26th Canadian Parliament

26th Canadian Parliament
Minority parliament
May. 16, 1963 – Sep. 8, 1965
Parliament leaders
Prime minister	Lester B. Pearson Apr. 22, 1963 – Apr. 20, 1968
Cabinet	19th Canadian Ministry
Leader of the Opposition	John Diefenbaker April 22, 1963 – September 8, 1967
Party caucuses
Government	Liberal Party
Opposition	Progressive Conservative Party
Recognized	Social Credit Party
	New Democratic Party
House of Commons
Seating arrangements of the House of Commons
Speaker of the Commons	Alan Macnaughton May 16, 1963 – January 17, 1966
Government House leader	Jack Pickersgill May 16, 1963 – December 21, 1963
	Guy Favreau February 18, 1964 – October 30, 1964
	George McIlraith October 30, 1964 – May 3, 1967
Opposition House leader	Gordon Churchill May 16, 1963 – April 22, 1965
	Michael Starr April 22, 1965 – April 23, 1968
Members	265 MP seats List of members
Senate
Speaker of the Senate	Maurice Bourget April 27, 1963 – January 6, 1966
Government Senate leader	William Ross Macdonald April 22, 1963 – February 3, 1964
	John Joseph Connolly February 3, 1964 – April 20, 1968
Opposition Senate leader	Alfred Johnson Brooks April 22, 1963 – October 31, 1967
Senators	102 senator seats List of senators
Sovereign
Monarch	Elizabeth II February 6, 1952 – September 8, 2022
Governor general	Georges Vanier 15 September 1959 – 5 March 1967
Sessions
1st session May 16, 1963 – December 21, 1963
2nd session February 18, 1964 – April 3, 1965
3rd session April 5, 1965 – September 8, 1965
← 25th → 27th

The 26th Canadian Parliament was in session from May 16, 1963, until September 8, 1965. The membership was set by the 1963 federal election on April 8, 1963, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1965 election. Most of the MPs were elected as the single member for their district. Two represented Queen's (PEI) and two represented Halifax.

There were three sessions of the 26th Parliament:

The 26th Parliament was controlled by a Liberal Party minority under Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and the 19th Canadian Ministry. The Official Opposition was the Progressive Conservative Party, led by John Diefenbaker.

The Speaker was Alan Macnaughton. See also List of Canadian electoral districts 1952-1966 for a list of the ridings in this parliament.

Three by-elections were held over the course of the 26th Canadian Parliament, only the first of which resulted in a change to the party standings in the House of Commons.

Number of members per party		Party leader	General Election	Party Split	By-elections			Floor-crossing
			Apr. 8, 1963	Sep. 1, 1963	Feb. 10, 1964	Jun. 22, 1964	Nov. 9, 1964	Apr. 23, 1965
	Liberal	Lester Pearson	128
	Progressive Conservative	John Diefenbaker	95				1	2
	Social Credit	R.N. Thompson	24	13				2
	Ralliement créditiste	Réal Caouette		13
	NDP	Tommy Douglas	17				1
	Liberal-Labour		1
	Total Seats		265

Pearson's government established a Canadian royal commission on 19 July 1963 to "inquire into and report upon the existing state of bilingualism and biculturalism in Canada and to recommend what steps should be taken to develop the Canadian Confederation on the basis of an equal partnership between the two founding races, taking into account the contribution made by the other ethnic groups to the cultural enrichment of Canada and the measures that should be taken to safeguard that contribution".

The commission was jointly chaired by André Laurendeau, publisher of Le Devoir, and Davidson Dunton, president of Carleton University. As a result, it was sometimes known as the Laurendeau-Dunton commission. The Commission recommended sweeping changes when its final report was published, in five parts, 1967–1970, after a report of preliminary findings, February 1965. Among other things, it reported that Francophones were underrepresented in the nation's political and business communities. 1961 statistics of the salaries of Quebec men based on ethnic origin revealed that French Canadian incomes lagged behind all other ethnic groups, with the exception of Italian Canadians and aboriginal Canadians.

The recommendations included the following:

• That bilingual districts be created in regions of Canada where members of the minority community, either French or English, made up 10% or more of the local population.
• That parents be able to have their children attend schools in the language of their choice in regions where there is sufficient demand.
• That Ottawa become a bilingual city.
• That English and French be declared official languages of Canada.

in 1964, Jean Chrétien submitted a private member's bill to change the name of the airline from Trans-Canada Airlines to Air Canada, which TCA had long used as its French-language name. This bill failed but it was later resubmitted and passed, with the name change taking effect on 1 January 1965.

Social insurance numbers were created and issued in April 1964 by an order-in-council, to serve as a client account number in the administration of the Canada Pension Plan and Canada's varied employment insurance programs.^[1]

Pearson and Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Canada–United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in January 1965, and unemployment fell to its lowest rate in over a decade.

On June 15, 1964, Pearson opened a parliamentary discussion on establishing a unique flag for Canada to replace the Union Jack with the following resolution:

… to establish officially as the flag of Canada a flag embodying the emblem proclaimed by His Majesty King George V on November 21, 1921 — three maple leaves conjoined on one stem — in the colours red and white then designated for Canada, the red leaves occupying a field of white between vertical sections of blue on the edges of the flag.

