The 2021 Canadian federal election was held on September 20, 2021, to elect members of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

to the

44th Canadian Parliament The 44th Canadian Parliament is the session of the Parliament of Canada which began on 22 November 2021, with the membership of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, having been determined by the results of the 2021 Canadian federal ...

. The

writs of election A writ of election is a writ issued ordering the holding of an election. In Commonwealth countries writs are the usual mechanism by which general elections are called and are issued by the head of state or their representative. In the United S ...

were issued by

Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

Mary Simon Mary Jeannie May Simon (in Inuktitut syllabics: ᒥᐊᓕ ᓴᐃᒪᓐ, iu, script=Latn, Ningiukudluk; born August 21, 1947) is a Canadian civil servant, diplomat, and former broadcaster who has served as the 30th governor general of Canada ...

on August 15, 2021, when

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...

requested the

dissolution of parliament The dissolution of a legislative assembly is the mandatory simultaneous resignation of all of its members, in anticipation that a successive legislative assembly will reconvene later with possibly different members. In a democracy, the new assemb ...

for a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

. Trudeau won a third term as prime minister, his second

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...

. Though the Liberals were hoping to win a

majority government A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. This is as opposed to a minority government, where the largest party in a legislature only has a plurality of seats. ...

to govern alone, the results were mostly unchanged from the

2019 Canadian federal election The 2019 Canadian federal election was held on October 21, 2019. Member of Parliament (Canada), Members of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons were elected to the 43rd Canadian Parliament. In keeping with the Fixed election dates in ...

. The Liberals won the most seats at 160; as this fell short of the 170 seats needed for a majority in the House of Commons, they formed a minority government with support from other parties. The Liberals set a record for the lowest vote share of a party that would go on to form government, winning 32.6 per cent of the popular vote, while losing the popular vote to the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

as they did in 2019. The Conservatives led by

Erin O'Toole Erin Michael O'Toole (born January 22, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Durham since 2012. A member of the Conservative Party, O'Toole served as the party's leader and the leader of the Official ...

won 119 seats, two fewer than their result in 2019, and continued as the Official Opposition. The

Bloc Québécois The Bloc Québécois (BQ; , "Québécois people, Quebecer Voting bloc, Bloc") is a list of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty movement, Que ...

led by

Yves-François Blanchet Yves-François Blanchet (; born April 16, 1965) is a Canadian politician who has served as leader of the Bloc Québécois (BQ) since 2019. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beloeil—Chambly since the 2019 election. Before federal ...

won 32 seats, unchanged from the prior election. The

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

led by

Jagmeet Singh Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal ( ; born January 2, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) since 2017. Singh has sat as the member of Parliament (MP) for Burnaby South since 2019.Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

maintained two seats but party leader

Annamie Paul Annamie Paul (born November 3, 1972) is a Canadian activist, lawyer, and former politician who served as the leader of the Green Party of Canada from 2020 to 2021. She was the first Black Canadian and first Jewish woman to be elected leader of ...

was defeated for the third time in her riding of

Toronto Centre Toronto Centre (french: Toronto-Centre) is a federal electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1872 to 1925, and since 1935, under the names Centre Toronto (1872–1903) ...

. The party received 2.3 per cent of the popular vote, approximately a third of what they won in 2019. The People's Party did not win any seats, despite winning nearly 5 per cent of the popular vote, and party leader

Maxime Bernier Maxime Bernier (born January 18, 1963) is a Canadian politician who is the founder and leader of the People's Party of Canada (PPC). Formerly a member of the Conservative Party, Bernier left the caucus in 2018 to form the PPC. He was the membe ...

was defeated for the second time in his riding of

Beauce Beauce may refer to: * Beauce, France, a natural region in northern France * Beaucé, a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, Brittany, France * Beauce, Quebec, an historical and cultural region of Canada ** Beauce (electoral district), a fed ...

. Following the election, Paul resigned as Green Party leader two months after the election, and O'Toole was ousted as leader by his party's caucus in February 2022 over the poor showing in the election and other controversies ongoing at the time. In March 2022, the NDP formed a

confidence and supply In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house. A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of parl ...

agreement with the Liberals.

