Editing Pierre Trudeau (section)

=== Defeat in 1979 ===
As the 1970s wore on, growing public exhaustion towards Trudeau's personality and the country's constitutional debates caused his poll numbers to fall rapidly in the late 1970s.{{sfn|Gwyn (1980)|p=325}} At the [[1978 G7 summit]], he discussed strategies for the upcoming election with West German Chancellor [[Helmut Schmidt]], who advised him to announce several spending cuts to quell criticism of the large deficits his government was running.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Lawrence Martin (journalist) |last1=Martin |first1=Lawrence |title=Chrétien: The Will to Win |location=Toronto |publisher=Lester Publishing |date=1995 |pp=262–264}}</ref>

After a series of by-election defeats in 1978, Trudeau waited as long as he could to call a [[1979 Canadian federal election|general election in 1979]]. He finally did so, only two months from the five-year limit provided under the ''[[Constitution Act, 1867|British North America Act]]''.<ref name="NYT_Kaufman_20000929_Eulogy" /> During the election campaign, the Liberals faced declining poll numbers, while the [[Joe Clark]]–led Progressive Conservatives focused on "pocketbook" issues. To contrast Trudeau's image with that of the mild-mannered Clark, Trudeau and his advisors based their campaign on Trudeau's decisive personality and his grasp of the Constitution file, despite the general public's apparent wariness of both. The traditional Liberal rally at [[Maple Leaf Gardens]] saw Trudeau stressing the importance of major constitutional reform to general ennui, and his campaign "photo-ops" were typically surrounded by picket lines and protesters. Though polls portended disaster, Clark's struggles justifying his party's populist platform and a strong Trudeau performance in the election debate helped bring the Liberals to a near statistical ties in [[Opinion polling for the 1979 Canadian federal election|opinion polls]].{{sfn|English (2009)|loc=chpt. 13}}

Although the Liberal Party won the popular vote by four points, its vote was concentrated in Quebec and faltered in industrial Ontario. This allowed the PCs to win a plurality of the seats in the House of Commons and form a minority government.