understand weather patterns better, they could help
prepare for future extreme events.
Examining tree rings in the American Southwest
and Peru, scientists were able to trace the four-year
El Niño cycle of drought and abundant moisture
and pinpoint several peak events, indicating that the
cycle had been operating for at least a thousand
years and that storms and floods like those of 1982-
1983 can be expected to recur irregularly in the fu-
ture. Cyclical natural disasters leave characteristic
signatures, which trained surveyors can read if they
know what to look for. The information thus gath-
ered on El Niño was incorporated into building
codes, enabling both private and public planners to
avoid the highest-risk designs and locations for their
structures.
Further Reading
Canby, Thomas Y. “El Niño’s Ill Wind.”National Geo-
graphic 165, no. 2 (February, 1984): 144-183.
Spectacular photographs of a global disaster; clear
explanation of the associated overall climate pat-
tern.
D’Aleo, Joseph S., and Pamela G. Grube.Or yx Re-
source Guide to El Niño and La Niña.Westport,
Conn.: Oryx Press, 2002. Comparisons of the
1982 event with a subsequent event in 1997; pro-
vides worldwide coverage of the effects of each.
Glynn, P. W., ed.Global Ecological Consequences of the
1982-83 El Niño-Southern Oscillation. New York:
Elsevier, 1990. Collection of scholarly papers that
emphasizes destruction of coral reefs and impact
on fisheries.
Philander, S. George.Our Affair with El Niño: How We
Transformed an Enchanting Peruvian Current into a
Global Climate Hazard. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 2004. Traces the historical devel-
opment of understanding of El Niño; sociological
in approach.
Ramage, Colin. “El Niño.”Scientific American254, no.
6 (June, 1986): 76-84. Emphasizes the meteoro-
logical and oceanographic aspects of El Niño.
Martha A. Sherwood
See also Natural disasters; Science and technology.
Elections in Canada
The Event Canadian politicians run for office
Date February 18, 1980; September 4, 1984; and
November 21, 1988
Three Canadian federal elections in the 1980’s distinc-
tively and dramatically affected Canada, particularly in
terms of its relationship with the United States.
The Canadian election of 1980 brought Pierre Tru-
deau and his Liberal Party back to power after sev-
eral months in opposition. The 1984 election would
see the Liberals, then under the leadership of John
Turner, decisively defeated by the Progressive Con-
servative Party and its leader, Brian Mulroney.
Mulroney and the Conservatives would win a second
victory in 1988 in an election fought over the issue of
free trade with the United States.
The Election of 1980 In December, 1979, the gov-
ernment of Prime Minister Joe Clark lost a vote of no
confidence in Parliament and was forced to call an
election for the following February. The election
quickly became a referendum on the competency of
the Clark government, which had experienced a se-
ries of gaffes during its short tenure in power. Some
44 percent of voters opted for the Liberals, includ-
ing 68 percent of voters in the province of Quebec,
where the Liberals won seventy-four of seventy-five
seats, enabling them to return Trudeau to the office
of prime minister with a majority government.
The Election of 1984 The Liberals’ victory was soon
overshadowed by high unemployment and infla-
tion, spiraling government debt, and federal gov-
ernment policies—principally the National Energy
Program (NEP)—that increasingly alienated west-
ern Canada. In February, 1984, Trudeau announced
his retirement. His replacement was John Turner,
who had been out of political office for a number of
years while he awaited the end of Trudeau’s career.
Turner’s political rustiness soon showed in a series
of mistakes. More crucial, before leaving office Tru-
deau made a series of patronage appointments to re-
ward Liberals. Turner found himself having to de-
fend these appointments, along with the Liberals’
economic record, as he called an election for Sep-
tember 4, 1984. Electoral momentum soon swung to
his chief opponents, the Progressive Conservatives
under the leadership of a businessman from Que-
bec, Brian Mulroney, who campaigned on a plat-The Eighties in America Elections in Canada 317