riding. After his election loss, Diefenbaker was a delegate to the 1927 Conservative convention which chose R.B. Bennett as leader of the party. He also campaigned for the party in the 1935 election. Diefenbaker was also very active, but unsuccessful, in provincial politics. He stood for election in the provincial election of 1929, but was defeated. In 1933 he was elected vice-president of the Saskatchewan Conservative Party. After the Conservatives were wiped out in the provincial election of 1934, he became the acting president of the party. In 1936, at the leadership convention, he was acclaimed as the leader of the party. He led the party in the provincial election of 1938, running in the constituency of Arm River, but he and the party were both defeated. No Conservatives were elected to the Legislative Assembly and the party earned only 12% of the provincial popular vote. At the subsequent party convention four months after the election, Diefenbaker offered his resignation but it was refused. The Conservatives were so decimated by the previous two elections that they had few members or supporters. He remained leader of the party for the next two years. In 1933, he ran for the mayor of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, but was defeated by 48 votes. In 1940, Diefenbaker was elected to the House of Commons, for the riding of Lake Centre. Entering the Commons, he soon showed his leadership aspirations beginning with the Progressive Conservative leadership convention of 1942. Although unsuccessful, he tried again in 1948 and 1956. In 1942 he came in third; in 1948 he came in second; and in 1956 he won the leadership. He would hold the leadership for eleven years, eventually being forced out at the 1967 convention, after the two losses in the general elections of 1963 and 1965. Diefenbaker was elected to the Commons thirteen times (1940, 1945, 1949, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1972, 1974, and 1979), from 1940 until his death shortly after the election of 1979. For eight straight elections (1957, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1972, and 1974), he won majorities even in multi-candidate races. In four of those contests, he won majorities of over 65% (72.1% in 1958, 70.8% in 1962, 71.4% in 1963, and 65.5% in 1965). He served in the House of Commons for a total of 39 years, 4 months, and 21 days. Federal general elections: 1957 to 1965 Diefenbaker