2025 Canadian federal election
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The 2025 Canadian federal election will be held on April 28 to elect members of the House of Commons to the 45th Canadian Parliament. The writs of election were issued on March 23, 2025, after Governor General Mary Simon accepted a request to dissolve parliament from Prime Minister Mark Carney.
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343 seats in the House of Commons 172 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 New electoral districts to be used for this election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This will be the first election to use a new 343-seat electoral map based on the 2021 Canadian census.
Background
Summarize
Perspective
The 2021 Canadian federal election, held on September 20, 2021, saw only minor changes from the preceding 2019 election.[1] The incumbent Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, did not win the popular vote and failed to win enough seats to gain a parliamentary majority, winning only a plurality of seats and retaining its status as a minority government. The Conservatives won the popular vote and continued as the Official Opposition.[2][a] In March 2022, the Liberals struck a deal with the fourth-place New Democratic Party (NDP), where the latter would provide confidence and supply for the duration of the Parliament in exchange for certain policy concessions.[3] The agreement lasted until September 2024, when the NDP terminated the deal.[4]
One week after the election, on September 27, Annamie Paul resigned as the Green Party leader, citing lack of party support.[5] The subsequent leadership election was won by former leader Elizabeth May, who ran on a "joint ticket" with Jonathan Pedneault, proposing a co-leadership model; Pedneault was officially named the deputy leader, pending a change to the party's constitution to allow co-leadership.[6] May and Pedneault formally became co-leaders on February 4, 2025.[7]
On February 2, 2022, Conservative leader Erin O'Toole was removed as leader by a caucus vote.[8] Following a leadership election, Pierre Poilievre was elected the new leader of the Conservative Party.[9]
Government transition
The government was plunged into a political crisis on December 16, 2024 when finance minister Chrystia Freeland abruptly resigned, only hours before she was set to present the government's fall economic statement, due to her opposition to Trudeau's fiscal policy.[10] Trudeau, who had already faced down a caucus revolt in October, was faced with renewed questions about his leadership.[11] By December 22, 21 Liberal MPs had publicly called for Trudeau to step down.[12] On January 6, 2025, Trudeau announced his intention to resign as prime minister after the party elected his successor.[13] The ensuing leadership election was won by Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada.[14] Carney was sworn in as prime minister on March 14.[15]
Date of the election
Under the fixed-date provisions of the Canada Elections Act, which requires federal elections to be held on the third Monday in October in the fourth calendar year after the polling day of the previous election, the election was scheduled to take place on October 20, 2025.[16] However, elections can occur before the scheduled date if the governor general dissolves Parliament on the recommendation of the prime minister, either for a snap election or after the government loses a vote on a supply bill or a specific motion of no confidence.[17]
On March 20, 2024, the government introduced the Electoral Participation Act, which included an amendment to the Canada Elections Act that would have changed the fixed election date to October 27, 2025, to avoid conflicting with Diwali, as well as municipal elections in Alberta.[18][19] The bill died on the order paper when the Parliament of Canada was prorogued by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after he announced his resignation.[20]
On March 23, 2025, after a request from Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Governor General dissolved parliament and called an election for April 28, 2025.[21] This will be the first Canadian federal election under the reign of King Charles III, who acceded to the throne in 2022.
