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.
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.
I’m always shocked when I talk to a woman who doesn’t vote in particular. Like your ancestors had to fight for that right very hard, why wouldn’t you exercise it?
Sad that in the most consequential election in most Canadian’s lifetimes that more than 3 in 10 decided to stay home.
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
In Mexico, I had to apply to be added to the Register of International Electors, which i did on 24 March. My wife received her ballot kit on 4 April. Mine had to be resent by Elections Canada due to my Canadian postal code being entered as my address abroad. Nevertheless, i received my ballot kit on 11 or 12 April. On 14 April, in cooperation with another Canadian couple, we put all four of the envelopes in a DHL envelope and sent it back. Three days later I was notified by EC that they were received. So our mail-in ballots reached our respective electoral districts in good time to be counted. Just a good news story! FYI: The DHL envelope and the outermost EC envelope had both been opened, presumably by Mexican Customs officials.
Mine got majorly delayed as I was asked to show ID with my Canadian mailing address on it, but like most who have moved out of country I was using a family members mailing address. Of course my Canadian IDs had my last home address and not my family members as why would it? I moved out of the country. We went back and forth with each reply taking Elections Canada 5-7 days. I ended up filling my taxes with my family members address and sent them my NOA which worked but it was too late by the time I received the package.
How did you avoid this address issue?
I submitted photos online of our passport pages as ID when applying to the Registry of International Voters. Of course, a passport does not have one’s address. I suspect being on the registered voters list in the riding (despite it was significantly redrawn in 2022) for a decade might have helped to corroborate our bona fides.
That is what I first submitted too. My passport which has no address. Then they said I need to send ID with an address so I sent my drivers license. Then they said it has to be a current address, but I moved out of country so how would I have an address on my ID. Then they suggested my Notice of Assessment which has a family members mailing address on it and that worked but by this point it was too late.
Yes! A family member lives in our primary residence! Renew DL, health insurance, etc on tri-annual visits!
