Canadian Federal Elections
AS OF 2026-07-21 · 45 CONTESTS · federal election, 28 April 2025 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Every Canadian federal election from Confederation in 1867 to 2025: the results, the leaders, the turnout, the governments they made, and the story of each, from Macdonald's Dominion to the 45th Parliament.
General elections
45
1867–2025
Latest
2025
Liberal · Mark Carney
Commons seats today
343
172 for a majority
Minority parliaments
16
of 45 elections, a Canadian specialty
The chronology
Every federal election, newest first, grouped into eight eras. Click any election for the full result, the party table and the story.
The modern battleground · 2004–2025
The merged Conservative Party made every election competitive again: seven minority parliaments out of nine contests, Stephen Harper's decade, Justin Trudeau's comeback and collapse, and in 2025 a two-party surge not seen since 1958, fought in the shadow of American tariffs.
Liberal 169Conservative 144Bloc Québécois 22
Liberal 160Conservative 119Bloc Québécois 32
Liberal 157Conservative 121Bloc Québécois 32others / not shown 1
Liberal 184Conservative 99New Democratic 44
Conservative 166New Democratic 103Liberal 34
Conservative 143Liberal 77Bloc Québécois 49others / not shown 2
Conservative 124Liberal 103Bloc Québécois 51others / not shown 1
Liberal 135Conservative 99Bloc Québécois 54others / not shown 1
Mulroney & the great collapse · 1984–2000
Brian Mulroney assembled the largest majority in Canadian history in 1984 and won the free-trade election of 1988, then his coalition shattered: in 1993 the Progressive Conservatives fell from government to two seats, the Bloc Québécois became the official opposition, and Jean Chrétien began a decade of Liberal majorities over a divided right.
Liberal 172Canadian Alliance 66Bloc Québécois 38
Liberal 155Reform 60Bloc Québécois 44others / not shown 1
Liberal 177Bloc Québécois 54Reform 52others / not shown 1
Progressive Conservative 169Liberal 83New Democratic 43
Progressive Conservative 211Liberal 40New Democratic 30others / not shown 1
The Trudeau years · 1968–1980
Trudeaumania swept Pierre Trudeau to power in 1968; he governed for all but nine months of the next 16 years. The era closed with the West shut out of a Liberal government entirely, an alienation that would reshape the party system.
Liberal 147Progressive Conservative 103New Democratic 32
Progressive Conservative 136Liberal 114New Democratic 26
Liberal 141Progressive Conservative 95New Democratic 16others / not shown 1
Liberal 109Progressive Conservative 107New Democratic 31others / not shown 2
Liberal 154Progressive Conservative 72New Democratic 22others / not shown 2
Diefenbaker & Pearson · 1957–1965
Five elections in eight years. John Diefenbaker's 1957 upset ended 22 Liberal years, his 1958 sweep set a record that stood for a generation, and then the pendulum jammed: four of the five contests produced minority governments.
Liberal 131Progressive Conservative 97New Democratic 21others / not shown 2
Liberal 128Progressive Conservative 95Social Credit 24others / not shown 1
Progressive Conservative 116Liberal 99Social Credit 30others / not shown 1
Progressive Conservative 208Liberal 48CCF 8others / not shown 1
Progressive Conservative 112Liberal 105CCF 25others / not shown 4
The King–St. Laurent ascendancy · 1935–1953
Five consecutive Liberal majorities under Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent, spanning Depression, world war and the postwar boom, while the CCF and Social Credit turned Parliament into a four-party house.
Liberal 169Progressive Conservative 51CCF 23others / not shown 7
Liberal 191Progressive Conservative 41CCF 13others / not shown 7
Liberal 118Progressive Conservative 66CCF 28others / not shown 17
Liberal 179National Government 39New Democracy 10others / not shown 9
Liberal 173Conservative 39Social Credit 17others / not shown 8
War & fragmentation · 1917–1930
Conscription split the country on language lines in the khaki election of 1917, and the two-party system never fully recovered: the Progressives' 1921 revolt produced the first minority parliament, and the King–Byng affair turned the 1926 election into a constitutional referendum.
Conservative 137Liberal 89United Farmers of Alberta 9others / not shown 7
Liberal 116Conservative 91Progressive 11others / not shown 16
Conservative 115Liberal 100Progressive 22others / not shown 4
Liberal 118Progressive 58Conservative 49others / not shown 4
Unionist 153Laurier Liberal 82
The Laurier era · 1896–1911
Wilfrid Laurier, the first francophone Prime Minister, won four straight majorities as the wheat boom filled the Prairies with new voters. It ended in 1911 over free trade with the United States, an argument Canada would resume 77 years later.
Conservative 132Liberal 85others / not shown 4
Liberal 133Conservative 85others / not shown 3
Liberal 137Conservative 75others / not shown 2
Liberal 128Conservative 79others / not shown 6
Liberal 117Conservative 86others / not shown 10
Macdonald's Canada · 1867–1891
Seven elections in the young Dominion, six of them won by John A. Macdonald. The National Policy of protective tariffs, the transcontinental railway and the fight over Confederation itself defined the politics of a two-party country voting in stages, on open ballots until 1874.
Conservative 117Liberal 90others / not shown 8
Conservative 123Liberal 79others / not shown 13
Conservative 133Liberal 73others / not shown 5
Conservative 134Liberal 63others / not shown 9
Liberal 129Conservative 65others / not shown 12
Conservative 100Liberal 94others / not shown 6
Conservative 100Liberal 62Anti-Confederation 18
The long arc in charts
A century and a half of results in four pictures. Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout, 1867–2025
Peaks near 80% in the Diefenbaker–Pearson battles of 1958–63; the floor is 58.8% in 2008. The 2025 election drew the highest turnout since 1993.
The two-party grip
Liberal + Conservative-family share of votes versus seats. Near-total before 1921, shattered by the Progressives, at its weakest in the divided-right 1990s, and roaring back above 85% of the vote in 2025.
The third forces
Seats won by the movements that broke the duopoly: the Progressives' 1921 revolt, Social Credit and the CCF from the Depression, Réal Caouette's créditistes, Reform and the Bloc from the 1993 collapse, and the NDP's 2011 orange wave, followed by the near-extinction of them all in 2025.
Votes versus seats, 2025
Each bar pair shows a party's vote share (muted) against its seat share (solid): first-past-the-post rewards the concentrated Bloc vote and punishes the spread-out NDP vote.
Records & superlatives
Highest turnout
79.4%
1958 general election
Lowest turnout
58.8%
2008 general election
Most seats won
211
Progressive Conservative, 1984
Biggest share of the House
78.5%
Progressive Conservative, 1958: 208 of 265 seats
Most votes for one party
8,595,488
Liberal, 2025
Biggest winner's bonus
+25.9 pts
Liberal turned 44.7% of votes into 70.6% of seats, 1935
How Canadian federal elections work
First past the post
One MP per riding; the candidate with the most votes wins. As in Britain, the system rewards regionally concentrated parties, the Bloc's Quebec fortress, and punishes evenly spread support like the NDP's.
343 ridings
The House of Commons has grown with the country, from 180 seats in 1867 to 343 in 2025. Seats are redistributed after each census, with floors guaranteeing smaller provinces their historic representation.
The timetable
Parliaments run a maximum of five years, with fixed election dates every four years since 2007, though a Prime Minister can still seek early dissolution, and minority parliaments rarely last half their term.
Minority rule, often
No country does minority government more: 16 of 45 elections left the governing party short of the majority line. Conventions matter: in 1925 Mackenzie King governed from second place, a precedent every hung parliament since has invoked.