This article provides a summary of results for Canadian general elections (where all seats are contested) to the House of Commons, the elected lower half of Canada's federal bicameral legislative body, the Parliament of Canada. The number of seats has increased steadily over time, from 180 for the first election to the current total of 343. The current federal government structure was established in 1867 by the Constitution Act.
For federal by-elections (for one or a few seats as a result of retirement, etc.) see List of federal by-elections in Canada. For the eight general elections of the Province of Canada held in 1843 to 1864 before confederation in 1867, see List of elections in the Province of Canada. There were also earlier elections in Canada, such as for the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada (held in 1792–1836, now part of Ontario) and the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada (held in 1792–1834, now part of Quebec).
Three political parties have dominated politics in Canada: the Liberal Party, the historic Conservative party (known as the Progressive Conservative Party from 1942 to 2003), and the modern Conservative Party are the only parties to have formed a government, although often the Liberals and historic Conservatives have led in a minority government or a coalition government where either party unified with one or more smaller parties. (The 1917 win was by a pro-conscription Unionist coalition of sitting Conservative and Liberal members of Parliament.)
Although governance has primarily been by single-party majority governments, Canadian federal politics has been a multi-party affair since Confederation. Since 1921, there has been significant parliamentary presence of smaller parties, with the Progressive Party and the United Farmers movement being elected in the 1920s. They were supplanted by the Social Credit Party and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in the 1930s. The CCF evolved into the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961. The Social Credit Party and the CCF/NDP first won representation in the House of Commons in 1935, and the CCF/NDP has done so in each election since that time. (The Social Credit Party failed to win any seats in the 1980 election.) Since 1980, the NDP has been a presence in the Canadian parliament.
The Progressive Conservative Party suffered a significant defeat in the 1993 election when it went from being the 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 the rise of the populist Reform Party. The Reform Party rebranded as the Canadian Alliance in 2000; it then merged with the remaining elected Progressive Conservative members in 2003 and became the modern Conservative Party. By 2006, this modern Conservative Party was again in government.
Further, in 1993 the separatist Bloc Québécois won seats for the first time. It has been a constant presence in parliament since then. The Green Party has held a seat or two every election since 2011. As well, independent MPs have been elected at various times.
Results
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4" | Party colour key
|-
|width=25 |
|Liberal
| |
|Reform
|-
|| ||New Democratic
| | ||Canadian Alliance
|-
| | ||Progressive
| | ||Conservative
|-
| | ||Anti-Confederate
| | ||Liberal-Conservative<br/>Conservative (historic)<br/>Progressive Conservative
|-
| | ||Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
| | ||Liberal-Progressive
|-
|| ||Social Credit
| | ||Bloc Québécois
|-
| | ||United Farmers
| | ||Unionist coalition
<!-- | ||Green-->
|}
The third, fourth, and fifth parties' results are included in "Other" if the party did not win at least four seats in an election at some point in its history. Results for parties placing sixth or lower (as in the 1926 election) are also included in "Other", as are Independent seats.
{| class="wikitable sticky-header" style="text-align: center;"
|-
!No.
!Year
!Date(s)
!Summary
!colspan="2"| Government
!colspan="2"| Official opposition
!colspan="2"| Third party
!colspan="2"| Fourth party
!colspan="2"| Fifth party
!Other
!Total seats
!Government percentage of total seats
!Turnout
|-
!width=20| 1st
!width=40|1867
!August 7 – September 20
| style="text-align: left;" | The Conservative Party led by John A. Macdonald, is elected to form Canada's first government, defeating the Liberal Party and its de facto leader George Brown. Brown does not win his riding of Ontario South. In Nova Scotia, Anti-Confederates under Joseph Howe win 17 of 19 seats after campaigning against Confederation but later sit with the Liberals.
|width=5 |
|width=70|100
|width=5 |
|width=70|62
|width=5 |
|width=40|18
| colspan="2" width="5" |–
| colspan="2" width="5" |–
|width=45| 0
|width=45|180
|55.5%
|74.3%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!2nd||1872
!July 20 – October 12
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister Macdonald's Conservatives are re-elected with a minority, defeating Liberals and their de facto leader Edward Blake.
