Preliminary Election Results

The Liberal Party of Canada has succeeded in acquiring 157 seats in the House of Commons, out of 338 seats. This is thirteen seats short of a majority. This means that with the support of other parties the Liberals can pass legislation and survive a vote of no confidence which would bring down the government.

The Conservative Party will form the Official Opposition with 121 seats, the Bloc Québécois won 32 seats, the NDP 24, and the Green Party three. Jody Wilson-Raybould won her seat as an Independent — the first independent to win a seat in over a decade.[1]

In this election, there were 27.4 million eligible voters, an increase of 1.4 million since 2015. When more than 73,291 of 73,536 polls had reported, Elections Canada said voter turnout was 17,890,264, or 65.95 per cent. The total number of voters is not immediately known because those who registered on election day have yet to be taken into account. Nonetheless, so far the calculation puts the number of Canadians who abstained at 34 per cent.

The Conservatives received the greatest number of votes cast at 34.4 per cent compared to 33.1 for the Liberals. The NDP received 14.9 per cent, the Greens 6.3 per cent, the People’s Party 1.7 per cent, Independents 0.4 per cent and no report for “other.” In Quebec, the Bloc Québécois received more votes than the Liberals and almost twice the number of votes cast for the Conservatives.

These results show that, based on current figures, the Liberals will govern with less than 22 per cent of registered voters casting a ballot for their party.[2] The Liberals received the lowest percentage of the total votes cast of any governing party in the history of Canada. It is only the second time that a governing party will form a government while receiving less than 35 percent of the total votes cast.

Twenty-one registered parties fielded candidates in the election. Once registered, all political parties are supposedly treated equally by law. However, in practice the Canada Elections Act permits the parties to be divided into “major” and “minor.” Only those declared “major” are given status and privileges in order to maintain the cartel party system.

An estimated 4.7 million Canadians cast ballots in advance, a 29 per cent increase from 2015. Elections Canada opened 1,100 more polling stations than it did in 2015, and extended the early-voting hours. The number of polling places, ballot boxes and election workers all increased from 2015. Thirty-five million ballots were printed for the 2019 election. There were 20,000 polling places, 105,140 ballot boxes, and 300,000 election workers nationwide.

Notes

1. In the 42nd Parliament, the majority Liberal government was elected with 184 seats, the Conservative Party had 99 seats, the New Democratic Party elected 44 Members of Parliament, the Bloc Québécois elected 10 MPs, and the Green Party elected one MP.

Compared to 2015, the Liberals lost 29 seats, the Conservatives gained 23 seats, the NDP lost 18 seats while the Bloc Québécois gained 22 seats, and the Green Party added two seats. The People’s Party of Maxime Bernier did not elect any candidates and Bernier lost his seat.

On the dissolution of the 42nd Parliament in September 2019, the Liberals held 177 seats, the Conservatives 95, the NDP 39, the Bloc 10 and the Greens two. There were eight independents, five vacant seats, and one seat each held by Maxime Bernier’s People’s party of Canada and the Cooperative Commonwealth.

2. Voter turnout in the 2011 federal election was 61.4 of registered voters, and 68.5 per cent of registered voters in 2015, the highest turnout since 1993.

This article was published in:

Renewal Update No. 42, October 23, 2019

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Preliminary Election Results