Canada’s 1962 federal election unfolds against a backdrop of economic unease, rising unemployment, and growing dissatisfaction with the leadership of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. After his historic landslide in 1958, Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservatives now face a restive electorate uneasy with the government’s economic management, tensions with the United States, and internal party divisions. Liberal leader Lester B. Pearson hopes to capitalize on that discontent, offering promises of stability, improved U.S. relations, and renewed economic confidence. Meanwhile, the newly formed New Democratic Party, under the leadership of Tommy Douglas, is contesting its first federal election, aiming to bring social democratic policies to the national stage. In Western Canada and Quebec, the resurgent Social Credit Party, led by Robert N. Thompson, seeks to re-establish itself as a force in Parliament with its populist economic platform. With Cold War anxieties in the air and Canadians increasingly uncertain about the country’s direction, the 1962 election promises a turbulent and a close one.