Canada - April 2024

On 28 April, Canada held its 45th General Election. With 43.7 per cent of the vote, the Liberal Party will remain in government, though it fell short (by three seats) of the 172 seats required for a majority. Mark Carney will continue as Prime Minister. The Conservative Party won 41.3 per cent of the vote and 143 seats in the House of Commons. The leaders of the Conservative and New Democratic Parties lost their seats. Preliminary estimates show that turnout was 68.7 per cent (an increase from the 62.5 per cent in 2021), the highest in over 30 years.

Women’s representation in the House of Commons remained essentially unchanged, at 30.0 per cent. The representation of Indigenous people in the House of Commons remains low at 12 MPs (3.3 per cent). However, the proportion of minority lawmakers experienced a modest increase of about 2.6 percentage points (now estimated at 18.1 per cent).

Sources:  Elections Canada, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, British Broadcasting Corporation, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network

Voter turnout for the 45th General Election held on 28 April was the highest in 32 years (in 1993 turnout reached 69.6 per cent). Over 19.5 million people voted in the 2025 federal election, representing about 68.7 per cent of eligible voters in Canada. Advanced voting also saw high turnout numbers, with about 2 million people casting their ballots in the first day of advanced voting alone, and 7.2 million in total voting early over four days (a record, and a 25.0 per cent increase from the 5.8 million people who voted early in 2021, according to Elections Canada).

Sources:  Elections Canada, CTV News, CBC, The Guardian