[1] Won the Liberal leadership race to replace Pearson with a comfortable margin over Jean Marchand and called an election soon afterwards, hoping to capitalize on the change in leadership. However he proved to be a lacklustre campaigner with the Liberals lagging behind Stanfield's Progressive Conservatives and bleeding left-leaning voters to the NDP. Unfortunately he never truly got the chance to prove himself in an election as he died suddenly from a heart attack whilst campaigning in Vancouver just under two weeks prior to polling day.
[2] With the Liberals in disarray after having lost their new leader so close to the election, the caucus turned to a pair of experienced hand to take over the reins. However Sharp had legitimacy problems from the start, with people well aware of his previous disagreements with Winters, which annoyed a great deal of the former leader's supporters who almost saw his election as a coup. He was unable to turn around the party's fortunes and the Liberals lost a significant amount of seats in the election, with Robert Stanfield winning a majority and the NDP making inroads in Quebec.
[3] One of the most iconic Prime Ministers of the 20th century, who governed during a period of changing political landscapes where the NDP under the young and charismatic Quebecois lawyer Pierre Trudeau, first elected in 1968, replaced the Liberals as main political force on the left. His greatest accomplishment is perhaps that he successfully negotiated with provincial Premiers to patriate the Constitution, culminating in the signing of the Constitution Act of 1975. His focus on constitutional matters and Quebec however led to a growth in discontent among the western province which was a driving force behind the resurgence of Social Credit in the 1976 election as a western oriented political movement under the leadership of the 34-year old Preston Manning. Led a minority government during his last two years in power and drew some criticism from his party's right flank for how often he relied on working with John Turner's Liberals rather than what many saw as the Progressive Conservatives' natural allies; Social Credit.
[4] The first New Democrat to ever win a federal election, Pierre Trudeau came into office in 1979 after defeating Stanfield's successor Yves Ryan by a comfortable margin as the economy was in a downward slump and voters had begun to tire of the PCs. Had to tackle a severe economic slump during most of his first term in office which coupled with some rookie mistakes from the new cabinet and caucus members caused pundits to speculate that the first NDP government would also be the last. However an improving economic situation towards the end of his first term turned things around for PET and he was reelected with a slightly increased majority. His second term saw the introduction of the national child care program and the reopening of the constitutional debate with the reform and expansion of the Charter of Rights. After eight relatively successful years in power which cemented the NDP as one of the country's big two political parties, he decided it was at last time to step down. In polls Pierre Trudeau is often ranked somewhere among the top 5 best Prime Ministers, usually right behind Robert Stanfield.
[5] Peter Blaikie, the Minister of Justice in the shortlived Ryan Ministry who narrowly managed to win the leadership election in 1984, against all the odds eeked out a tiny plurality over Lorne Nystrom's NDP in the 1988 election. However leading such a weak government, dependent on both the Liberals and Social Credit to achieve a majority soon proved an impossible task and the government was brought down after only 7 months in power.
[6] Nystrom returned to 24 Sussex after just slightly more than half a year in opposition, but he faced the same exact problems as Blaikie. Thanks to the resurgent Liberals the government was far from a majority, something which proved especially problematic as the economy was beginning to go into a recession. Conflicts with the NDPs left flank over the political direction also came to a head during his time in office as the Left Caucus under the leadership of John Rodriguez left the government benches and formed the Justice Party. After 14 months in office Nystrom's government was brought down as well and a snap election was called.
[7] To the frustration of everyone, the third election in as many years resulted in yet another hung parliament. The NDP lost ground, as did the Progressive Conservatives even though they narrowly won the popular vote, while the Liberals and Social Credit both surged. With the largest party, the NDP, still only holding 91 seats the House of Commons was woefully split and in post-election negotiations both the NDP and the PCs tried to convince the Liberals to join them in a coalition. Ultimately it simply came down to which party made the most appealing offer and that turned out to be the Tories. The two former nemeses joined together in the grand experiment that was Canada's first ever coalition government. However the worsening economic situation soon meant that the two parties' plummeted in the polls as their harsh spending cuts dominated the political discourse during their entire term in office.
