Parliamentary Elections, 28 April 2025

Canada held an early federal parliamentary election on 28 April 2025 to elect members of the House of Commons. The election was conducted by Elections Canada following the issuance of writs by Governor General Mary Simon on 23 March, after Prime Minister Mark Carney advised the dissolution of Parliament in light of tense trade relations and other geopolitical pressures from the US (DW 2025; Le Monde/AFP 2025).

The election was conducted under the first-past-the-post system, with 343 seats contested; an increase from 338 seats (Elections Canada 2025). This change resulted from an electoral redistribution process initiated after the 2021 Canadian census to better reflect population growth and demographic shifts (Government of Canada 2024).

Elections Canada reported several instances where special ballots, which allow electors to vote by mail, were excluded from the vote count due to management malfunctions. Over 1000 special ballots failed to be included in the official vote count as a result of human error. However, the final results within the concerned districts would not have been affected (Elections Canada 2025). In the electoral district of Terrebonne, Québec, at least one special ballot was returned to the voter after the election, because the return address on the envelope provided by Elections Canada was incorrect. This resulted in a contested election where the winner and runner-up in were ultimately only separated by a single vote (Elections Canada 2025, Olson 2025).

The campaign period was marked by high polarization—including along gender lines (Akbar 2025)—with the Liberal and Conservative parties dominating the political landscape. Key issues included the cost of living, rising crime rates, and US–Canada relations—particularly escalating tensions over tariffs and President Donald Trump’s remarks about Canada’s sovereignty (Yousif 2025).

Disinformation narratives and AI-generated faked images featured in the campaign period, targeting individual candidates and the electoral process itself. Women and minority candidates were especially targeted, for instance in a coordinated disinformation campaign against candidate Chrystia Freeland (Government of Canada 2025; ODIHR 2025). Disinformation is thought to have been initiated or sponsored by foreign governments (including Russia and China) as well as extremist influencers in the US (Disinfowatch 2025; DFRLab 2025). An enquiry into foreign information manipulation and interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections had concluded in January 2025 (Disinfowatch 2025; DFRLab 2025) and the electoral management body updated guidance for voters in February (Elections Canada 2025). 

The Liberal Party, led by Mark Carney, secured a minority government with 169 seats, just three seats short of the 172 required for a majority (Walker 2025). The Conservative Party won 144 seats, although its leader Pierre Poilievre lost his own seat (Walker 2025). The New Democratic Party (NDP) experienced its worst electoral performance, winning only seven seats and losing official party status (Walker 2025). Voter turnout was 68.70 per cent, a significant increase from 62.25 per cent in 2021 (International IDEA n.d.) and the highest turnout since 1993.