Political parties and standings
The table below lists parties represented in the House of Commons after the 2021 federal election and their current standings. Kevin Vuong, despite being elected as a Liberal, was disavowed by the party too late to alter his affiliation on the ballot and has since sat as an independent.[22]
| Name | Ideology | Position | Leader(s) | 2021 result | Current standing | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | ||||||
| Liberal | Liberalism Social liberalism |
Centre to centre-left | Mark Carney | 160 / 338 |
152 / 338 | ||
| Conservative | Conservatism Social conservatism Economic liberalism |
Centre-right to right-wing | Pierre Poilievre | 119 / 338 |
120 / 338 | ||
| Bloc Québécois | Quebec nationalism Quebec sovereigntism Social democracy |
Centre-left | Yves-François Blanchet | 32 / 338 |
33 / 338 | ||
| New Democratic | Social democracy | Centre-left to left-wing | Jagmeet Singh | 25 / 338 |
24 / 338 | ||
| Green | Green politics | Elizabeth May & Jonathan Pedneault | 2 / 338 |
2 / 338 | |||
| People's | Right-wing populism Canadian nationalism Conservatism |
Right-wing to far-right | Maxime Bernier | 0 / 338 |
0 / 338 | ||
| Independents | N/A | 0 / 338 |
3 / 338 | ||||
| Vacant | N/A | 4 / 338 | |||||
Electoral system
Canada's electoral system, a "first-past-the-post" system, is formally referred to as a single-member plurality system. Voters select a representative nominated for their electoral district (sometimes referred to as a riding), and the candidate with more votes than any other candidate is elected to a seat in the 343-member House of Commons and represents that riding as its member of Parliament (MP). The party that wins the most seats in the House of Commons usually forms government, with that party's leader becoming prime minister. The largest party by seat count that is not the government or part of a governing coalition becomes the Official Opposition. That party receives more finances and privileges than the other opposition parties.[23][24]
An absolute majority of the votes cast in the last election is not needed to form government and is rarely achieved. As well, the government party does not need to obtain a majority of the seats in the House of Commons – and under the current multi-party system, quite often does not achieve that. However, to pass bills, the governing party must have support of a majority of MPs. Without majority support, the government can be defeated, then a new party is named government or an election has to be held.[citation needed]
Redistribution
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( Interactive map version, with notional results shown in clickable points)
This will be the first election contested under the new electoral districts established in the 2022 redistribution. Consequently, media outlets tend to report seat gains and losses as compared to notional results. These are the results if all votes cast in 2021 were unchanged but regrouped by new electoral district boundaries, as published by Elections Canada.[25]
| Party | MPs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 actual result | 2021 notional result | Change | ||
| Liberal | 160 | 157 |  3 | |
| Conservative | 119 | 126 |  7 | |
| Bloc Québécois | 32 | 34 | 2 | |
| New Democratic | 25 | 24 | 1 | |
| Green | 2 | 2 |  | |
| Total seats | 338 | 343 | 5 | |
Incumbents not running for re-election
| Party | MPs retiring | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 election[d] | Current | ||
| Liberal | 40 | 38 | |
| Conservative | 13 | 12 | |
| New Democratic | 4 | 4 | |
| Bloc Québécois | 4 | 4 | |
| Independent | 0 | 3 | |
| Total | 60 | 60 | |
As of April 2025[update], 60 MPs have announced they will not run in the 2025 federal election. One MP lost their party nomination race to run again. One MP had their candidacy revoked by their party and was barred from running under its banner.
Four MPs announced their intention not to stand again, but later resigned from Parliament before the election.[26][27][28][29][30] Five further MPs initially announced their intention to stand down, before changing their minds.[31][32][33][34][35][36]
Timeline
2021
- September 27 – Annamie Paul announced her intent to resign as leader of the Green Party.[52]
- November 10 – Paul formally submitted her resignation and ended her membership in the party.[53] The Green Party accepted her resignation a few days later.[54][55]
- November 15 – Senator Denise Batters launched a petition to review the leadership of Erin O'Toole.[56] Party president Robert Batherson decided the petition was not in order.[56] The following day, Batters was removed from the Conservative caucus.[57]
- November 24 – Amita Kuttner was appointed as Green Party interim leader.[58][59]
- December 5 – The People's Party concluded its leadership review of Maxime Bernier. He was confirmed and continued as leader.[60][61]
