Canadians really stepped up for Monday’s 45th federal election, which saw the highest voter turnout since 1993!
Early Tuesday morning, Mark Carney and the Liberal party won enough seats to form a minority government, just narrowly beating out the Conservatives and Pierre Poilievre.
According to Elections Canada, preliminary figures suggest that over 19 million Canadians cast their ballots, which equates to around 68.7 per cent of eligible voters. This would make it the country’s highest voter turnout in over three decades since the 1993 federal election, which saw 69.6 per cent.
Comparatively in 2021, 62.6 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots, meaning an increase of 6.1 per cent in turnout.
Canada’s all-time highest voting record was set in March of 1958, with 79.4 per cent of eligible voters casting ballots which secured John Diefenbaker’s majority win. The lowest turnout was 58.8 per cent in 2008, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party were voted to return to power.
Over 28.5 million Canadians were registered to vote in this year’s election, which does not include those who registered on election day. As of Tuesday evening, Elections Canada reported that 19,591,257 votes had been counted, with over 99% of polls reporting.
As for regional turnout, Ontario saw 69.1 per cent of eligible voters taking to the polls. Nunavut reported the lowest with 36.8 per cent turnout, and Prince Edward Island the highest with a 77.3 per cent turnout.
The end result was the Liberal party receiving 43.7 of the total vote with 169 seats, followed closely by the Conservative party which secured 144 seats and 41.3 per cent of the vote.
As for the cause of the uptick in Canadians taking to the polls this election, many believe U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent rhetoric on tariffs and annexation played a role. Since commenting on turning Canada into the 51st state, there has been a notable rise in Canadian nationalism, which likely worked to Mark Carney’s advantage.
Speaking on his win, Carney vowed to stand firm against President Trump and make an effort to unite a divided country.
“Millions of our fellow citizens preferred a different outcome. Let’s put an end to the division and anger of the past. We are all Canadian,” he told his supporters.