2025 Canadian federal election

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.

2025 Canadian federal election

← 2021 April 28, 2025 (2025-4-28)
← outgoing members
343 seats in the House of Commons 172 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Leader Mark Carney Pierre Poilievre Yves-François Blanchet Party Liberal Conservative Bloc Québécois Leader since March 9, 2025 September 10, 2022 January 17, 2019 Leader's seat Running in Nepean Carleton Beloeil—Chambly Last election 160[a] seats, 32.62% 119 seats, 33.74% 32 seats, 7.64% Current seats 152 120 33 Seats needed 20 52 N/A[b]   Leader Jagmeet Singh Elizabeth May & Jonathan Pedneault Maxime Bernier Party New Democratic Green People's Leader since October 1, 2017 November 19, 2022 / February 4, 2025 September 14, 2018 Leader's seat Burnaby South Running in Burnaby Central[c] Saanich—Gulf Islands / Running in Outremont Running in Beauce Last election 25 seats, 17.82% 2 seats, 2.33% 0 seats, 4.94% Current seats 24 2 0 Seats needed 148 170 172
New electoral districts to be used for this election
Incumbent Prime Minister Mark Carney Liberal

This will be the first election to use a new 343-seat electoral map based on the 2021 Canadian census.

Background

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

Main articles: 2024–2025 Canadian political crisis and 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election

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 prime minister after the party elects 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

See also: Electoral Participation Act § Movement of fixed election date

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 generaldissolves 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

See also: List of federal political parties in Canada

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	32.62%	160 / 338	152 / 338
	Conservative	Conservatism Social conservatism Economic liberalism	Centre-right to right-wing	Pierre Poilievre	33.74%	119 / 338	120 / 338
	Bloc Québécois	Quebec nationalism Quebec sovereigntism Social democracy	Centre-left	Yves-François Blanchet	7.64%	32 / 338	33 / 338
	New Democratic	Social democracy	Centre-left to left-wing	Jagmeet Singh	17.82%	25 / 338	24 / 338
	Green	Green politics		Elizabeth May & Jonathan Pedneault	2.33%	2 / 338	2 / 338
	People's	Right-wing populism Canadian nationalism Conservatism	Right-wing to far-right	Maxime Bernier	4.94%	0 / 338	0 / 338
	Independents	N/A			0.19%	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

Main article: 2022 Canadian federal electoral redistribution

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]

2021 results transposed onto 2023 boundaries

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

Main article: List of MPs who stood down at the 2025 Canadian federal election

As of March 2025^[update], 59 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]}

Number of MPs retiring by party affiliation

Party		MPs retiring
		2021 election[d]	Current
	Liberal	39	37
	Conservative	13	12
	New Democratic	4	4
	Bloc Québécois	4	4
	Independent	0	3
Total		59	59

Timeline

See also: 44th Canadian Parliament and By-elections to the 44th Canadian Parliament

Changes in seats held (2021–2025)

Seat	Before			Change
	Date	Member	Party	Reason	Date	Member	Party
Spadina—Fort York	November 22, 2021	Kevin Vuong	█ Liberal	Excluded from caucus[37]			█ Independent
Mississauga—Lakeshore	May 27, 2022	Sven Spengemann	█ Liberal	Resigned to accept a position with the United Nations[38][39]	December 12, 2022[40]	Charles Sousa	█ Liberal
Richmond—Arthabaska	September 13, 2022	Alain Rayes	█ Conservative	Left caucus[41]			█ Independent
Winnipeg South Centre	December 12, 2022	Jim Carr	█ Liberal	Died in office[42]	June 19, 2023	Ben Carr	█ Liberal
Calgary Heritage	December 31, 2022	Bob Benzen	█ Conservative	Resigned to return to the private sector[43]	July 24, 2023	Shuvaloy Majumdar	█ Conservative
Oxford	January 28, 2023	Dave MacKenzie	█ Conservative	Retired[44]	June 19, 2023	Arpan Khanna	█ Conservative
Portage—Lisgar	February 28, 2023	Candice Bergen	█ Conservative	Resigned[45]	June 19, 2023	Branden Leslie	█ Conservative
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount	March 8, 2023	Marc Garneau	█ Liberal	Retired[46]	June 19, 2023	Anna Gainey	█ Liberal
Don Valley North	March 22, 2023	Han Dong	█ Liberal	Left caucus[47]			█ Independent
Durham	August 1, 2023	Erin O'Toole	█ Conservative	Resigned	March 4, 2024	Jamil Jivani	█ Conservative
Toronto—St. Paul's	January 16, 2024	Carolyn Bennett	█ Liberal	Resigned to become ambassador of Canada to Denmark[48]	June 24, 2024	Don Stewart	█ Conservative
LaSalle—Émard—Verdun	February 1, 2024	David Lametti	█ Liberal	Resigned to join law firm[49]	September 16, 2024	Louis-Philippe Sauvé	█ Bloc Québécois
Elmwood—Transcona	March 31, 2024	Daniel Blaikie	█ New Democratic	Resigned to work with Premier of Manitoba Wab Kinew[50]	September 16, 2024	Leila Dance	█ New Democratic
Cloverdale—Langley City	May 27, 2024	John Aldag	█ Liberal	Resigned to run as the BC NDP candidate for Langley-Abbotsford in the 2024 British Columbia general election[51]	December 16, 2024	Tamara Jansen	█ Conservative
Halifax	August 31, 2024	Andy Fillmore	█ Liberal	Resigned to run for the mayoralty of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the 2024 Halifax municipal election	April 14, 2025 (cancelled)		█ Vacant
Honoré-Mercier	September 19, 2024	Pablo Rodriguez	█ Liberal	Left caucus			█ Independent
Honoré-Mercier	January 20, 2025	Pablo Rodriguez	█ Independent	Resigned to run for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party, in the 2025 Quebec Liberal Party leadership election	Vacant seat until the 2025 federal election		█ Vacant
Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke	January 30, 2025	Randall Garrison	█ New Democratic	Resigned	Vacant seat until the 2025 federal election		█ Vacant
Eglinton—Lawrence	March 14, 2025	Marco Mendicino	█ Liberal	Resigned to become Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister	Vacant seat until the 2025 federal election		█ Vacant

