The Canadian federal election of 1988 was held November 21, 1988, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons. It was an election largely fought on a single issue: the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

Incumbent Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, had signed the agreement. The Liberal Party, led by John Napier Turner, was opposed to the agreement, as was the New Democratic Party led by Ed Broadbent.

The Conservatives went into the election suffering from a number of scandals. Despite winning a large majority only four years before, they looked vulnerable at the outset. Infighting among the Liberals and vote splitting between the NDP and Liberals led to a second Conservative majority government, however.

The Liberals returned as the official opposition, but the lackluster campaign cost Turner his job as Liberal leader. He was replaced by Jean Chrétien in 1990.

The 1988 election was the most successful for the New Democratic Party. The party dominated in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and also won significant support in Ontario.

The election was the last for Canada's Social Credit movement: the party won no seats, and insignificant portion of the popular vote.

The newly founded Reform Party also contested the election, but was considered little more than a fringe group, and did not win any seats.

76% of eligible voters cast a ballot.

National results

For a complete list of MPs elected in the 1988 election see 34th Canadian parliament.

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
				Before1	After	% Change	#	%	% Change	Progressive Conservative	Brian Mulroney	295	203	169	-16.7%	5,667,543	43.02%	-7.02%	Liberal	John Turner	294	38	83	+118%	4,205,072	31.92%	+3.89%	New Democratic	Ed Broadbent	295	32	43	+34.4%	2,685,263	20.38%	+1.57%	Reform	Preston Manning	72	-	-		275,767	2.09%	n.a.	Christian Heritage	Ed Vanwoudenberg	63	-	-		102,533	0.78%	n.a.	Rhinoceros	Cornelius the First	74	-	-		52,173	0.40%	-0.39%	Green		68	-	-		47,228	0.36%	+0.14%	Confederation of Regions		51	-	-		41,342	0.31%	-0.68%	Libertarian	Dennis Corrigan	88	-	-		33,135	0.25%	+0.06%	Commonwealth	Gilles Gervais	58	-	-		7,467	0.06%	-0.21%	Communist	George Hewison	51	-	-		7,066	0.05%	-0.01%	Social Credit	Harvey Lainson	9	-	-		3,407	0.03%	-0.11%	Independent		55	4	-		22,982	0.17%
	No Affiliation		100	-	-		24,516	0.19%
	Vacant			5	N/A
	Total		1,573	282	295	+4.61%	13,175,494	100.0

Notes:

¹ "Before" refers to standings in the House of Commons at dissolution, and not to standings at previous election.

n.a.= not applicable - party was not recognized in the previous election.

Results by province

Party Name			BC	AB	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL	NT	YK	Total
	Progressive Conservative	Seats:	12	25	4	7	46	63	5	5	-	2	-	-	169
		Popular Vote:	35.3	51.8	36.4	36.9	38.2	52.7	40.4	40.9	41.5	42.2	26.4	35.3	43.0
	Liberal	Seats:	1	-	-	5	43	12	5	6	4	5	2	-	83
		Vote:	20.4	13.7	18.2	36.5	38.9	30.3	45.4	46.5	49.9	45.0	41.4	11.3	31.9
	New Democratic	Seats:	19	1	10	2	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	43
		Vote:	37.0	17.4	44.2	21.3	20.1	14.4	9.3	11.4	7.5	12.4	28.3	51.4	20.38
Total seats			32	26	14	14	99	75	10	11	4	7	2	1	295
Parties that won no seats:
	Reform	Vote:	4.8	15.4		3.3									2.1
	Christian Heritage	Vote:		1.1			1.4							2.0	0.8
	Rhinoceros	Vote:						1.2							0.4
	Green	Vote:													0.4
	Confederation of Regions	Vote:							4.3						0.3
	Libertarian	Vote:													0.3
	Commonwealth	Vote:						0.2							0.1
	Communist	Vote:													0.1
	Social Credit	Vote:													xx
	Other	Vote:													0.4

xx - less than 0.05% of the popular vote

Note: Parties that captured less than 1 percent of the vote in a province are not recorded.

Notes

• Number of Parties: 11
  • First appearance: Christian Heritage Party, Reform Party
  • Final appearance: Confederation of Regions Party, Rhinoceros Party, Social Credit Party
  • Final appearance before hiatus: Communist Party (returned in 2000)