Elections in Canada

Canada holds elections for legislatures or governments in several jurisdictions: for the federal (national) government, provincial and territorial governments, and municipal governments. Elections are also held for self-governing First Nations and for many other public and private organizations including corporations and trade unions. Municipal elections can also be held for both upper-tier (regional municipality or county) and lower-tier (town, village, or city) governments.

Formal elections have occurred in Canada since at least 1792, when both Upper Canada and Lower Canada had their first elections. Canada's first recorded election was held in Halifax in 1758 to elect the 1st General Assembly of Nova Scotia.

All Canadian citizens aged 18 or older may register and vote in federal elections. Elections for other levels of government may have additional residency or ownership requirements. For example, some municipalities allow both residents and non-resident landowners to vote.

The most recent Canadian federal election occurred on April 28, 2025. The Constitution limits terms for Parliament and all provincial legislatures to five years; current legislation fixes terms at four years at the federal level and in every province except Nova Scotia. However, as in other Westminster systems, a parliamentary term may still be ended early due to a successful vote of no confidence or a snap election called by the ruling government. Though not impossible, there have never been two general elections in the same calendar year, either at the federal level or in any province or territory.

Although only the first-past-the-post voting is used currently in federal and all provincial elections in Canada, federal elections in the 1867-1970 period and elections in every province (except Quebec) used other election systems and multi-member districts at one time or another between 1867 and 1996. Through the years, Canadians have seen numerous instances of electoral reform and attempted electoral reform. Alberta was the first province to elect all its MLAs using non-FPTP systems, in 1926. Also recent attempts to change from first past the post to a different electoral system by referendum failed (or were ignored) in B.C. in 2005 and 2018, P.E.I. in 2005, 2016, and 2019, Ontario in 2007, and Yukon in 2025. Referendums on electoral reform have been proposed or cancelled in other provinces.

Latest election

Electoral regulatory bodies

Elections in Canada (federal, provincial, or Territorial) are organised by their respective election regulatory bodies as follows:

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" style="float: left;"

|+ style="font-size:100%; background:#cef; text-align:center; border:1px solid #a2a9b1; border-bottom:none" |Canadian electoral regulatory bodies

!Jurisdiction

!Electoral regulatory body (year established)

!Periodic oversight of legislative seat contests in any given election

!Date of most recent major election

!Next major election scheduled for / required by

| Federal

|Elections Canada (1920)

|Lower house: All 343 seats in the House of Commons of Canada (every 4 years, on the third Monday of October)

|April 28, 2025

|October 15, 2029

|Elections BC (1995)

|Unicameral: All 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (every 4 years, on the third Saturday of October)

|October 19, 2024

|October 21, 2028

|Elections Alberta (1977)

|Unicameral: All 87 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (every 4 years, on the third Monday of October, notwithstanding exceptions)

|May 29, 2023

|October 18, 2027

|Elections Saskatchewan (1959)

|Unicameral: All 61 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan (every 4 years, on the last Monday of October)

|October 28, 2024

|October 30, 2028

|Elections Manitoba (1980)

|Unicameral: All 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (every 4 years, on the first Tuesday of October)

|October 3, 2023

|October 5, 2027

|Elections Ontario (1919)

|Unicameral: All 124 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (every 5 years)

|February 27, 2025

|April 11, 2030

|Élections Québec (1945)

|Unicameral: All 125 seats in the National Assembly of Quebec (every 4 years, on the first Monday of October)

|October 3, 2022

|October 5, 2026

|Elections Nova Scotia (1991)

|Unicameral: All 55 seats in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly (every 5 years)

|November 26, 2024

|December 7, 2029

|Elections New Brunswick (1967)

|Unicameral: All 49 seats in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick (every 4 years, on the third Monday of October)

|October 21, 2024

|October 23, 2028

|Elections Newfoundland & Labrador (1991)

|Unicameral: All 40 seats in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly (every 4 years, on the second Tuesday of October)

|October 14, 2025

|October 9, 2029

|Elections Prince Edward Island (1965)

|Unicameral: All 27 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island (every 4 years, on the first Monday of October)

|April 3, 2023

|October 4, 2027

|Elections NWT (1997)

|Unicameral: All 19 seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories (every 4 years, on the first Tuesday of October)

|November 14, 2023

| October 5, 2027

|Elections Yukon (2002)

|Unicameral: All 21 seats in the Yukon Legislative Assembly (every 4 years, on the first Monday of November)

|November 3, 2025

|November 5, 2029

|Elections Nunavut (2003)

|Unicameral: All 22 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut (every 4 years, on the last Monday of October)

|October 27, 2025

|October 29, 2029

National (federal) elections

The Parliament of Canada has two chambers: the House of Commons has 343 members, elected for a maximum five-year term in single-seat electoral districts through first-past-the-post voting, and the Senate has 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. Senators are given permanent terms (up to age 75) and thus often serve much longer than the prime minister who was primarily responsible for their appointment.