Background

The

resulted in the Liberals, led by incumbent Prime Minister

, losing both their parliamentary

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webstermost seats and remaining in office as a

. The

, who had gained seats and won the popular vote, continued as the Official Opposition. The

regained

official party status Official party status refers to the Westminster practice which is officially used in the Parliament of Canada and the provincial legislatures of recognizing parliamentary caucuses of political parties. In official documents, this is sometimes re ...

and became the third party, replacing the

New Democrats New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as culturall ...

in that role, with the latter party losing seats but maintaining official party status as the fourth party. Although the Greens increased their seats in the

, they ultimately failed to achieve the required number of MPs (twelve) for official party status, and no other party won any seats. In the immediate aftermath of the 2019 federal election, all leaders initially announced that they would continue as the heads of their respective parties into the 43rd Canadian Parliament.

Elizabeth May Elizabeth Evans May (born June 9, 1954) is a Canadian politician, environmentalist, author, activist, and lawyer who is serving as the leader of the Green Party of Canada since 2022, and previously served as the leader from 2006 to 2019. Sh ...

said that she might not lead the Greens into the 44th federal election, and ultimately resigned as Green Party leader on November 4, 2019. On November 6, 2019, the members of the Conservative caucus decided to not adopt a measure which would have given them the ability to remove

Andrew Scheer Andrew James Scheer (born May 20, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Regina—Qu'Appelle since 2004. Scheer served as the 35th speaker of the House of Commons from 2011 to 2015, and was the lead ...

as leader; his leadership would still have been reviewed at the party's next convention, which was scheduled for April 2020. On December 12, Scheer announced his intention to resign as leader. He stayed on until his successor

was chosen and remains as the MP for

Regina—Qu'Appelle Regina–Qu'Appelle (formerly Qu'Appelle) is a federal electoral district in Saskatchewan, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1904 to 1968 and since 1988. Geography The district includes the northeastern qu ...

. On August 15, 2021, after a request from Prime Minister Trudeau, the governor general dissolved parliament and called an election for September 20. The election was called on the same day as the fall of Kabul.

Political parties and standings

The table below lists parties represented and seats held in the House of Commons after the 2019 federal election, at dissolution, and after the 2021 federal election. An expected by-election in

Haldimand—Norfolk Haldimand—Norfolk is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1979 to 1997, and since 2004. The current Member of Parliament (MP) is Conservative Leslyn Lewis. Geogr ...

to fill the vacant seat was rendered moot by the commencement of the general election. CanadianFederalElection2021PollingStation

Incumbents not running for re-election

Below are the 31 MPs who chose not to run in the 2021 federal election.

Incumbent not renominated

One MP was not renominated by his party:

Timeline

2019

*November 4, 2019:

resigns as leader of the

Green Party of Canada The Green Party of Canada (french: Parti vert du Canada) is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1983 with a focus on green politics. The Green Party is currently the fifth largest party in the House of Commons by seat count. It el ...

, triggering a leadership election scheduled for October 2020. *December 12, 2019:

announces his intention to step down as leader of the

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...

, triggering a leadership election scheduled for August 2020.

2020

*August 23–24, 2020:

is elected leader of the Conservative Party. *October 3, 2020:

is elected leader of the Green Party.

2021

*August 15, 2021: Parliament is dissolved and writs of election are dropped. *September 2, 2021: 1st French language leaders' debate, organized by

TVA Nouvelles TVA Nouvelles is the news division of TVA, a French language television network in Canada. Programs produced by the division include nightly local and national newscasts branded as ''TVA Nouvelles'', as well as the news magazine program ''JE' ...

. *September 8, 2021: 2nd French language leaders' debate, organized by the Leaders' Debate Commission. *September 9, 2021: English language leaders' debate, organized by the Leaders' Debate Commission. *September 10–13, 2021: Advance polling. *September 14, 2021: Last day to apply online for mail-in voting. Last day to vote by Special Ballot at a Returning Office. *September 20, 2021: Election Day.

