OTTAWA — OTTAWA - Elections Canada says more than 68 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot in the federal election – more than 19.5 million people.
While this election was widely expected to see increased turnout, it did not surpass the record set in March 1958, when 79.4 per cent of eligible Canadians voted.
But the nearly 68.7 per cent turnout was the best since the 1993 federal election, which saw 69.6 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.
Elections Canada says early estimates indicate 11 million people voted at their polling station or in their long-term care facility on election day.
The agency says nearly 7.3 million Canadians voted at advance polls while 1.2 million voted by special ballot.
Elections Canada does not gather demographics data so it’s not clear which groups turned out to vote, but it says postelection surveys can show which groups faced barriers to voting and what can be done to address them in future elections.
The Liberal party ended the election with 43.7 per cent of the total vote and 169 seats, while the Conservative party secured 41.3 per cent of the vote and 144 seats.
The Bloc Quebecois and the NDP both took 6.3 per cent of the vote, and will hold 22 and seven seats, respectively.
Would have been 2 more if Elections Canada did not fumble sending us the out of country voting package. Sure there are many others in the same boat.
There were huge issues in Nunavik as well, leading to many indigenous communities essentially losing the right to vote https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/makivvik-corp-calls-for-investigation-after-voting-irregularities-in-nunavik/
Canadians apparently don’t realize how much of a privilege it is to be able to vote. Surprises me every time.
It should be near a 100%. Make voting mandatory.
These numbers are really encouraging. Voter participation has been a serious issue on all levels of government for a long time, and hopefully this is the beginning of a reverse in trends. Canadians need to at least pay a minimum of attention to what their leaders are doing or else they’ll just do whatever they think they can get away with.
So many Canadian leaders sneak in absurd laws and policies and Canadians just don’t notice or say anything, and I say this in regards to all parties. Not saying anything, especially during elections, is a tacit approval. Because showing disapproval is the only way to make governments know that they can’t get away with ignoring the public good in favour of personal agendas.
Fuck dude Canadians dont even know what provincial governments do. They get mad at: the carbon tax, healthcare, infrastructure, education, and housing yet at every turn that’s on the province to fund and manage. The federal government chips in to help of course but the province MANAGES it at the end of the day. And before anybody says “the carbon tax was Trudeau Though!”, I’m sorry, but the carbon tax was only a federal MINIMUM if your province didn’t have a system in place already. Or when they got rid of any other pricing system like Ontario did, Alberta did and Saskatchewan did and then got all pissy when they had to pay it and not a single fucking moron in those provinces hated on the premiers for it.
Canadians can be just as fucking dumb as Americans and it was really showing these last 5 years
It’s amazing how a little taste of fascism motivates people isn’t it?
The Bloc Quebecois and the NDP both took 6.3 per cent of the vote, and will hold 22 and seven seats, respectively.
Our electoral system is fundamentally misrepresentative by design. We desperately need proportional representation.
That discrepancy hit me as well. How are the seats determined?
Bloc Quebecois is only represented in Quebec while the NPD is represented across Canada.
So the Bloc had a lot of concentrated vote in Quebec, winning a lot of ridings while the NPD didn’t score well across Canada, not getting much riding.
First Past The Post create these discrepencies.
Ahhh, that makes sense. I’m American and hadn’t read/heard about that part of Canadian politics in awhile, so I appreciate the response!
I wish the turnout was higher, but I get it. Before voting I checked on how close the race in my riding was. It wasn’t. The Conservative candidate was projected to win a landslide victory with 99% confidence. I regret looking because it made me not even want to go out and vote. I did anyways thinking maybe there’ll be way more voters than normal this year. There wasn’t. The Conservative candidate won a landslide victory. Just like last election, and the one before that, and the one before that. I wasn’t even born yet the last time this riding wasn’t held by a Conservative. FPTP voting sucks.
Mine was at 94% so I also felt like not voting. I did anyway and the Cons still won but it was actually a much closer result than what the polls had made it out to be. First time in a long time we haven’t been orange though so that really sucks.
I regret looking because it made me not even want to go out and vote.
This is the main reason I think poll prediction media should be banned during elections. People can change things by voting, but you’d never know it from the election “advice” plastered everywhere. I believe it promotes an apathy vote where people just stay home more than anything informative or otherwise useful.
ty for going anyway.
Our riding was projected 99% Conservative win but we went NDP. The riding specific forecasts are misleading, and I wonder how many important votes stayed home because they looked at the forecast and thought it was pointless.
My city is a giant retirement community pretending to be a city, so naturally a Conservative always wins. Didn’t stop me from voting anyway, because fuck 'em. Hopefully things change when the retirees biff it.
It can’t all be retirees voting that way though. Our entire province, aside from Halifax (HRM) is dominated by retirees. Yet we went almost entirely liberal.