2022
- February 2 – Erin O'Toole was removed as the leader of the Conservative Party by a caucus vote.[8] Candice Bergen was selected by the party caucus to serve as interim leader.[62][63]
- March 22 – The Liberal and New Democratic parties reached a confidence and supply agreement, with the NDP agreeing to support the Liberal government until June 2025 in exchange for specific policy commitments.[64]
- May 24 – The 2022 Green Party of Canada leadership election officially began, pursuant to the party's constitution.[65]
- September 10 – The 2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election concluded with Pierre Poilievre being announced as the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.[9]
- November 19 – The 2022 Green Party of Canada leadership election concluded with Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault announced as winners on a "joint ticket". May became leader and Pedneault deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada, pending a change to the party's constitution to allow co-leadership.[6]
2023
- July 26 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau conducted a major cabinet reshuffle.[66]
- September 26 – Anthony Rota announced his intention to resign as Speaker of the House of Commons. Louis Plamondon was nominated to replace Rota on an interim basis.[67]
- October 3 – Liberal MP Greg Fergus was elected speaker of the House of Commons. He was the first person of colour to be elected speaker.[68]
2024
- September 4 – The NDP officially ended their confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals.[69]
- November 20 – Alberta Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault resigned from Cabinet following allegations that he ran a business seeking federal contracts and falsely claimed to be Indigenous.[70]
- December 9 – Trudeau's Liberal government survived a third motion of no confidence, with the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois voting for the motion, and the Liberals, NDP, and Greens opposed.[71]
- December 16 – Chrystia Freeland, the incumbent deputy prime minister and minister of finance, resigned from her position in Justin Trudeau's government prior to the release later that day of the government's fall economic statement due to her opposition to Trudeau's fiscal policy;[72] later that day, she was replaced as Minister of Finance by Dominic LeBlanc, while the position of Deputy Prime Minister remained vacant.[73] Housing minister Sean Fraser also resigned from cabinet the same morning, citing personal reasons.[74]
- December 20 – Trudeau conducted a major cabinet reshuffle. The NDP officially committed to introducing a non-confidence motion against the government. Over 20 Liberal MPs publicly called for Trudeau to resign and over 50 signed a private letter asking him to resign.[75]
2025
- January 6 – Trudeau announced the prorogation of parliament until March 24 that year in addition to his resignation as prime minister and as leader of the Liberal Party, effective upon the election of his successor as party leader in a leadership election.[76]
- February 4 – The Green Party of Canada concluded its co-leadership vote, with Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault re-elected as co-leaders.[7]
- January 15 – Trudeau announced that he will not run in Papineau again.[77]
- February 13 – People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier announced he will run in Beauce again.[78]
- March 3 – Green Party of Canada co-leader Jonathan Pedneault announced he will run in Outremont.[79]
- March 9 – The 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election concluded with Mark Carney being announced as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
- March 14 – Carney was sworn in as the 24th prime minister of Canada, and appointed a new Cabinet, beginning the 30th Canadian Ministry.[80]
- March 20 – Nepean Liberal MP Chandra Arya's nomination is revoked, allegedly due to foreign interference concerns.[81] He had previously been disqualified as a Liberal leadership candidate.[82]
- March 22 – Carney announced that he will run in Nepean.[83]
- March 23 – Carney advised the governor general to dissolve parliament and call a general election for April 28, 2025.[84]
- April 28 – Federal election scheduled to be held.
Campaign
Summarize
Perspective
Party slogans
| Party | English | French | Translation (unofficial) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| █ Liberal | "Canada Strong" |
"Un Canada fort" |
"A strong Canada" |
|
| █ Conservative | "Canada First – for a Change" |
"Le Canada d'abord – pour faire changement" |
"Canada First – to make a Change" |
|
| █ Bloc Québécois | — | "Je choisis le Québec" |
"I choose Québec" |
|
| █ New Democratic | "In it for you" |
"Du cœur au ventre" |
"From the heart to the stomach" or "To be brave" |
|
| █ Green | "Change, Vote for it." |