[8] After attempting to hold on to the leadership after his second election loss, Nystrom eventually threw in the towel in early 1992 as the surging Justice Party worried MPs who thought there was a need for a fresh start. Jack Layton soon proved to be the perfect candidate. First elected to parliament in 1979, appointed Minister for Indian Affairs and Northern Development as well as Secretary of State for Canada replacing Rosemary Brown in 1984, Layton had significant cabinet experience with stints as both Transport and Labour Minister during the two Nystrom ministries, along with strong leftwing credentials from his activist days. An effective parliamentarian and campaigner, he seized his oppurtunity in February of 1994 with the collapse of the coalition and the following election where he won in a landslide. In his time as Prime Minister, which lasted until October of 2004, the economic situation greatly improved which presented an opportunity for the NDP to implement a great deal of policies that their base had long craved for. The Justice Party seemed to have been stopped in its tracks while the Tories and Liberals were too busy licking their wounds from the coalition to mount a serious challenge. In 1998 he repeated his landslide win as Mike Harris and Jean Chrétien, two critics of the coalition in their own parties, seemed too busy with attacking each other rather than the Prime Minister. The 2002 election was more of a disappointment as the government lost its majority, but with the votes of the Justice Party it was still relatively easy to get things done. With high approvals, Layton stepped down after the election of his successor in 2004 and retired at the subsequent snap election.
[9] Canada's first female Prime Minister, Maureen MacDonald had entered parliament in Layton's 1994 landslide and was appointed to the cabinet the very same year. As one of the strongest performers in the Layton Ministry, MacDonald won praise both within the party and outside in her various roles in the cabinet, so when she announced her leadership bid in May 2004 she immediately became the front runner. Seeing the bounce in the polls after becoming Prime Minister she took a gamble called for a snap election in November of 2004, surprising the opposition which had expected that there wouldn't be an election until after Christmas and New Year's. The gamble paid off and the NDP regained its majority and could go on implementing further manifesto promises, even though the economy was beginning to show sings of slowing down. In the 2008 election the NDP once again became a minority government, and aside from brief speculation of a Tory-Liberal-Social Credit pact, MacDonald's position was safe as such an alliance would only have a 3-seat majority and find it very difficult to agree on anything. However growing fatigue and scandals which popped up here and there was beginning to wear on the government, and when it lost a confidence motion in 2011 few thought that MacDonald would be able to pull off yet another victory.
[10] Ended 17 years of NDP rule with his landslide victory in 2011 after successfully uniting the centre and centre-right in the Liberal Conservative Party. In spite of initial speculation that the new party would be just as dysfunctional - if not moreso - as the Blaikie coalition, the pundits who made those predictions had often missed that a new generation had taken hold of the Tories and the Liberals after the merger. This generation had had most of their formative political years during times of NDP dominance and had seen what a split opposition led to. They knew that their best chance of getting back into power was by proving that they could work together in order to come off as a credible government-in-waiting. They were proved right as McFadyen not only won the 2011 election, but won reelection in 2015 as well, granting the party the opportunity to implement several long-dreamed of reforms while they reining the spending programs introduced during the NDP years. The man who united the centre-right stepped down shortly before the 2019 election and retired from political life.
[11] A dark horse candidate in the race to replace McFadyen, managing to beat frontrunners Bill Morneau and Peter MacKay, Couillard secured a third term for the Liberal Conservatives in part due to an unexpectedly strong showing in Quebec. In spite of some minor scandals which impacted other cabinet members, the economy was in good shape and Couillard's term in office was not too controversial, so with the party flying high in the polls he looked set for reelection. Little could he have expected what would come to pass.
[12] With the NDP, after nearly 12 years out of power, the polls still pointed to a major landslide for Liberal Conservatives in the next election. Party leader Brian Topp had failed to make a strong impression on the voters, with his approval ratings miles behind Couillard and the NDP hovering somewhere around 20% in the polls. After two provincial landslide losses in quick succession in Saskatchewan and Ontario in the spring of '23, Topp decided to do what was right for the party and resigned. With the next election seen as unwinnable, a lot of the most prominent potential successors decided against running for the job, but even so it was still a major shock to the country when Laurin Liu won the leadership election in the first round. Only 33 years old and an MP since the 2015 election, Liu optimistic message of change appealed to the NDP selectorate and intrigued the general public who wondered how someone so young could rise to such a position so fast. As the campaign kicked into gear Liu proved to be a significant asset to on the campaign trail as her personal ratings soon eclipsed Couillard's and Laurinmania seemed to grip the nation. Meanwhile on the Liberal Conservative side, a series of tactical misteps, gaffes and even an ad which was interpreted as levelling racially tinged attacks on Liu, gave the impression that the previously so well-oiled campaign machine had broken down. Even so, few people thought that Liu had a chance of winning, this campaign was seen by many as a stepping stone to win the next election. Therefore it came as a huge surprise on election night as seat after seat fell to the NDP and it soon became a fact that Canada had not only elected its first Asian-Canadian Prime Minister, but also its youngest Prime Minister in history. But how she will perform once in office, that still remains to be seen.