| |
|100
||
|95
|colspan="2"| –
|colspan="2"| –
|colspan="2"| –
|5
|200
|50%
|70.3%
|-
!3rd||1874
!January 20
| style="text-align: left;" | The Liberals, led by Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, retain power with a majority after having formed a government after the Conservatives, under former prime minister John A. Macdonald, lost the confidence of the House in 1873. First federal election by secret ballot.
||
|129
| |
|65
||
|73
|colspan="2"| –
|colspan="2"| –
|colspan="2"| –
|4
|211
|63.5%
|70.3%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!6th||1887
!February 20
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister Macdonald's Conservatives win re-election with a fourth majority, defeating the Liberals under Blake.
| |
|124
|colspan="2"| –
|7
|235
|50.2%
|67.7%
|-
!15th||1925
!October 26
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister Mackenzie King's Liberals hold power with a minority with the help of Robert Forke's Progressives, despite former prime minister Meighen's Conservatives winning more seats, including that of King's own riding of York North. The Progressives soon withdraw support from the scandal-plagued Liberals but also refuse to support the Conservatives. Governor General Lord Byng controversially appoints Meighen as prime minister in the King–Byng Affair, but the Conservative government soon falls in a non-confidence vote.
||
|100
| |
|115
| |
|22
| |
|2
|colspan="2"| –
|6
|245
|40.8%
|66.4%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!16th||1926
!September 14
| style="text-align: left;" | Mackenzie King's Liberals defeat former prime minister Meighen's Conservatives, winning a minority supported by the eight Liberal-Progressives under Forke. Meighen loses his Portage la Prairie seat again. United Farmers parties take 12 seats and Labour four, giving Canada a rare Parliament with six parties, each with four seats or more, in the House.
||
|116
| |
|91
| |
|11
| |
|12
||
|10
| |
|8
| |
|3
|6
|245
|73.1%
|69.9%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!20th||1945
!June 11
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister Mackenzie King's Liberals are re-elected with a minority, defeating the newly renamed Progressive Conservatives, led by John Bracken. Despite his party's nationwide victory, King loses his Prince Albert riding. Foreshadowing the Bloc Québécois, the Bloc populaire canadien wins two seats in Quebec on a platform of Quebec nationalism and opposition to conscription.
||
|118
| |
|66
| |
|28
||
|13
|colspan="2"| –
|20
|245
|48.2%
|75.3%
|-
!21st||1949
!June 27
| style="text-align: left;" | New prime minister Louis St-Laurent leads the Liberals to victory with a majority, defeating George A. Drew's Progressive Conservatives.
||
|191
| |
|41
| |
|13
||
|10
| |
|1
|6
|262
|72.9%
|73.8%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!22nd||1953
!August 10
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister St-Laurent's Liberals win re-election with a majority, defeating Drew's Progressive Conservatives.
||
|169
|colspan="2"| –
|2
|265
|49.4%
|74.8%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!28th||1968
!June 25
| style="text-align: left;" | New prime minister Pierre Trudeau leads the Liberals to a majority victory, defeating the Progressive Conservatives under Robert Stanfield.
||
|155
|colspan="2"| –
|1
|264
|58.7%
|75.7%
|-
!29th||1972
!October 30
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister P. Trudeau's Liberals are re-elected but with a minority, winning only two more seats than Stanfield's Progressive Conservatives despite winning the popular vote by more than three percentage points nationwide. The NDP pick up several seats under new leader David Lewis. Social Credit, now reunited under Caouette's leadership, maintains its support in Quebec.
||
|109
| |
|107
||
|31
||
|15
|colspan="2"| –
|2
|264
|41.3%
|76.7%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!30th||1974
!July 8
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister P. Trudeau's Liberals defeat Stanfield's Progressive Conservatives with a second majority.
