The Canadians vote today in an election that will determine which party is the government: the Liberal Party, which is currently in power under Prime Minister Mark Carney, or the conservatives, led by Pierre Pilievre, who hope to return to power later.
This is what you should expect as the vote is carried out and after the results are known.
Who votes and what is on the ballot?
All Canadian citizens, including prisoners and people who live outside the country, are eligible to vote with an exception. The Chief Electoral Officer, the non -partisan official assigned by the Parliament to administer the electoral system, cannot launch a vote duration or its 10 -year mandate.
By tradition, the general governor, who owns the powers and responsibilities of King Charles as head of state of Canada, refrains from voting to protect the political neutrality of the office.
Voters have only one task: to select their local member in the House of Commons, the Elected Assembly of the Parliament of Canada. The next Parliament will have 343 members, an increase of five since the last elections due to population growth.
Canada uses a “first past” system, in which the candidate with the largest number of votes wins the seat, even if that total is not most of the tickets cast.
There is no vote on referendums or for other offices.
What are the problems?
The tariffs of President Trump about Canadian exports and his repeated calls to make the country as state 51 has dominated the campaign.
Many Canadians see the vote as a referendum on who can better handle Trump, while they think of a plan to classify damage to the country due to the economic agitation that the rates have created.
Surveys show that many Canadians consider Mr. Carney is more appropriate to face Mr. Trump and that has helped the Liberal Party to erase a double digit led by conservatives.
Inflation, particularly the high cost of groceries and high housing prices, were issues that Poilievre used to ascend to what once seemed a certain electoral victory before Trump began to aim at Canada and helped to boost liberals to leadership in the surveys.
Both liberals and conservatives are promising tax cuts and with the sovereignty of the country under threat, the two parties have also promised to increase military spending.
Climate change, an important issue in the previous elections, has received relatively little attention, as well as the problems related to indigenous peoples, another important area for Mr. Trudeau.
How vote?
The majority of Canadians have received a card by mail that indicates their vote and locations for four days of advanced voting, which begged April 18. Canada Elections, a non -supporting agency that manages Canada Dous Cuyo Dous Cuyo Dous Cuyo Exposed Dosse for people whose slack for people.
While having a card facilitates the vote, it is not necessary.
(Around 7.3 million Canadians obtained their duration of their vote in the advanced voting period, which took place from April 18 to April 21, according to Elections Canada, a 25 percent increase in advanced vote in the 2021 elections).
People who live outside Canada or who will not be in their communities on the day of the elections or any of the days of advance vote until April 22 to request a vote by mail, which can also be delivered to any electoral office.
There will be no votes that arrive at Canada’s elections in Ottawa after 6 east time on voting day.
Who are the leaders?
Mr. Carney, 60, the leader of the Liberal Party who has bone that serves as prime minister since the beginning of March, is a political rookie. He has had a long career in central banking and global finances.
Mr. Poilievre, 45, the leader of the Conservative Party, has been a politician for most of his adult life and is known by voters, having meticulously cured his agenda, points of conversation and image.
Two other candidates compete to maintain the representation of their matches in Parliament: Jagmeet Singh of the new Democrats, a leftist party that has focused much of his campaign on health care and that has seen his support in the surveys sink at the lowest level since 2000, and Yves-Franço Blanchet de Blobébebeis, who directs the candidates only in the candidates only in the candidates only in the candidates only in the candidates only in the candidates only in the candidates. The Green Party is also executing candidates in many districts throughout the country.
But Mr. Poilievre and Mr. Carney are widely recognized as the only two who can obtain enough support to become Prime Minister.
Who chooses Prime Minister?
No one direct. In general, the party that emerges with at least one plurality of seats in the House of Commons will ask the Governor General to allow the government to form. The leader of the party that forms the government becomes prime minister, and he or they choose a cabinet, the usual of the members of the parties in the House of the Commons.
The prime minister is not obliged to be a member of Parliament. Mr. Carney, happened to Justin Trudeau last month after the members of the Liberal Party elected him as their leader. Now he is running in his first choice, to represent a middle class suburb or Ottawa instead of the Rico neighborhood where Hey, along with many diplomats, lives.
A problem dominates
President Trump’s tariff attack against Canada and his repeated calls to the country’s annexation, since State 51 had consumed Canadians before the vote was called and continued to dominate the campaign. Many Canadians see the vote as a referendum about who can better handle Trump while devising a plan to mitigate damage to the country since the economic agitation that the president has created.
Inflation, particularly in food, and the prices of housing in much of the public were the issues that Mr. Poilievre used to ascend to what once seemed a certain electoral victory. Both liberals and conservatives are promising tax cuts.
With the sovereignty of the country now threatened, but leaders have promised to increase military spending.
Climate change, an important issue in the three previous elections, has received relatively little attention as well as the problems related to indigenous peoples, another important area for Mr. Trudeau.
When do the results know?
Canada has six time zones, but the closing times of the survey are staggered so that most of them close at 9:30 pm, east time, regardless of where they are. The westernmost province of British Columbia closes half an hour later, at 10 pm, east time. The election results, most likely, will be known on the night of April 28.
Canada uses the paper tickets that are counted by hand at each voting station, by Canadian election employees. Candidates can appoint representatives to supervise the count. No counting machines are used.
The results of the voting station are reported up to the headquarters of the Canada elections in Ottawa, which launches the online theme, immediately.
Because the polls do not move to central counting locations, the first results generally begin to drip shortly after the surveys are closed. The complete count generally extends until long after the wide result of the choice has been clarified.
The special tickets used for the people who vote by mail, prisoners, Canadians outside the country and military members are usually not counted until after the voting day to allow officials to confirm that they did not vote in person.
What happens if no party gets most seats?
Canada does not have a history of European -style coalition governments, in which several political parties come together to form a cabinet and govern. The only exception was during World War I, when the conservatives and some of the liberals of the House of Commons, together with independent members, formed a coalition to treat the growing political divisions on recruitment.
However, the minority governments formed by the party that wins most of the seats are common. They usually trust the informal support of other parties to approve legislation. But such governments live in constant danger of being demolished by losing a vote of confidence in the House of Commons or being defeated in a bill that implies taxes or money expenses.
In 1979, a progressive conservative government only lasted 66 days before being defeated, forcing another election.
The new Democrats formally agreed to support Mr. Trudeau after the 2021 elections, in exchange for the Liberal Party to adopt some of its political measures. But the new Democrats were never part of Mr. Trudeau’s government.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff Contributed reports.
April 17, 2025
:
An earlier version of this article lost the number of members in the next Parliament. It is 343, no 342.