The main opponent to a new flag was John Diefenbaker, leader of the opposition and former prime minister. He eventually made the subject a personal crusade,^[2] going so far as to mount a filibuster. A seemingly endless debate about the matter raged on in Parliament and the press with no side giving quarter. Pearson forced members of Parliament to stay through the summer of 1964, but the measure did not resolve the issue.

On September 10, 1964, Pearson formed a committee to resolve the ongoing debate. Out of three choices, the maple leaf design by Mount Allison University historian George Stanley, based on the flag of the Royal Military College of Canada, was selected. The flag officially appeared on February 15, 1965; the date is now celebrated annually as National Flag of Canada Day.

The Canadian Pension Plan was established by parliament in 1965. The bill was introduced by Pearson's minority government and was passed with the support of Tommy Douglas' New Democratic Party.

The Canadian Pension plan bill had its first reading on November 9, 1964, second reading on November 18, 1964, and was passed on its third reading on March 29, 1964. It was subsequently passed by the Senate on April 2, 1965, and receive Royal Ascent the following day.

A white paper was tabled in the Parliament of Canada on 26 March 1964 by the Minister of National Defence, Paul Hellyer, and the Associate Minister of National Defence, Lucien Cardin. This document outlined a major restructuring of the three separate armed services, describing a reorganization that would include the integration of operations, logistics support, personnel, and administration of the separate branches under a functional command system. The proposal met with strong opposition from personnel in all three services, and resulted in the dismissal of the navy's senior operational commander, Rear Admiral William Landymore, as well as the forced retirements of other senior officers in the nation's military forces. The protests of service personnel and their superiors had no effect, however, and during the 27th Parliament, on 1 February 1968, Bill C-243, The Canadian Forces Reorganization Act, was granted royal assent, and the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army, and the Royal Canadian Air Force were combined into one service: the Canadian Armed Forces.

With Denmark, Ireland and Finland, Canada was one of the four original contributors of troops to UNFICYP, committed by the Pearson's government on 12 March 1964.

On July 28, 1964, the Canada Student Loans Act was given royal assent, implementing a program of "guaranteed Canada Student Loans" which could be provided by financial institutions.^[3]

Publicly funded healthcare had been a campaign promise of New Democratic Party leader Tommy Douglas during his run for premiere of Saskatchewan in 1960. The Saskatchewan NDP won a majority government and passed public healthcare legislation within the year. Douglas resigned from his position as premier to take up the leadership of the federal NDP, and his successor Woodrow Stanley Lloyd implement the healthcare program despite strong opposition from the province's doctors. These event's brought the public healthcare discussion to the national stage.^[4]

The Royal Commission on Health Services (often called the Hall Commission), which had been instigated by Diefenbaker's government on June 20, 1961, to investigate the medical needs of Canada, released its first report on June 19, 1964, and its second on December 7, 1964. These reports called for federal funding for a national healthcare plan. This aligned well with Pearson's campaign promise to implement a national healthcare plan during the 1963 election. The Pearson government would work toward implementing healthcare, passing the Medical Care Act, 1966 during the 27th Parliament with the support of the New Democratic Party, though the act did not come into effect until July 1, 1968.^[5][6]

Source:^[7]

Source:^[8]

Source:^[9]

Following is a full list of members of the twenty-sixth Parliament listed first by province or territory, then by electoral district.

Key:

• Party leaders are italicized.
• Parliamentary secretaries is indicated by "‡".
• Cabinet ministers are in boldface.
• The Prime Minister is both.
• The Speaker is indicated by "(†)".

Electoral districts denoted by an asterisk (*) indicates that district was represented by two members.

The 19th Canadian Ministry began at the beginning of the 26th Canadian Parliament and lasted until near the end of the 27th Canadian Parliament.

in 1963, 13 of Social Credit party's 20 Quebec MPs split off to form a new party named Ralliement des créditistes, later renamed to Ralliement créditiste in 1967. This left the Social Credit party with 11 total MPs.

On April 23, 1964, two further Social Credit MPs left the party to sit as Progressive Conservatives.^[12] This left the Social Credit party with only 9 MPs.

• Government of Canada. "19th Ministry". Guide to Canadian Ministries since Confederation. Privy Council Office. Archived from the original on December 28, 2005. Retrieved November 9, 2006.
• Government of Canada. "26th Parliament". Members of the House of Commons: 1867 to Date: By Parliament. Library of Parliament. Archived from the original on December 20, 2006. Retrieved November 30, 2006.
• Government of Canada. "Duration of Sessions". Library of Parliament. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2006.
• Government of Canada. "General Elections". Library of Parliament. Archived from the original on May 4, 2006. Retrieved May 12, 2006.
• Government of Canada. "Key Dates for each Parliament". Library of Parliament. Archived from the original on September 14, 2005. Retrieved May 12, 2006.
• Government of Canada. "Leaders of the Opposition in the House of Commons". Library of Parliament. Archived from the original on March 11, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2006.
• Government of Canada. "Prime Ministers of Canada". Library of Parliament. Archived from the original on April 27, 2006. Retrieved May 12, 2006.
• Government of Canada. "Speakers". Library of Parliament. Archived from the original on September 17, 2006. Retrieved May 12, 2006.