Canadian federal election, 1997 (Cinco De Mayo)

The Canadian federal election of 1997 was a general election to elect members to the Parliament of Canada held on September 2, 1997 at the recommendation of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and called by President Joe Clark. The election was fought over the haphazard transition to a market economy and the embarassing losses by the federal government in the Quebec independence referendum. As Chrétien's position had been narrowly defeated in the Quebec referendum, he was viewed as a weak Prime Minister, though he had emerged from a 1996 threatened leadership challenge strengthened. Buoyed by a Canadian economy that had emerged from the 1996 recession, Chrétien called the election early and stunned most political observers by not only maintaining power, but earning a majority government, thus ending it's awkward coalition with the Western right-wing Reform Party. The Liberals erased a substantial lead in the polls by the Reform Party in the final two months before the election and Chrétien would not face a challenge to his Ministry from within his party until 2003.