election day: what you need to know about voting in the 2025 federal election
9 minute read
here's everything you need to know to vote in the upcoming federal election.
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today, monday, april 28, 2025, canada chooses its next federal government. polls will be open across the city to help decide key local races and the national outcome.
several contests in ottawa could shape the final result. in carleton, conservative leader pierre poilievre faces a record number of challengers, following a spike in advance polling turnout. in nepean, former bank of canada governor mark carney is running for the liberals after the party revoked its previous nomination. who won the french language leaders’ debate and subsequent english debate could still influence close ridings and help determine who will be canada’s next prime minister.
how do i know which riding i’m in?
to find out your riding, go to the elections canada website and look for the purple box. type in your postal code, hit go, and your riding will be displayed.
ottawa-area riding profiles
what if i don’t receive a voter information card in the mail? can i vote?
absolutely. you can exercise your civic duty if you show up at your elections canada office or polling station – again, check the website for those locations – and have federal and/or provincial id which includes a photo, name and address.
if you have no id, you can also vote if you show up at the polling station with someone who can vouch for your identity and address.
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what other id is needed?
any official canadian government-issued document that includes a photo, name and address is acceptable. so, too, is a driver’s licence. failing that, two pieces of alternative id are required, one of which must include the voter’s name, photo and address. examples include a birth certificate, student id card or a government cheque, income tax assessment, social insurance number card or vehicle insurance statement. the id must be in either english or french, with the exception of nunavut, where inuktitut is acceptable.
they must be original copies and electronic information on mobile devices is okay. the one exception where photocopied information is allowed is for electors living in long-term or retirement facilities.
a full list of acceptable documents is listed on the www.elections.ca website.
who is eligible to vote?
canadians 18 or older — approximately 28 million — should’ve received postcard-sized voter information cards in the mail. the information comes from being included in the national register of electors, which was established in 1987. the file is constantly updated based on changing addresses, new voters (children becoming adults, new canadians) being added and dropping those who have died.
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the voter information card includes each voter’s name and information and their polling location. voters should take those to their polling stations on election day.
i’m a new canadian. can i vote?
naturalized citizens, who have received citizenship through immigration, are eligible to vote in federal elections.
however, permanent residents and refugee claimants are not eligible to vote until they officially become canadian citizens. in order to meet the eligibility requirements, you must hold permanent residency status, have been physically present in the country for at least 1,095 days (three years) out of the past five years, and have filed income tax in at least three of those five years.
what if i’m still confused?
you can call elections canada for help, at 1-800-463-6868
the front-runners and the underdogs
this election is extraordinary for ottawa because the national leaders of both the liberals and conservatives are running for office in districts which border each other, right here in the capital. poilievre is aiming to win his eighth consecutive election in carleton. carney, meanwhile, is running in an election for the first time, in nepean. brush up on the citizen’s coverage of the front-runners—and the underdogs—in the ridings of carleton and nepean.
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‘undaunted’ mark carney faces an extraordinary moment
ottawa — liberal leader and prime minister mark carney held a rally at the lusitania portuguese club of ottawa on easter sunday, drawing thousands of supporters to the parking lot of the club’s nepean riding location. while a handful of protesters attempted to disrupt the event, the crowd remained upbeat as attendees showed strong support for the liberal team.
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conservative leader pierre poilievre and his wife, anaida, were at the tomlinson environmental services building on moodie drive, saturday, april 12, 2025.
ashley fraser
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barbara bal, conservative candidate for the nepean riding, at her campaign office thursday, april 17, 2025.
ashley fraser
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postmedia
‘one of the impacts of someone holding a riding for as long as pierre poilievre has held carleton is some people forget it doesn’t have to be that way,’ says bruce fanjoy, the liberal candidate for carleton in the upcoming federal election.
ashley fraser
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postmedia
more federal election faq’s
is it possible to vote online in the federal election online?
nope. following the 2011 federal election then elections canada ceo marc maynard suggested that online voting was “the way of the future”. rather quietly, however, that idea disappeared before the 2015 election call, largely due to budget cuts to elections canada.
do all canadians exercise their right to go to the polls?
many people sit on the sidelines.
it will be intriguing to see if the numbers increase this time, considering all the tariff and annexation threats from trump. there’s a wave of canadian pride in the air and the no. 1 campaign issue is protecting canada from our southern neighbours.
in 2021, 62.6 per cent of eligible canadians voted, which was down from 67.0 per cent in 2019 and 68.3 in 2015, but it should be noted that some covid-19-related restrictions were in place then.
the all-time low came in 2008, when harper’s conservatives claimed victory with only 58.8 per cent of eligible adults voting.
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in contrast, the best turnout was in 1958, when progressive conservative leader john diefenbaker won a resounding majority government over lester b. pearson’s liberal party.
what’s the breakdown by age group?
generally speaking, canadians become more engaged in voting the older they get. in the 2021 election, 74.9 per cent of eligible voters between 65 and 74 went to the polls, but the numbers steadily drop from there. in the 18-24 camp, only 46.7 per cent of those with the opportunity chose to vote in 2021.
elections canada is trying to make it easier for that demographic to vote and will introduce “vote on campus” programs at 119 post-secondary campuses between april 13 and 16.
find out more about who is running in your riding:
this year, record numbers of people voted in advance polls.
ashley fraser
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postmedia
why does elections canada use paper ballots and hand-counting?
as more provinces and cities use electronic tabulators to speed up vote counts, elections canada has opted to stick with a low-tech method before the federal election: the hand count.
while elections canada has studied the issue, and recognizes automatic ballot-counting machines are “successfully and securely used in some other jurisdictions in canada and around the world,” there are several reasons it hasn’t made the switch — at least, not yet.