National elections are governed by the Canada Elections Act and administered by an independent agency, Elections Canada. Canadians vote for their choice for local Member of Parliament (MP), who will hold a seat in the House of Commons. Under first-past-the-post voting, the plurality winner is elected and then votes as the named representative of that specific constituency in the House of Commons. But in practice usually voting in line with other members of their party caucus in the House of Commons.

The leader of the party most likely to hold the confidence of the House of Commons becomes the prime minister. They stay in power as long as they hold the support of a majority of MPs in the House of Commons.

Most MPs are members of a political party, although candidates may stand for election and be elected as independents unaffiliated with any political party. The practice of listing candidates' party affiliation on ballots began with the 1972 election. Since then, the Canada Elections Act has required that a local candidate running under a party label be directly approved by the leader of their affiliated party, effectively centralizing the candidate nomination process.

Once MPs are elected, sitting members of parliament are permitted to "cross the floor" switching party affiliation without having to first resign and restand for office under their new affiliation. Sitting members may also be dismissed from or voluntarily leave their party and become independents. By-elections (casual vacancies) also may change the party seat counts. As a result, the distribution of seats by party affiliation often fluctuates between elections.

Although several parties are typically represented in parliament, Canada historically has had two dominant political parties: the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, which was preceded by the Progressive Conservative Party and the Conservative Party (1867–1942). However, in the 2011 federal election, the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP), took the second largest caucus. While other parties have sometimes formed the Official Opposition, the 41st Parliament (2011–2015) was the first in which the Liberals did not form either the government or the Official Opposition.

Every government since Confederation has been either Liberal or Conservative with the exception of the Unionist government during World War I, which was a coalition of Conservatives and some Liberals. Most have been majority governments (one party holding a majority of seats in the House of Commons, even if not holding a majority of votes cast in the last election). Many times due to strong showing by "third parties", no party (neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives) captured a majority of seats in the House of Commons, thus producing a minority government. Faced with such a situation, the Liberals and the NDP signed a Confidence and Supply Agreement in 2022, the first of its kind in Canada.

If a government loses a confidence motion, traditionally the prime minister asks the governor general to call an election and traditionally the governor general follows that advice. However, the viceroy's compliance is not assured -- the governor general has the right to seek out another party leader who is thought to command the confidence of the House (support from majority of the MPs) and ask them to form a government. This happened in 1926 and is referred to as the King–Byng Affair.

Strictly speaking, the five-year time limitation is applied to the life of the parliament or assembly in question — that body is not deemed to have been formed until the return of the writs and ceases to exist the moment it is dissolved. It is therefore legally possible for slightly more than five years to elapse between election days, as was the case between the 1930 and 1935 elections. As well, under emergency situations it is possible to extend the life of the government as Prime Minister Borden did - the 1917 election took place six years and three months after the previous election.

Although the law allows for a five-year gap between election and dissolution, there have been in fact only two gaps since 1974 that approached the five-year limit: 1974-1979 and 1988-1993. When no party secures a majority of seats, it is common for a government to last just a couple years or less. (The 1979 government of Joe Clark lasted just six months.) As well, a party with a majority of seats may decide to call an election early, hoping to win more seats and fearing that postponement will lower its chances for reelection. At the federal level, there have been eight general elections since 2000.

It is also possible for a general election to be delayed should Canada be embroiled in a war or insurrection. This provision was enacted to allow Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden to delay a federal election for about a year during the First World War. Since then, the provision has only been used twice, both times by provincial governments — Ontario delayed an election for a few weeks in the year following the Armistice in 1918. Saskatchewan was the only jurisdiction to delay a general election by more than a year, due to World War II, but held an election in 1944, one week more than six years after the previous vote.

The Canadian population generally misunderstands the electoral system, with most citizens believing they vote to directly elect the prime minister; that the majority choice is elected in each district; that a majority government in the House of Commons had support of a majority of voters; that a party with the most seats in the House of Commons has the right to control the House of Commons. In 2008, Conservative politicians tried to use the public's misconception of how governments are formed to defend its decision to maintain its grip on power despite not having a majority of seats in the House of Commons.