The Champions: Part 2
1963-1968: Lester Pearson (Liberal)
1963 (Minority): John Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative), Robert N. Thompson (Social Credit), Tommy Douglas (New Democratic)
1965 (Minority): John Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative), Tommy Douglas (New Democratic), Réal Caouette (Ralliement créditiste), Robert N. Thompson (Social Credit)
1968-1974: Jean Marchand (Liberal)
1968: Robert Stanfield (Progressive Conservative), Tommy Douglas (New Democratic), Réal Caouette (Ralliement créditiste)
1973 (Minority): Robert Stanfield (Progressive Conservative), David Lewis (New Democratic), Réal Caouette (Social Credit)
1974-1975: John Turner (Liberal) †
1975-1980: Jean-Luc Pépin (Liberal)
1976: Paul Hellyer (Progressive Conservative), Pierre Trudeau (New Democratic), Réal Caouette (Social Credit)
1980-1985: Pierre Trudeau (New Democratic)
1980 (Minority): Jean-Luc Pépin (Liberal), Paul Hellyer (Progressive Conservative)
1982 (Minority): Alan Eagleson (Progressive Conservative), Jean-Luc Pépin (Liberal)
1985-1995: John Crosbie (Liberal)
1985: Pierre Trudeau (New Democratic), Alan Eagleson (Progressive Conservative)
1989: Bob Rae (New Democratic), Robert Muir (Progressive Conservative)
1993: Bob Rae (New Democratic), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), David Crombie (Moderate), Rodrigue Biron (Option Nationale)
1995-1997: Lise Thibault (Liberal)
1997-2003: Nelson Riis (New Democratic)
1997 (Minority): Lise Thibault (Liberal), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), Rodrigue Biron (Option Nationale)
1998: Lise Thibault (Liberal), Deborah Gray (Alliance), Rodrigue Biron (Option Nationale)
2003-2007: Frank Stronach (Liberal)
2003 (Coalition with Alliance): Nelson Riis (New Democratic), Diane Ablonczy (Alliance), François Legault (Option Nationale)
2007 (Minority): Judy Wasylycia-Leis (New Democratic), François Legault (Option Nationale), Diane Ablonczy (Alliance), Judy Rebick (Radical)
2007-2013: Lawrence Cannon (Liberal).
2008: Judy Wasylycia-Leis (New Democratic), François Legault (Option Nationale), Frank Klees (Alliance), Svend Robinson (Radical)
2013-2020: Alexandre Boulerice (New Democratic)
2013: Lawrence Cannon (Liberal), Frank Klees (Alliance), Svend Robinson (Radical)
2017 (Minority): Naheed Nenshi (Liberal), Frank Klees (Alliance), Linda McQuaig (Radical)
2020-: Naheed Nenshi (Liberal)
2020: Alexandre Boulerice (New Democratic), Michelle Rempel (Alliance), Yves Levesque (Option Nationale), Avi Lewis (Radical)
Jean Marchand wins a tighter leadership election and a tighter election majority, and has to contend with economic crises and rising political violence in Quebec, taking a harder line on Quebec nationalism which draws him into conflict with Bourassa and makes him a target of more radical Quebec nationalists. Exhausted and under attack on both sides- proposals of official bilingualism sinking his popularity in English Canada as well- he retired in 1974 and handed power over to the young, energetic John Turner. What his conciliatory attitude to Quebec nationalism might have amounted to is lost to history, as after just under a year in office, he was killed in a bomb blast in Montreal organised by the FLQ. Deputy Prime Minister Pépin quickly took charge, declared a state of emergency and sent troops into Montreal to root out the organisation. While it had mixed success in that regard- the FLQ being active well into the nineties- Pépin was rewarded with a massive landslide in both English and French Canada.
