Editing Louis St. Laurent (section)

==== Results ====
By 1957 St. Laurent was 75 years old and tired. His party had been in power for 22 years, and by this time had accumulated too many factions and alienated too many groups. He was ready to retire, but was persuaded to fight one last campaign.<ref>{{cite book|first=Patricia I.|last=McMahon|title=Essence of Indecision: Diefenbaker's Nuclear Policy, 1957–1963|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7aSZmApwF2IC&pg=PA7|year=2009|publisher=MQUP|pages=7|isbn=9780773583351}}</ref> In the [[1957 Canadian federal election|1957 election]], the Liberals won 200,000 more votes nationwide than the Progressive Conservatives (40.75% Liberals to 38.81% PC). However, a large portion of that overall Liberal popular vote came from huge majorities in Quebec ridings, and did not translate into seats in other parts of the country. Largely due to dominating the rest of the country, the Progressive Conservatives took the greatest number of seats with 112 seats (42% of the House) to the Liberals' 105 (39.2%). The result of the election came as a shock to many, and is considered to be one of the greatest [[upset victory|upsets]] in Canadian federal political history.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bradburn |first1=Jamie |title=How arrogance cost the Liberals the 1957 election |url=https://www.tvo.org/article/how-arrogance-cost-the-liberals-the-1957-election |website=TVO |access-date=8 October 2021 |date=7 October 2019 |quote=The Liberals were confident they would emerge victorious in the 1957 federal contest. But, thanks to Louis St. Laurent’s stumbles and John Diefenbaker’s vision, they were headed for an election upset}}</ref>

Some ministers wanted St. Laurent to stay on and offer to form a minority government, arguing that the popular vote had supported them and the party's long years of experience would make them a more effective minority. Another option circulated within the party saw the balance of power to be held by either the [[Co-operative Commonwealth Federation]] (CCF) and their 25 seats or [[Social Credit Party of Canada]] with their 15 seats. St. Laurent was encouraged by others to reach out to the CCF and at least four of six independent/small party MPs to form a coalition majority government, which would have held 134 of the 265 seats in Parliament—50.6% of the total. St. Laurent, however, had no desire to stay in office; he believed that the nation had passed a verdict against his government and his party. In any case, the CCF and Socreds had pledged to cooperate with a Tory government. It was very likely that St. Laurent would have been defeated on the floor of the House had he tried to stay in power with a minority government, and would not have stayed in office for long even if he survived that confidence vote. With this in mind, St. Laurent resigned on 21 June 1957—ending the longest uninterrupted run in government for a party at the federal level in Canadian history.<ref>{{cite book|author=McMahon|title=Essence of Indecision: Diefenbaker's Nuclear Policy, 1957–1963|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7aSZmApwF2IC&pg=PA8|year=2009|page=8|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |isbn=9780773583351}}</ref>