||
|141
| |
|95
||
|16
||
|11
|colspan="2"| –
|1
|264
|53.4%
|71%
|-
!31st||1979
!May 22
| style="text-align: left;" | Joe Clark's Progressive Conservatives defeat the Liberals, led by Prime Minister P. Trudeau, and win a minority government, despite winning a significantly smaller share of the vote than the Liberals. Ed Broadbent makes his debut as leader of the NDP, and Fabien Roy makes his debut as leader of Social Credit.
| |
|136
||
|114
||
|26
||
|6
|colspan="2"| –
|0
|282
|48.2%
|75.7%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!32nd||1980
!February 18
| style="text-align: left;" | Former prime minister P. Trudeau's Liberals defeat the Progressive Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Clark. For the first time since 1958, Social Credit fails to elect any MPs and so fades into history after an almost unbroken 45-year run of federal representation, leaving Canada with a three-party system.
||
|147
| |
|103
||
|32
|colspan="2"| –
|colspan="2"| –
|0
|282
|52.1%
|69.3%
|-
!33rd||1984
!September 4
| style="text-align: left;" | Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives win a landslide victory, with the most seats in Canadian history. The Liberals, led by new prime minister John Turner, fall to their then-worst showing.
| |
|211
||
|40
||
|30
|colspan="2"| –
|colspan="2"| –
|1
|282
|74.8%
|75.3%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!34th||1988
!November 21
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives win a second majority, diminished from 1984 due to contending with a much stronger performance from the Liberals under former prime minister Turner and a strong third-party showing from Broadbent's New Democrats. this is the most recent federal general election where only three parties returned all the members of Parliament. Led by Preston Manning, the right-wing, Western-based Reform Party contests its first election but fails to win any seats.
| |
|169
||
|83
||
|43
|colspan="2"| –
|colspan="2"| –
|0
|295
|57.3%
|75.3%
|-
!35th||1993
!October 25
| style="text-align: left;" | Jean Chrétien's Liberals win a majority, soundly defeating the Progressive Conservatives, led by new prime minister Kim Campbell, who are left in fifth place with just two seats, their worst ever showing. The Bloc Québécois, founded in 1990 and led by ex-Mulroney cabinet minister Lucien Bouchard, becomes the Official Opposition. Reform becomes the third party. Audrey McLaughlin's New Democrats also post their worst results to this point with just nine seats. The election marks the end of the predominantly three-party Liberal–Progressive Conservative–NDP system.
||
|177
| |
|54
| |
|52
||
|9
| |
|2
|1
|295
|60%
|69.6%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!36th||1997
!June 2
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister Chrétien's Liberals are re-elected with a second, albeit much slimmer, majority. Manning's Reform Party becomes the Official Opposition as the Bloc Québécois falls to third place under new leader Gilles Duceppe. The NDP, led by Alexa McDonough, and the Progressive Conservatives, led by Jean Charest, both make gains.
||
|155
| |
|60
| |
|44
||
|21
| |
|20
|1
|301
|51.5%
|67%
|-
!37th||2000
!November 27
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister Chrétien's Liberals are re-elected with a third majority, defeating Stockwell Day's Canadian Alliance, the unsuccessful attempt to unite the Reform Party and Progressive Conservatives. Both the Liberals and Alliance gain seats at the expense of the Bloc under Duceppe, NDP under McDonough, and PCs under former prime minister Clark.
||
|172
| |
|66
| |
|38
||
|13
| |
|12
|0
|301
|57.1%
|64.1%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!38th||2004
!June 28
| style="text-align: left;" | New prime minister Paul Martin leads the Liberals to win re-election with a minority mandate. They defeat the new Conservative Party, formed by a merger of Progressive Conservatives and Canadian Alliance, led by Stephen Harper. Both the Bloc Québécois and NDP make gains, the latter under new leader Jack Layton.
||
|135
| |
|99
| |
|54
||
|19
|colspan="2"| –
|1
|308
|43.8%
|60.9%
|-
!39th||2006
!January 23
| style="text-align: left;" | Harper's Conservatives win a minority government, defeating Prime Minister Martin's Liberals. Duceppe's BQ keeps most of its seats and Layton's NDP improves its fourth-place position.
