Canada election 2025: What you need to know

Canadians in Montreal, Canada, will vote in a federal election that will take place in the midst of a trade dispute with the United States next month.

As he attempts to capitalize on the momentum of his Liberal Party since the start of the year, Prime Minister Mark Carney sparked the vote on Sunday.

The five-week election campaign will be dominated by experts’ predictions of strong leadership and a push for strong leadership to counter US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.

What are the key facts about the election in Canada?

The election will take place when?

On April 28th, the parliamentary elections will take place.

Federal campaign periods must be at least 37 days long, but no longer than 51 days, according to Canadian election rules.

This year’s campaign will be the shortest allowed by law, with Carney triggering the vote on Sunday and Election Day scheduled for April 28.

What is the procedure for the election?

The 343 ridings of the federal government are located in Canada.

In the riding where they currently reside, eligible voters can cast a ballot for their favorite candidate.

The election system in the country uses first-past-the-post voting, which means that the candidate receives the most votes, even if they don’t receive the majority of the votes.

The House of Commons, Canada’s lower house of parliament, will then house them in their respective seats.

Who will be the next leader of the United Nations?

The party that receives the most Commons seats typically needs to form a government in Canada’s parliamentary system. If a party can form an agreement with another party or parties to pass legislation if it has the most seats but not enough to achieve an outright majority.

Canadians do not elect their own prime minister, but the leader of the largest party also assumes that position.

Who will be running for office?

There are four significant federal political parties in Canada.

At the dissolution of Parliament, the Liberals had 152 seats in place of the previous government, which was in place since 2015. Justin Trudeau, who formally resigned as prime minister on March 14th, gave Carney the opportunity to assume the position.

With 120 seats in the previous Parliament, the Conservative Party was Canada’s sole political opposition. Pierre Poilievre, a legislator from the Ottawa region known for his populist rhetoric, is in charge of the party.

Before the campaign started, Jagmeet Singh’s party, which is left-leaning, had 24 parliamentary seats. A Trudeau-led Liberal minority government had previously been supported by the NDP, but it withdrew from that agreement in September of last year.

33 members of the House of Commons were members of the Bloc Quebecois, which only runs candidates in Quebec. Yves-Francois Blanchet serves as their leader.

The Green Party of Canada, which had two seats in Parliament at the dissolution but isn’t expected to gain significantly in the upcoming vote, is another big party.

The polls’ answers: what are they?

The Conservatives had what many believed to be a clear path to a parliamentary majority up until as recently as January.

However, Trump’s threats against Canada have changed: Most recent polls now indicate that the Liberals are either leading the Tories or in a neck-and-neck fight with their rivals. This is in addition to Trudeau’s resignation and Carney’s ascendancy as the Liberal Party’s new leader.

The Liberals received 37.5 percent of the support from the CBC News Poll Tracker, which aggregates national polling data, compared to 37.1 percent for the Conservatives on Sunday.

The Bloc Quebecois, which had a 6.4% share, came in third place with 11.6 percent, followed by the NDP, who was 6.4%. 3.8% for the Greens.

As the election campaign sprang to a close third place, according to CBC, “The Liberals and Conservatives are effectively tied in national polls.”

“If the Liberals were to hold the election today, the party would likely win the most seats and possibly a majority government because their support is distributed more effectively across the country.”

What issues will predominate in the race?

Opposition parties had hoped that affordability issues, such as rising grocery and housing costs, would dominate the 2025 election.

Trump’s tariffs and threats to “make Canada” the “51st state” of the US have sparked a new conversation.

According to experts, which party will be best suited to handle Trump and maintain Canada-US ties will be the central “ballot question” in the election campaign.

Source: Aljazeera