If the parties don’t see even marginal gains in a region they won’t bother putting resources towards increasing that growth and eventually flipping a seat.
If we ever get away from first past the post they also need to see that it would benefit them to have second place.
It’s important to vote regardless of the outcome.
So about 69% of the voters elected 169 liberals? Nice.
Sad that in the most consequential election in most Canadian’s lifetimes that more than 3 in 10 decided to stay home.
FPTP means that many votes have negligible impact, so it’s understandable why some don’t bother.
Probably would not change much with proportional representation. A surprising number of people just don’t care.
Should there be a fine of $25 for not voting?
Just give $25.
Edit: you know that would incentivize them to obstruct voting more right?
I… don’t see how a slap on the wrist for people who don’t vote would “obstruct” voting.
It could also be $25 off your tax burden, but it’s less immediate and probably less effective.
Btw it’s a thing in many other countries: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting
The Wikipedia page also has excellent arguments for and against the practice.
The politicians and people of this country already keep me intentionally poor because I am disabled and from a lower class due to this disability. Now you want to charge me money, I certainly don’t have for not voting for someone who does absolutely nothing for me? That’s democracy all right.
Hey, I remember you! You’re the guy who seemingly spends all their free time telling all of Lemmy about how proud they are of not doing their civic duty.
Democracy only works if people vote, you’re actively undermining democracy.
Just vote. It’s free. Save $25.
I have to say this so much I have a copy paste now.
I’m a disabled guy with a family. I live on less than half of what is considered extreme poverty for a single person in my area per year not including my wife’s income. I have no extra healthcare, dental or vision care and pay out of pocket even though I worked for ~20 years before my disability and was a part of a union. I am not disabled enough according to my government, but too disabled to work according to all medical professionals I have seen, so I get no more than basic CPP. I have chronic pain and neurological damage that affects Ballance and muscle control as well as my ability to walk somewhat and do basic tasks. But most days I am in public, I can walk and drive and from the outside look “normal” to most people.
My wife works for the federal government in a public facing seasonal position. It is a contracted position now, that used to be permanent. This avoids unions, healthcare payments, full time employment, benefits and more. Again, she works for our federal government but there is not one politician suggesting that this is no better than what private industry does to people by treating them like wage slaves.
There is no politician in this country that cares about me and my family. I have three choices on my federal ballot. The politicians would all rather I be dead. I can MAID whenever I like but I am not permitted respect or a decent life and neither are my kids. My wife doesn’t deserve a full time job or benefits that would really help pull us out of poverty even though she is highly educated in her field and uses it for her work for our government. Even if I could try to work my way out of my hole I lose all support when I hit a very low income threshold ($6900/year) and should I somehow work past that threshold by convincing a public employee to allow me, on a case by case basis, I can be assured to be watched extremely closely as if I were commiting a crime and having to report regularly not just on my taxes on a yearly basis like every other citizen.
I have spoiled every single ballot I have cast for more than a decade in every single election at every single level of politics in Canada and I get derided for it. I voted against fascism this time and held my tongue but you better believe I’m on my MP already. I’m sure my email address will be banned internally and I highly doubt my calls and emails will ever get a response as they never have in the past no matter who was in power.
People could give a fuck though. They prove it time and time again. Tell me again who I should vote for? And why I should give a fuck about you and your politicians? People have a lot to say but it’s all bullshit. They care about themselves.
As of 2022 there were over 320,000 people on CPP disability in the country. It has risen significantly since then. That’s certainly not 22 million but we deserve just as others do.
Not a bad idea
Terrible turnout. The worst part is knowing that the % of RW voters was probably 90+ % as usual, with the rest of us lagging way behind.
carney won by a little over 3.5% PP was still extremely close despite all the tariff and trump dic sucking by pp.
The massive pro-PP propaganda network including META, Google, twitter, etc. boosted pro-PP messaging and ant-Carney propaganda/disinformation and it still wasn’t enough to save the CPC.
bad timing as trumps tariffs really fucked up thier messaging, from my limited news of canada, at least DOUG recognized early on enough to adapt and capitalize on this.
Doug Ford is a scammer.
Historically, the power switch between Conservatives and Liberals roughly each decade.
A few months ago, conservatives were a shoe in for a majority government. So what happened here is nothing short of spectacular.
American style politics were staved off for at least a cycle and considering the state of the world, I welcome that.
…and the Green Party took a single seat.
Well, you can thank Trudeau for that, reneging on his promise that we’d have electoral reform
I was watching This hour has 22 minutes and the host asked if a good outcome for the Greens would be more seats than leaders
The Green party is in shambles, they don’t even know who they are anymore. What the hell are “co-leaders”? It’s basically just a name for Elizabeth May’s independent status.
What the hell are “co-leaders”?
Did the searching for you. No offense intented, but a lot of people don’t know either. Other green parties of the world have more than one leader (ex. UK).
