In the Canadian federal election of 1965, the Liberal Party of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson was re-elected with a larger number of seats in the Canadian House of Commons. Although the Liberals lost a small share of the popular vote, they were able to win more seats, but fell just short of having a majority. The Liberals campaigned under the slogans, "Good Things Happen When a Government Cares About People", and, "For Continued Prosperity".

In order to govern, the Liberals relied on the New Democratic Party, and occasionally other smaller opposition parties in order to remain in power. Pearson announced his intention to resign as Liberal leader in December 1967, and was replaced the following April by Pierre Trudeau.

The Progressive Conservative Party of John Diefenbaker, campaigning with the slogan, "Policies for People, Policies for Progress", lost a small number of seats. Despite losing a second time, Diefenbaker refused to resign as party leader, and was eventually forced from the position by to a campaign by party president Dalton Camp. Diefenbaker ran to succeed himself in the party's 1967 leadership convention, but lost to Robert Stanfield.

The New Democratic Party of Tommy Douglas increased its share of the popular vote by more than four and a half percentage points, but in winning only four extra seats, it continued to fail to make the electoral break-through that was hoped for when the party was founded in 1960.

The Social Credit Party of Canada was split in two before this election: Réal Caouette led French-Canadian Socreds out of the party into the new Ralliement créditiste (Social Credit Rally), and won more seats than the old party. Robert N. Thompson continued to lead the Social Credit Party in English-speaking Canada, but lost a significant share of the vote.

This was the first election for the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, a satirical party led by Cornelius the First. The party fielded only one candidate. Cornelius, a resident of the Granby zoo, did not seek election because Canadian election law does not permit rhinoceroses or other zoo animals to seek election.

Party platforms

Liberal Party:

• implement a national medicare program by July 1, 1967;
• $500 million for medical and dental research over 15 years;
• $40 million university scholarship program over 2 years;
• improve crop insurance for farmers;
• create a national dairy marketing board;
• allow full-time farm workers to participate in Unemployment Insurance;
• increase old age security payments;
• $100 million programs to build roads in northern Canada;
• $25 million to support the coal industry in Nova Scotia.

Progressive Conservative Party:

• increase grants to universities;
• special tax deduction for gifts to universties;
• grants to support medical and dental research;
• establish a federal government grain agency;
• provide grants to farmers;
• increase old age security payments from $75 per month to $100 per month for senior citizens over the age of 70;
• create a national water conservation program, and divert water from northern Canada to southern regions;
• develop hydro-electric potential of Nelson River, Peace River and the Bay of Fundy;
• reduce corporate and personal income taxes;
• provide tax deductions for home-owners.

New Democratic Party:

• eliminate university tuition fees;
• provide grants for universities' capital costs;
• increased funding for technical training;
• increase the minimum price for wheat;
• increase the old age security payment from $75 per month to $100 per month at age 65;
• implement economic palnning program that lays down guidelinhes for wages and prices;
• halt unjustified price increases.

Social Credit Party:

• increased federal aid for education;
• introduce a non-compuslory medicare program;
• require the Bank of Canada to provide loans for government capital projects.

Ralliement des creditistes/Social Credit Rally:

• in lieu of a medicare program, provide government allowance to individuals to buy private medical insurance;
• subsidize famers' crop losses;
• increase old age security payments to $100 per month immeidately, and to $125 per month over time;
• require the Bank of Canada to pay $15 million of dividends to Canadians.

Source: Globe and Mail newspaper, October 1965.

National results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
				Before1	After	% Change	#	%	% Change	Liberal	Lester Pearson	265	128	131	+2.3%	3,099,521	40.18%	-1.34%	Progressive Conservative	John Diefenbaker	265	95	97	+2.1%	2,500,113	32.41%	-0.31%	New Democratic	Tommy Douglas	255	17	21	+23.5%	1,381,658	17.91%	+4.67%	Ralliement créditiste	Real Caouette	77		9		359,258	4.66%
	Social Credit	R.N. Thompson	86	24	5	-79.2%	282,454	3.66%	-8.26%	Independent		24	-	1		52,155	0.68%	+0.61%
	Independent PC		4	-	1		13,198	0.17%	+0.15%
	Independent Liberal		10	-	-		16,738	0.22%	+0.03%	Communist	William Kashtan	12	-	-		4,285	0.06%	x
	New Capitalist	Frank O'Hearn	3		-		1,009	0.01%
	Ouvrier indépendant		2	-	-		650	0.01%	-0.01%
	Droit vital personnel	H-G Grenier	1		-		465	0.01%
	Independent Social Credit		2	-	-		422	0.01%	x
	Independent Conservative		1	-	-		373	x	x	Rhinoceros	Cornelius I	1		-		321	x
	Republican		1		-		297	x
	Progressive Workers		1		-		274	x
	Socialist Labour		1	-	-		147	x	x
Total			1,011	265	265	-	7,713,338	100%
Sources: http://www.elections.ca History of Federal Ridings since 1867

Notes:

¹ "Previous" refers to the results of the previous election, not the party standings in the House of Commons prior to dissolution.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Reults by province

Party Name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NW	YK	Total
	Liberal	Seats:	7	-	-	1	51	56	6	2	-	7	-	1	131
		Popular Vote:	30.0	22.4	24.0	31.0	43.6	45.6	47.5	42.0	44.1	64.1	44.8	56.2	40.2
	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	3	15	17	10	25	8	4	10	4	-	1	-	97
		Vote:	19.2	46.6	48.0	40.7	34.0	21.3	42.5	48.6	53.9	32.4	55.2	39.1	32.4
	New Democratic	Seats:	9	-	-	3	9	-	-	-	-	-		-	21
		Vote:	32.9	8.2	26.0	24.0	21.7	12.0	9.4	9.1	2.0	1.2		4.7	17.9
	Ralliement créditiste	Seats:					-	9	-						9
		Vote:					xx	17.5	0.4						4.7
	Social Credit	Seats:	3	2	-	-	-								5
		Vote:	17.4	22.5	1.9	4.3	0.4								3.7
	Independent	Seats:						1							1
		Vote:	0.2	0.1		0.1	0.2	2.1		0.3					0.7
	Independent PC	Seats:					-	1							1
		Vote:					xx	0.6							0.2
Total seats:			22	17	17	14	85	75	10	12	4	7	1	1	265
Parties that won no seats:
	Independent Liberal	Vote:						0.8							0.2
	Communist	Vote:	0.2	0.1	xx		xx	xx							0.1
	New Capitalist	Vote:					xx								xx
	Ouvrier Indépendant	Vote:						xx							xx
	Droit vital personnel	Vote:						xx							xx
	Independent Social Credit	Vote:	xx					xx							xx
	Independent Conservative	Vote:					xx ;								xx
	Rhinoceros	Vote:						xx							xx
	Republican	Vote:						xx							xx
	Progressive Workers	Vote:	xx												xx
	Socialist Labour	Vote:					xx								xx

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote