Official Opposition from 1990 to 1993.

Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien studied law at the Université Laval. A Liberal, he was first elected to the House of Commons in 1963 federal election. Chrétien served in various cabinet posts in the governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, most notably as minister of Indian affairs and northern development, president of the Treasury Board, minister of finance, and minister of justice. In the latter role, Chrétien played a key role in the patriation of the Constitution of Canada and the establishment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Chrétien ran for the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1984, placing second to John Turner. He then served as deputy prime minister in Turner's short-lived government, which was defeated in the 1984 federal election. In 1986, Chrétien briefly left politics amid tensions with Turner and began working in the private sector. After the Liberals were defeated again in 1988, he returned to politics and won the leadership of the party in 1990, thereby becoming leader of the Official Opposition. Chrétien led the Liberal Party to a majority government in the 1993 federal election. The party won two additional majorities in 1997 and 2000.

The leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (French: chef du parti libéral) is the highest political office of the Liberal Party of Canada. The holder of the office is the formal political head of the party as a political organization and its parliamentary caucus in Canada's House of Commons, with specific authority to "speak for the party concerning any political issue".

The current leader is Mark Carney, the current Prime Minister of Canada. He is the 14th permanent leader. He succeeded former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as party leader on March 9, 2025, following his victory in the party's leadership election, and succeeded Trudeau as Prime Minister five days later. Given that the Liberal Party has been one of the two principal contenders for power for most of Canada's history, most of the past holders of this office had served as prime minister.