After becoming the only NDP MP in Quebec by a tiny majority in 1973, Pierre Trudeau quickly emerged as an intellectual powerhouse in the party, taking over party after David Lewis' sudden resignation in 1975 and leading the party to a modest breakthrough in the province in 1976, holding firm against the Liberal landslide. Four years later, with Canada now in a deep recession, Trudeau led the party to another historic breakthrough, winning the majority of seats in Quebec and forming government. Determined to find a constitutional settlement, Trudeau finds allies in the new conservative government of Quebec and his reform-minded predecessor, and through consensus a wide-ranging constitutional patriation and settlement is agreed and approved by referendum in 1984, guaranteeing everything from a special status for Quebec to a social charter to electoral reform- a very Canadian consensus. Canadians were grateful enough to put him in the history books, but not grateful enough to ignore the stagnating economy and spiralling deficit.
Which is how the former Newfoundland Premier was able to seize the Liberal leadership. The Crosbie era brought Canada into the neoliberal consensus taking shape across the Western world: privatisations, sweeping budget cuts, slashed taxes, busted unions. Crosbie's cantankerous attitudes made him either wildly popular or deeply despised among Canadians, and his French language skills solidified the NDP's hold over most of Quebec. He retired on his 64th birthday, undefeated, having shaped Canada as much as Trudeau and almost as much as Pearson. His success was seen in how little his NDP successor did to properly push back against his legacy, using the first ever NDP majority to push through modest expansions of public services and social reforms- same sex marriage, universal childcare and historic funding and reconciliation agreements with indigenous leaders, no grand reshaping of the economy as before.
All through this, Canada's conservatives found themselves going from irrelevance to irrelevance, increasingly hobbled and marginalised by external circumstances and defective leadership, increasingly reduced to a Western rump by the mid-1980s as Crosbie dominated English Canada. Eventually the PCs' leadership was won by right-wing activist Jack Ramsay, representing a tide in western conservative activism angered by the constant focus on Quebec's troubles and the threats Trudeau and Crosbie's environmentalism posed to Alberta's economy. The Red Tories revolted, split and scattered- the MacKays returned to provincial politics, David Crombie ended up in Robillard's cabinet, Flora MacDonald was appointed to the Senate by Ontario Premier Layton. And thus the takeover of the right, newly reformed as the Canadian Alliance, was complete, surviving the national scandal of Ramsay's arrest and conviction.
They survived it so well that Frank Stronach, having seized the Liberal leadership off establishment candidates like Crobsie before him, invited them into a coalition to ensure that the socialists were well and truly kept out of power. While they had much in common in terms of fiscal policy and even on some issues of decentralisation, the coalition was soon consumed by infighting on both sides. The coalition eventually collapsed over a proposal for a carbon tax, forcing an election. While the Liberals came out of the election in a much better state than the Alliance, Stronach lacked the patience for the back-and-fourth of minority government, resigning abruptly in a flounce at the end of the year. With the leadership reclaimed by the Laurentian establishment, the party shifted to the left slightly and decimated the NDP and the soft-nationalist Option Nationale in the process.
But that couldn't last, and Alexander Boulerice was swept in on the back of a deep recession and the youth vote. His term was beset by increasing constitutional challenges and intergovernmental disputes: forced early on to condemn the Quebec branch of his party for going into government with the terrorist-sympathising Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale, expensive infrastructure projects becoming a magnet for corrupt contracts and environmental and social reform legislation galvanising the conservative movement, turning pro-oil and social conservative activists into household names.
All this buoyed the Alliance, which had left the doldrums by forming an electoral pact with the increasingly right-wing Option Nationale. This pact failed to sustain it's strong polling numbers, falling far behind the victorious Liberals in the end, it left a clear mark on Canada, with the pact together holding more seats than the battered NDP. They are probably better off out of government for this term, as Nenshi faces combative premiers egging on his opponents and constitutional fights- Alberta's Leela Aheer and Quebec's Maxime Bernier being the worst offenders- a stagnant global economy, and dog-whistle attacks from both sides. But to diffuse such difficult situations and force the nation into the future is what the Liberal Party has always done.