Endorsements

Campaign

Early campaign (August 2021)

Canadian federal election 2021 in Rosemont

The election call occurred at the same time as the fall of Kabul, on August 15. Trudeau thus received criticism for not acting fast enough in the face of the

2021 Taliban offensive A military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and other allied militants led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan based in Kabul and marked the end of the nearly 20-year-old War in Afghanistan, that had begun following the ...

to evacuate Canadians from Afghanistan, as well as Afghans who supported Canada's military and diplomatic efforts during the War. Criticism of Trudeau's decision to call an early election, particularly amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

, was a major theme of his opponents' campaigns, and commentators noted a lack of support for a snap election amongst the public. The beginning of the campaign proved difficult for the Liberals, who slightly fell behind the Conservatives in the polls of voting intentions. The Conservative released their platform on the second day of the campaign. The party tried to change its image with this document by putting more focus on the environment, mental health, and LGBTQ+ rights issues. Meanwhile, Trudeau attacked the new Conservative leader Erin O'Toole on the topics of compulsory vaccination for federal officials, abortion and the privatization of health care. On August 25, Minister for Women and Gender Equality

Maryam Monsef Maryam Monsef ( fa, مریم منصف) (born Monsefzadeh; November 7, 1984) is an Afghan Canadian former politician. She first was elected to represent the riding of Peterborough—Kawartha as a Liberal member the House of Commons of Canad ...

referred to the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

as "our brothers". Many on social media shared the video of this statement, and saw this as an indication that she felt sympathetic to the terrorist group. Monsef said that this was false, and further stated that she only chose those words because Muslims tend to refer to each other as "brothers". On August 27, 2021, Trudeau was forced to cancel a campaign rally set for

Bolton, Ontario Bolton (2021 population 26,795) is an unincorporated village that is the most populous community in the town of Caledon, Ontario. It is located beside the Humber River in the Region of Peel, approximately 50 kilometres northwest of Toronto. In r ...

, over security concerns arising from groups of protestors yelling obscenities at Trudeau. There were previous incidents of protesters showing up at his rallies criticizing

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

s and public health measures.

Issues on the campaign trail

Foreign policy

Foreign policy debates focused on

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and the situation in Afghanistan. For Afghanistan, discussions focused on ways to mitigate the immediate humanitarian crisis facing the country. The group ''Canadian Campaign for Afghan Peace'' launched an open letter on August 17 calling on political parties to take position of the new situation in Afghanistan. The campaign took place during the

extradition case of Meng Wanzhou On December 1, 2018, Huawei's board deputy chair Meng Wanzhou was detained upon arrival at Vancouver International Airport by Canada Border Services Agency officers for questioning, which lasted three hours.Chiang, Chuck. December 24, 2019.Year i ...

, which had exacerbated tensions between Canada and China. O'Toole accused Trudeau of being "weak on China", and promised to scale up Canada's hostility towards the country if elected. According to Shadwick Martin, the tendency to relegate defence and foreign policy to minor appearances continued in 2021. He argues that the Liberals did not deviate from their government's existing foreign policy, while the Conservatives produced a lengthy list of reforms that one commentator described as "scattered and unfocused". The NDP's propositions were essentially unchanged from 2019.

Climate change

As in 2019, Climate change was a major issue in the campaign. In March 2021, Conservative leader O'Toole announced a carbon pricing plan to replace the current Liberal

carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions required to produce goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the "hidden" social costs of carbon emissions, which are otherwise felt only in indirect ways like more sev ...

, despite previous Conservative opposition to any form of a carbon tax. There was thus a broad consensus among all represented parties for policies to mitigate climate change, although they differed in the emissions targets, the level of the carbon tax, and the transition path to a clean economy. Only the People's Party opposed all climate change policies and vowed to withdraw from the

Paris climate accord The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and ...

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic was a major campaign issue. The Liberal party sought to defend its pandemic response, while trying to tie Erin O'Toole to Alberta Premier

Jason Kenney Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a Canadian former politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022 and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member of ...

. O'Toole always sidestepped questions about his previous support for Kenney's pandemic response by saying he would work with any premier to face the pandemic regardless of their political stripes. During the campaign, Alberta was experiencing its worst wave of the pandemic in terms of hospitalisations. Meanwhile other parties explained what they would have done differently had they been in a similar situation. The Bloc Québecois criticized the amount of money invested in

Federal aid A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

for workers, especially the

Canada Emergency Response Benefit The Government of Canada introduced multiple temporary social security and financial aid programs in response to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The initial CA$82-billion aid package was announced on March 18, 2020 by Jus ...

