Chamber:
	House of Commons - Chambre des Communes
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	27 November 2000
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held for all members of the House of Commons following the premature dissolution of this body. Previous general elections had been held in November 1997.
Background and outcome of elections:
	On 22 October 2000, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien called a general election for 27 November 2000, with more than a year and a half of his five-year term left to run. Mr Chrétien and his ruling Liberal Party called the elections in an attempt to win a third straight term in the third vote in the past seven years. Mr Chrétien faced a challenge from a new and charismatic right-wing opposition leader, Mr Stockwell Day, of the Canadian Alliance, seen as the only person who could break Mr Chrétien's comfortable lead in opinion polls. During the electoral campaign, the Prime Minister accused his opponent Mr Day of seeking to destroy some of the country's institutions such as the State-funded health care system and to hold divisive referenda on issues like restricting abortion, while Mr Day accused Mr Chrétien of lobbying the head of a federal bank to grant a loan to one of his associates and asked the police to investigate whether the Prime Minister had broken the law. Final results gave Mr Chrétien's Liberal Party nearly 41 per cent of the vote and 173 seats in the 301-seat newly-elected House of Commons, comfortably above the 151 needed for a majority. He thus became the first Prime Minister of the country to win a third consecutive majority government since World War II. The Liberal Party won a landslide in Ontario and picked up several seats in Quebec, reducing the parliamentary delegation of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, which received nearly 11 per cent of the votes and 37 seats. This was the first time in 20 years that the Liberal Party had obtained a majority of the votes in Quebec, to the satisfaction of Mr. Chrétien, a French-speaking Canadian from Quebec and an opponent to an independent French-speaking State. The Canadian Alliance polled slightly more than 25 per cent of the votes that gave the party 66 seats in the House of Commons. The other two parties represented in the newly elected Chamber are the New Democratic Party, that obtained 13 seats, and the Progressive Conservative Party, with 12 seats. On 29 January 2001, the 37th Parliament held its first session and elected Peter Milliken as Speaker of the House of Commons.

STATISTICS

Round no 1 (27 November 2000): Elections results
Number of registered electors	21 239 435
Voters	12 993 855 (61 %)

Round no 1: Distribution of votes
Political Group	Votes	%
Liberal Party	5 222 950	40.82
Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance	3 259 335	25.48
Bloc québécois (BQ)	1 367 981	10.69
New Democratic Party (NDP)	1 089 760	8.52
Progressive Conservative Party (PCP)	1 562 626	12.21

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total
Liberal Party	173
Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance	66
Bloc québécois (BQ)	37
New Democratic Party (NDP)	13
Progressive Conservative Party (PCP)	12

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	239
Women:	62
Percent of women:	20.60

Distribution of seats according to age:
21 to 30 years	5
31 to 40 years	23
41 to 50 years	74
51 to 60 years	120
61 to 70 years	31
Over 70 years	4
Unknown	44