"Votez pour du changement" |
"Vote for change" |
|
| █ People's |
Policy platforms
| Party | Economy | Housing | Environment | Immigration | Foreign affairs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| █ Liberal | Reduce lowest income tax bracket from 15% to 14%[90] | Eliminate the GST on new home purchases under $1-million for first-time home buyers[91]
Double the number of homes built in Canada annually to nearly 500,000[92] |
|||
| █ Conservative | Reduce lowest income tax bracket from 15% to 12.75%[93]
Increase tax-free savings account annual contribution limit by $5,000, if invested in Canadian businesses[94] |
Eliminate the GST on new home purchases under $1.3-million for all home buyers[91] | Eliminate the carbon tax on industry[95]
Repeal environmental assessment law to fast-track resource projects, like pipelines and mining.[96] |
Grant Quebec the power to select the majority of temporary immigrants under the International Mobility Program[97] | |
| █ Bloc Québécois | |||||
| █ New Democratic | Eliminate the GST on Canadian-made vehicles and require federal agencies to only purchase Canadian vehicles[98] | Use federal Crown land to build more than 100,000 rent-controlled homes over the next 10 years[99] | Retrofit 3.3 million homes in Canada[100] | ||
| █ Green | |||||
| █ People's | Cut foreign aid spending[101] |
Endorsements
| Type | Liberal | Conservative | Bloc Québécois | New Democratic | Green | People's |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media | ||||||
| Public figures | ||||||
| Unions and business associations |
|
|
Leaders' debates
In its May 2022 report, the Leaders' Debates Commission recommended various improvements for future debates, and that it remain a permanent publicly funded entity to organize leaders' debates.[110][111] In October 2024, the Leaders' Debate Commission announced that the English-language debate will be hosted by TVO's Steve Paikin, while the French-language debate will be hosted by Ici RDI's Patrice Roy.[112] On April 1, 2025, the Commission announced that it had invited the leaders of the Bloc Québécois, Conservative Party, Green Party, Liberal Party, and New Democratic Party to the debates.[113][114]
The French-language television network TVA Nouvelles announced plans for their own televised debate, and proposed a charge of CA$75,000 for participants to cover the cost of producing the event. The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois agreed to participate, as did the New Democratic Party while also criticizing the "pay-to-debate model";[115] the Green Party was not invited.[116] After the Liberal Party announced that Carney would not participate, TVA announced the cancellation of the debate.[117]
| 2025 Canadian general election debates | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Organizers | Location | Language | Moderator | P Participant A Absent (invited) I Invited N Not invited TBA To Be Announced | Source | ||||||||||
| Carney | Poilievre | Blanchet | Singh | Pedneault[e] | Bernier | |||||||||||
| April 16, 2025 | Leaders' Debates Commission | Maison de Radio-Canada, Montreal | French | Patrice Roy | I | I | I | I | I | N | [112][113][114] | |||||
| April 17, 2025 | English | Steve Paikin | I | I | I | I | I | N | [113][114] | |||||||
Candidates
Candidate nominations are open until April 7. Elections Canada will publish a list of nominated candidates on April 9.[119]
| Party | Party leader | Seats at dissolution | Nominated candidates | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Mark Carney | 152 | 339 | |
| Conservative | Pierre Poilievre | 120 | 332 | |
| Green | Elizabeth May / Jonathan Pedneault | 2 | 320 | |
| People's | Maxime Bernier | 0 | 299 | |
| New Democratic | Jagmeet Singh | 24 | 247 | |
| Bloc Québécois | Yves-François Blanchet | 33 | 74 | |
| Marxist–Leninist | Anna Di Carlo | 0 | 34 | |
| Communist | Elizabeth Rowley | 0 | 24 | |
| Rhinoceros | Chinook Blais-Leduc | 0 | 19 | |
| Christian Heritage | Rod Taylor | 0 | 19 | |
| Libertarian | Jacques Boudreau | 0 | 18 | |
| Canadian Future | Dominic Cardy | 0 | 10 | |
| Animal Protection | Liz White | 0 | 7 | |
| Centrist | A. Q. Rana | 0 | 7 | |
| Marijuana | Blair Longley | 0 | 4 | |
| United | Grant Abraham | 0 | 3 | |
| Source: Canadian Elections Tracker[120] | ||||
Opinion polls
See also
Notes
- While formal results showed the Liberals winning or leading in 160 seats, those totals include Kevin Vuong, who was disavowed during the campaign by his party, and sat as an Independent in the House of Commons from 2021 to 2025.
- Burnaby South was dissolved during the 2022 Canadian federal electoral redistribution; Singh is seeking re-election in Burnaby Central, which encompasses much of the same territory.
- Despite having two co-leaders, the Greens chose Pedneault to represent them in all debates and interviews.[118]
References
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