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]

Campaign

Party slogans

Party	English	French	Translation (unofficial)	Ref.
█ Liberal	"Canada Strong"	"Un Canada fort"	"A strong Canada"	[85]
█ Conservative	"Canada First – for a Change"	"Le Canada d'abord – pour faire changement"	"Canada First – to make a Change"	[86]
█ Bloc Québécois	—	"Je choisis le Québec"	"I choose Québec"	[87]
█ New Democratic	"In it for you"	"Du cœur au ventre"	"From the heart to the stomach" or "To be brave"	[88]
█ Green	"Change, Vote for it."	"Votez pour du changement"	"Vote for change"	[89]
█ People's

Policy platforms

Party	Economy	Housing	Environment	Immigration	Foreign affairs
█ Liberal	Reduce lowest income tax bracket from 15% to 14%[90] Introduce an industrial carbon tax on big industries like the steel industry[91]	Eliminate the GST on new home purchases under $1-million for first-time home buyers[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[92]	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]
█ Green
█ People's					Cut foreign aid spending[99]

Other issues

Conservative

Poilievre opposes re-establishing the long-gun registry, and opposes the May 1, 2020 Order in Council ban on firearms.^[100] Poilievre also supports animal hunting; standing against the attempted to ban and seize the hunting rifles and shotguns of millions of Canadians.^[101] Poilievre is pro-choice on abortion,^[102] and says a government led by him will not bring forward and will not pass laws to restrict abortion, but he will allow his party to have free votes on legislation.^[103] Poilievre plans to repeal Bill C-11 and the successor to Bill C-36, describing them as censorship.^{[104][105][106]}

Poilievre also calls for the end of federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates and COVID-19 mask mandates and claims that they are based on "political science" for being enforced federally in provinces with no provincial mandates.^[107] Poilievre calls for the end of vaccine passports^[108] and says he will review and reexamine the Emergencies Act to prevent it from being abused for political purposes.^[109]

According to numerous commentators, including the Toronto Star's Raju Mudhar, Justin Ling speaking on a podcast and writing in the Toronto Star, The Cord's Marina Black and the Toronto Sun's Brian Lilley, Poilievre has espoused conspiracy theories regarding the World Economic Forum for saying that he opposes their proposed "great reset" and for him saying "I'm against their proposals; I'm against their socialist agenda; I'm against the proposals they've made." and because he plans to ban ministers and top government officials from attending the Forum's annual summit.^{[110][111][112][113]}

Endorsements

Endorsements received by each party

Type	Liberal	Conservative	Bloc Québécois	New Democratic	Green	People's
Media
Public figures	Mike Myers[114]
Unions and business associations		International Brotherhood of Boilermakers[115] Independent Contractors and Businesses Association[116] UA Local 67 Canadian Piping Trades		Amalgamated Transit Union[117] Canadian Union of Public Employees[118] United Steelworkers[119]

Leaders' debates

Main article: Canadian leaders' debates § 2025 debates

In its May 2022 report, the Leaders' Debate Commission recommended various improvements for future debates, and that it remain a permanent publicly funded entity to organize leaders' debates.^[120][121] 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.^[122] The Commission will announce invitees on April 1.^[123]

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";^[124] the Green Party was not invited.^[125] After the Liberal Party announced that Carney would not participate, TVA announced the cancellation of the debate.^[126]

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	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	[122][123]
April 17, 2025			English	Steve Paikin	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	[123]

Candidates

Main article: Candidates of the 2025 Canadian federal election

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2025 Canadian federal election

Evolution of voting intentions according to polls conducted during the 2025 Canadian federal election campaign period, graphed from the data in the tables below. Trendlines are 25-poll local regressions, with polls weighted by proximity in time and a logarithmic function of sample size. 95% confidence ribbons represent uncertainty about the trendlines, not the likelihood that actual election results would fall within the intervals.

Evolution of voting intentions according to polls conducted during the pre-campaign period of the 45th Canadian federal election, graphed from the data in the table below. Trendlines are 30-poll local regressions, with polls weighted by proximity in time and a logarithmic function of sample size. 95% confidence ribbons represent uncertainty about the trendlines, not the likelihood that actual election results would fall within the intervals.

See also

• List of Canadian federal general elections

Notes

1. 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.
2. Though parties registered with Elections Canada can field candidates in any riding they wish, the Bloc Québécois has never fielded candidates outside of Quebec (78 seats), thus rendering it impossible for the party to gain a majority in Parliament.
3. 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.
4. Party affiliation of retiring MPs at the time of the 2021 federal election
5. Despite having two co-leaders, the Greens chose Pedneault to represent them in all debates and interviews.^[127]