| |
|124
||
|103
| |
|51
||
|29
|colspan="2"| –
|1
|308
|40.3%
|64.7%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!40th||2008
!October 14
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister Harper's Conservatives win a second minority government, defeating Stéphane Dion's Liberals by larger margins than in 2006. BQ support is steady under Duceppe and NDP picks up several Liberal seats under Layton. Under new leader Elizabeth May, the Green Party continues its growth, winning 6.78% of the national vote on its environmentally conscious platform but again fails to win any seats.
| |
|143
||
|77
| |
|49
||
|37
|colspan="2"| –
|2
|308
|46.4%
|58.8%
|-
!41st||2011
!May 2
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister Harper's Conservatives win a majority of seats. For the first time the NDP, led by Layton, becomes the Official Opposition. The Liberals, led by Michael Ignatieff, fall to third place with their worst ever showing. The Bloc Québécois collapses to four seats, and the Green Party wins its first seat, that of leader Elizabeth May.
| |
|166
||
|103
||
|34
| |
|4
|colspan="2"| <!-- please don't add Green Party's seat to "Fifth party" column - they have to get 4 seats first (see top of section) --> –
|1
|308
|53.9%
|61.1%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!42nd||2015
!October 19
| style="text-align: left;" | Justin Trudeau's Liberals come back from third place in polls to win a majority of seats. The Conservatives become the Official Opposition. The NDP under Tom Mulcair returns to its historical third-party standing. The Bloc Québécois makes modest gains while Green leader May retains her seat.
||
|184
| |
|99
||
|44
| |
|10
|colspan="2"| <!-- please don't add Green Party's seat to "Fifth party" column - they have to get 4 seats first (see top of section) --> –
|1
|338
|54.4%
|68.3%
|-
!43rd||2019
!October 21
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister J. Trudeau's Liberals win a minority government. Conservatives win the popular vote and gain seats under Andrew Scheer. The Bloc Québécois under Yves-François Blanchet also gain seats. The NDP loses seats under new leader Jagmeet Singh. The Green Party wins three seats. In its first election, the People's Party of Canada, led by former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier, wins no seats.
||
|157
| |
|121
| |
|32
||
|24
|colspan="2"| <!-- please don't add Green Party's seat to "Fifth party" column - they have to get 4 seats first (see top of section) --> –
|4
|338
|46.4%
|67%
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!44th
!2021
!September 20
| style="text-align: left;" | Prime Minister J. Trudeau's Liberals win a second minority and a third consecutive national mandate. Erin O'Toole's Conservatives again win the popular vote but do not gain seats. Blanchet's Bloc Québécois equals its seat count from 2019. Singh's NDP earns a net gain of one seat. The Green Party wins two seats, but its new leader Annamie Paul does not become an MP. Bernier's PPC roughly triples its vote share and vote count relative to 2019 but again fails to win seats.
||
|160
| |
|119
| |
|32
||
|25
|colspan="2"| <!-- please don't add either Green Party or People's Party's seat(s) to "Fifth party" column - they have to get 4 seats first (see top of section) --> –
|2
|338
|47.3%
|62.3%
|-
!45th
!2025
!April 28
| style="text-align: left;" | New prime minister Mark Carney leads the Liberals to victory with a minority mandate. They defeat the Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre. Both Liberals and Conservatives increase their seat totals, largely at the expense of the NDP, who lose official party status for the first time since 1993. After several floor-crossings between late 2025 and early 2026, the Carney government reached majority status in April 2026.
| |
|169
| |
|144
| |
|22
| |
|7
| colspan="2" |<!-- please don't add either Green Party or People's Party's seat(s) to "Fifth party" column - they have to get 4 seats first (see top of section) --> –
|1
|343
|49.3%
<!--
|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
!46th
!
!
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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|343
|
|-->
|69.5%
|}
Notes
Further reading
- – covers federal elections of 1878, 1896, 1911, 1917, 1926, 1945, 1957, 1968, 1988, and 2004
Graphs of results
Bar graph of seats from 1867 to 2021
Line graph of votes
thumb|centre|800px
See also
- List of political parties in Canada
- Voter turnout in Canada