Canadian federal election, 2003 (Cinco De Mayo)

The Canadian federal election of 2003 was held on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 to elect members of the Parliament of Canada. The incumbent Liberal government of David Collenette, just four seats shy of a majority, netted ten seats at the expense of the PC in Ontario and Atlantic Canada and the Canadian Alliance in British Columbia, respectively. The election saw PC lose thirteen of its remaining seventeen seats in Parliament, all to the Liberals, and the Canadian Alliance suffer enormously in the booming province of British Columbia, losing eight seats. However, the Liberals would in turn lose eleven seats, mostly in Greater Toronto and British Columbia, to the resurgent Social Democratic Party, which earned a net of twelve, not losing a single seat under new party leader Jack Layton. The losses pushed the Liberal Party to the right, having lost much of their left flank in the prior two elections, and the losses for the two right wing parties led to the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the PC into the Conservative Party in March of 2004.