Ernest C. Manning led the Social Credit Party to its ninth consecutive majority government, winning 55 of the 65 seats in the legislature, despite getting less than 45% of the popular vote. This proved to be an ominous sign for the party; it had not won less than half the popular vote since 1955. Despite losing close to half of the share of the popular vote they had won in the 1963 election, the Liberals managed to increase their number of seats from two to three as a result of the decline in the Social Credit vote.