(CERB). The NDP, on the other hand, criticized the government's "aggressive" crackdown on possibly fraudulent CERB claims, while calling for clawing back wage subsidy payments to companies who fired their workers while received this benefit. The People's Party was the only party opposing vaccine passports,

mask mandate During the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks or coverings, including N95, FFP2, surgical, and cloth masks, have been employed as public and personal health control measures against the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In com ...

s and

lockdowns A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison ...

Gun control

In September 2021, O'Toole changed his position on

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...

. Reverting from his initial promise of repealing Prime Minister Trudeau's May 2020 ban on assault weapons, he changed his stance on the issue, promising that he would not repeal the ban. Political commentators and analysts described O'Toole's leadership as shifting the Conservative Party to the

political centre Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the ...

Implosion of the Green Party

The

experienced a period of infighting beginning in June 2021, when

Jenica Atwin Jenica Atwin ('' née'' Powell; born January 10, 1987) is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent the riding of Fredericton in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2019 Canadian federal election. Atwin was the first Member of Pa ...

, one of its three MPs,

crossed the floor Crossed may refer to: * ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis * ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie * "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead'' S ...

to join the Liberal Party over a dispute regarding the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis. Although there were calls for the party leader

to resign, she stayed on as leader through the federal election. She spent the majority of the election campaigning in her chosen riding of

, but failed to win the seat.

Rise of the People's Party

The campaign was also marked by a rise in support for the People's Party of Canada. Before the election, Mainstreet Research gave the party more than 8 per cent of the vote, and

Abacus Data Abacus Data is a Canadian polling and market research firm based in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in August 2010,

noted particularly high scores among Canadians under the age of 60.

and

indirectly accused the Conservatives for the rise of the PPC, with Trudeau notably criticizing Erin O'Toole for not requiring his party's candidates to be vaccinated.

Campaign slogans

Policy platforms

Platform evaluations

The

Parliamentary Budget Officer The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (OPBO; ) is an office of the Parliament of Canada which provides independent, authoritative and non-partisan financial and economic analysis. The office is led by the Parliamentary Budget Officer ...

provides a service to all parties for evaluating the financial impact of any of their proposals, but does not release details until the requesting party has done so as well. After the election, the PBO revealed that 130 requests had been received from all parties, of which only 72 were made public. It did release a report outlining various baselines that were used in its costing exercises. The Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

announced that their analysis of fiscal credibility showed the Liberal party had the best grade, as shown by the following ratings:

Leaders' debates

In June 2020, the

Leaders' Debates Commission The Leaders' Debates Commission is the independent Canadian government agency which was charged with organizing two debates, one in English and one in French, between the leaders of eligible political parties during the 2019 Canadian federal elec ...

released its report reviewing the 2019 election debates and making recommendations for future debates. The report recommended a permanent and publicly funded commission be tasked with organizing two debates for every federal election. It also called for the commission, not the government, to set the criteria for participation in future election debates. The English-language debate gained notoriety when the moderator posed a question to Blanchet that characterized Quebec's law on secularism as "discriminatory". He challenged her use of that word, and the response was seen by some as a turning point in the Bloc's campaign, which gained in the polls after the debate. On August 29,

Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (formerly known as Télévision de Radio-Canada) is a Canadian French-language free-to-air television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada), the national pub ...

hosted a special broadcast consisting of a series of solo interviews with each leader in turn, with questions posed by Patrice Roy,

Céline Galipeau Céline Galipeau, OC, OQ, is a Canadian news anchor for Radio-Canada. Well known for her comprehensive and insightful coverage from Moscow, she is currently the weekday anchor of the network's flagship newscast ''Le Téléjournal''. Early li ...

and Anne-Marie Dussault. This format was not attempted by any of the other broadcasters.

Opinion polls

Opinion polling during the campaign period of the 2021 Canadian federal election

Polls in key provinces

Results

Results by province

Timelines (1993-2021)

Summary results

Canadian election 2021 seat and vote shares

Full results

The Liberals maintained their status as largest party in the House of Commons. The results were very close to those of the 2019 federal election. 2021 House of Commons of Canada election

2021 House of Commons of Canada election

Special ballots in the election

Judicial recounts

In a federal election, a

judicial recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

is automatically ordered in a riding where the

margin of victory {{Short pages monitor