List of federal general elections in Canada

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Canada holds general elections, colloquially referred to as federal elections since the 1940s (and as dominion elections from 1867 to the 1940s), for the purpose of determining the political leadership of its national government, the Government of Canada (or the "federal government"), through democratic means. The last general election was held in April 2025, through which the incumbent Liberal government led by new party leader Mark Carney was re-elected with a minority mandate.

This article provides a summary of results for Canadian general elections that has taken place since the nation was formed (via confederation) in 1867. Upon the call of such a general election, all seats in the Canadian House of Commons are vacated and contested in local elections to determine its new representative known as a member of Parliament (MP). As of the election held in 2025, there are 343 MPs in Canada.

Electoral system

Like other Westminster-style parliamentary governments, Canadian voters exercise their democratic franchise indirectly by electing local representatives, known as Members of Parliament (MPs), to the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of Canada, via plurality voting (or the first-past-the-post system). All Canadian citizens age eighteen or above are entitled to vote in elections held for the electoral district they reside in. The head of the Canadian federal government, the Prime Minister of Canada, is typically the MP that leads the political party with the most seats in the House of Commons. They are normally chosen by virtue of being the leader of the political party with a majority of the seats in the legislature or having secured the needed support from other parties to command the confidence of Parliament.

Since 1929, Canadian federal elections have been held on Mondays, or on Tuesdays immediately after a Monday that is a statutory holiday. Section 4 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom requires that a general election be held no later than five years after the previous election. Since the end of World War II, elections are usually held every three or four years. Under the fixed-date provisions of the Canada Elections Act, a federal election must be held on the third Monday in October in the fourth calendar year after the polling day of the previous election.^[1] However, the election may occur before that date if the governor general dissolves Parliament on the recommendation of the prime minister, either for a snap election or after Parliament expresses its lack of confidence through the rejection of a supply bill (which last occurred in 1979) or the adoption of a motion of no confidence (which last occurred in 2011).

Since 1920, all elections held for the purpose of electing MPs have been administered by the chief electoral officer, who heads the independent agency Elections Canada and is accountable to Parliament rather than to the government in power. Election finances has been regulated since the 1970s, and that function was separated from Elections Canada and transferred to the commissioner of Canada Elections in 1977.

Electoral dynamics

Two political parties, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, have been the principal contenders for power in the past decade. The same two parties, in the Conservative Party's case, along with its various previous incarnations and factions, have dominated politics in Canada by alternating governing between them to the exclusion of all other parties at the national level. Since 1921, however, the two main parties had to contend with other forces occasionally displacing them from second place, most recently in 2011 when the New Democratic Party displaced the Liberals to become the largest opposition party in Parliament.

With only two exceptions, transitions of power between the parties have always occurred as the result of general elections. The exception were in 1873 and in 1926, when the respective incumbent Conservative and Liberal government were brought down by scandals. In 1873, the Liberals formed government and secured an electoral mandate through a general election within two months. In 1926, the Conservative Party took power but failed to win the subsequent election that took place three months later.

Since the nation was formed in 1867, Canada has held forty-five general elections. The Liberals won the most seats in twenty-six elections, in seventeen instances attaining a majority of the seats. Rival Conservatives won the most seats in nineteen elections (once under the Unionist banner), attaining a majority of the seats in thirteen instances. In one instance in 1925, the Conservatives won the most seats, but the incumbent Liberals remained in office with the support of the third-place Progressive Party. In six elections, the largest party won the most seats and formed government despite having won a smaller share of the popular vote as their main rival. That was the case with the Progressive Conservative governments formed in 1957 and in 1979, and the Liberal governments formed following the elections of 1896, 1926, 2019 and 2021.

In addition to the two main parties, there has been significant parliamentary presence of smaller parties since 1921 when the Progressive Party (and its allied United Farmers movement) displaced the Conservatives as the largest opposition party. As the principal alternative to the two main party, the Progressive Party was supplanted by the Social Credit Party and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in the 1930s, both formally entering Parliament in 1935, with the CCF and its official successor the New Democratic Party (NDP) having maintained a continual presence since, while the Social Credit Party ceased to be represented as of the 1980 election.

The presence of smaller parties unsurprisingly led to occasional minority parliaments, which remained a rare event until the end of the World War II. Of the twenty elections that took place in Canada's first eight decades, only three resulted in minority parliaments. The subsequent ten elections resulted in five minority parliaments, all within a fifteen-year timespan between the the 1957 and 1972 general elections. After two decades of mostly majority governments, minority parliaments become common at the start of 21st century. Six of the eight elections since 2000 have resulted in minority parliaments, including the most recent three elections.

The Progressive Conservative Party suffered the most dramatic defeat ever experienced by a sitting government in the 1993 election when it went from a majority government with 169 seats to a group without official party status, having only won two seats. The downfall of the traditional Progressive Conservative Party in the 1990s was a result of discontent manifested in the populist Reform Party in western Canada and the separatist Bloc Québécois in Quebec. The Reform Party rebranded as the Canadian Alliance in 2000 before uniting with the Progressive Conservatives in 2003 to form the modern Conservative Party, which formed government shortly after in 2006. The Green Party secured it first seat in 2011, which it has held since, but has not since been able to expand its presence in a meaningful way.

Other lists of Canadian elections

• Federal by-elections – held in select electoral districts to fill vacancies midterms caused by death of resignation
• General elections are held in each province and territories to elect their respective provincial government. For a timeline of all provincial elections, see Timeline of Canadian elections.
• General elections in the Province of Canada – eight general elections were held between 1841 and 1864 in the Province of Canada, the British colony that was the largest predecessor of Canada
• Elections have been held in what is now Canada since as early as 1758, when the colony of Nova Scotia elected its first general assembly. Of the four original provinces:
  • Twenty-two general elections were held in Nova Scotia prior to Confederation
  • Twenty-one general elections were held in New Brunswick prior to Confederation, beginning in 1785
  • Thirteen general elections were held in Upper Canada (now part of Ontario) between 1792 and 1836 for the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
  • Fifteen elections were held in Lower Canada (now part of Quebec) between 1792 and 1834 for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada

List of federal elections

In the following table, seats won by related predecessor or allied parties (and, in limited cases, historical parties with analogous objectives, each specifically noted) are grouped together, as follows:

Further reading

• Argyle, Ray (2004). Turning Points: The Campaigns That Changed Canada 2004 and Before. Toronto: White Knight Publications. ISBN 978-0-9734186-6-8. – covers federal elections of 1878, 1896, 1911, 1917, 1926, 1945, 1957, 1968, 1988, and 2004
• MacIvor, Heather, ed. (2010). Election. Toronto: Emond Montgomery Publications. ISBN 978-1-55239-321-5.

Graphs of results

Share of popular votes (line graph)

See also

• List of political parties in Canada
• Voter turnout in Canada

References

• "History of Federal Ridings since 1867". Parliament of Canada. Archived from the original on 2011-01-01. Retrieved 2007-01-07.