New Democratic Party (Canada) in the context of Official Opposition (Canada)

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.

The 1972 Canadian federal election was held on October 30, 1972, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 29th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in a slim victory for the governing Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, which won 109 seats, compared to 107 seats for the opposition Progressive Conservatives led by Robert Stanfield, making this the closest election in Canadian history in terms of seat count. Trudeau's Liberals experienced a decline in support as a result of rising unemployment.

A further 48 seats were won by other parties and independents. On election night, the results appeared to give 109 seats to the Tories, but once the counting had finished the next day, the final results gave the Liberals a minority government and left the New Democratic Party led by David Lewis holding the balance of power.