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james hale, b.c. media spokesman for elections canada, said the use of paper ballots and hand-counting at polling stations remains the best approach because of its “efficiency and security.”
read more: low-tech vote: why does elections canada use paper ballots and hand-counting?
how quickly will we see results on election night?
the easy answer? you’ll see results start to be posted to the elections canada website as soon as the polls close. these are, however, preliminary results, which means it could change as ballots continue to be counted and once final results are validated.
most ballots will be counted on election night, however, some types of ballots may take longer to count than others.
ballots cast on election day at an assigned voting station will be counted in the same place where the ballot was cast, right after the polls close. ballots cast on an advance voting day will be counted at the local elections canada office for that riding. these ballots will be counted on election night. special ballots, such as mail-in ballots or ballots cast at an elections canada office, will be counted at the local elections canada office after polls close on election day.
according to elections canada’s preliminary figures, about 2 million voters hit their local advance voting station on friday alone.
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special ballots cast by voters outside their riding (ie. those living abroad or away from their riding, students, travellers, canadian armed forces, incarcerated voters) will be counted at elections canada’s facility in ottawa. these ballots can be counted up to 14 days before election day if needed.
ballots in the federal election are counted manually.
no matter where the counting takes place, ballots are always counted by at least two elections canada workers. counting is also supervised by multiple witnesses, either candidate or party representatives.
who are the party leaders?
mark carney, 60, took over as head of the liberal party in early march after winning a leadership race that followed the resignation of justin trudeau. carney was born in the northwest territories and grew up in alberta before studying at both harvard and oxford university. he worked in the canadian finance department and private industry before serving as governor of the bank of canada and the bank of england. he joined trudeau’s economic growth task force in 2024.
conservative leader pierre poilievre, 45, was born in calgary and attended the university of ottawa before being elected in the nepean-carleton (now carleton) riding in 2004 at the age of 25. under former prime minister stephen harper, poilievre served as minister of employment and social development. he succeeded erin o’toole as head of the conservative party in 2022 following a leadership race.
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jagmeet singh, 46, replaced tom mulcair as ndp leader in 2017. singh attended high school in the united and graduated from western ontario (now western university) and york university’s osgoode hall law school. he was a criminal defence lawyer before he was elected to the ontario legislature as an mpp, and later became federal ndp leader. he has represented the riding of burnaby south since 2019.
the green party has chosen to have jonathan pedneault and long-term leader elizabeth may be co-leaders. pedneault will, however, serve as the party’s public face and will represent it in campaign debates. pednault, who will turn 35 during the campaign, is running in the montreal riding of outrement. may has represented the riding of saanich—gulf islands since 2011.
yves-françois blanchet, 59, won the bloc québécois leadership in 2019. a former member of quebec’s national assembly, he represented the parti québécois from 2008 to 2014. he has represented the riding of beloeil—chambly since 2019.
neither carney nor poilievre has led a party through an election campaign, while singh, blanchet and may have all done so.
so carney replaces trudeau. when was the last time the leader of a ruling party stepped down before contesting an election?
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in 2003, then prime minister jean chrétien was feeling heat from within the liberal party and was facing the threat of an internal leadership review amid a bitter feud with paul martin, his former finance minister.
chrétien resigned and martin took over, eventually winning the 2004 election over the conservatives headed by stephen harper, but with a reduced minority in parliament.
in 1993, kim campbell took over from brian mulroney as progressive conservative leader, becoming canada’s first and only female prime minister. in the election later that year, the pc’s were reduced to a mere two seats from the 154 they had before the election was called.
how many ridings are there in canada? what’s the breakdown by province and territory?
there are now 343 ridings in canada, up from 338 in the 2021 election. ontario, with 122 seats, contains 35.6 per cent of all ridings in the country. quebec has 78 seats (22.7 per cent). between them, that’s an even 200 seats.
there are 43 seats in british columbia, 37 in alberta, 14 each in saskatchewan and manitoba, 11 in nova scotia, 10 in new brunswick, seven in newfoundland and labrador and four in prince edward island. yukon, the northwest territories and nunavut each have one representative in the house.
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to win a majority government, one party would need to capture at least 172 seats.
what was the count from the 2021 federal election?
the liberals, then led by trudeau, were re-elected to a minority government after winning 157 seats. the conservatives, headed by o’toole, captured 119. interestingly, the conservatives actually had a larger share of the popular vote (34.3 per cent) than the liberals (33.1 per cent). the bloc québécois, with blanchet in charge, claimed 32 seats (7.6 per cent), followed by the ndp’s singh (24 seats, 16 per cent) and the green party led by annamie paul (three seats, 6.6 per cent).
with files from stephanie ip and glenda luymes.
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