Alberta general election, 1979

← 1975

March 14, 1979 (1979-03-14)

1982 →

79 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
40 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	Peter Lougheed	Robert C. Clark	Grant Notley
Party	Progressive Conservative	Social Credit	New Democratic
Leader since	1965	1975	1968
Leader's seat	Calgary-West	Olds-Didsbury	Spirit River-Fairview
Last election	69 seats, 62.7%	4 seats, 18.2%	1 seat, 12.9%
Seats before	69	4	1
Seats won	74	4	1
Seat change	5	±0	±0
Popular vote	408,097	141,284	111,984
Percentage	57.4%	19.9%	15.8%
Swing	5.3%	1.7%	2.9%

Premier before election

Peter Lougheed
Progressive Conservative

Premier-designate

Peter Lougheed
Progressive Conservative

The Alberta general election of 1979 was the nineteenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on March 14, 1979 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, which had been expanded to 79 seats.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Peter Lougheed won its third consecutive term in government. During the campaign, some Progressive Conservatives spoke of winning "79 in '79", i.e., all 79 seats in the legislature. This harkened back to Social Credit's unofficial slogan from the 1963 election, "63 in '63". The Tories came up short of this goal, and actually lost over five percentage points of the popular vote. Nonetheless, they still won an overwhelming majority, with 74 seats.

Social Credit held on to the four seats they had won in the 1975 election, and formed the official opposition in the legislature. Grant Notley, leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party, was the only other opposition member.

Notes:
¹ Percent compared to Independent Progressive Conservative during the 1975 Election.
^* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

For complete electoral history, see individual districts.

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