Parliamentary Elections in Canada: Months were at the bottom, liberals celebrated at night

29. Apr 2025 at 8:00

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From Ottawa from our collaborator Branislav Ondrášik

It is seven o’clock in the evening and on the east coast of Canada just closed the first polling stations. There are 32 parliamentary places in the game, until recently 23 of them belonged to the Liberal Party.

Census of the votes only begins. In the sports arena in Ottawa, on the election night of liberals, feel nervous. After an hour on the screen screens, a draw – 13 votes for liberals, 13 for conservatives, although it is still just a handful of 343 -member parliament. A few minutes later it is 21 to 10 mandates.

The election night has started better for the Canadian Conservatives, but there is no enthusiasm among volunteers in the staff of liberals. « Although it seems uncomfortably tightly, » says one of them. Unlike the United States, voices are added manually, as in many countries, so the results change only slowly.

Three hours later, however, it will change and the roaring crowd of liberal supporters will be heard from the huge television screens the result in which they believed: « Liberals have won ».

Some hugs. The election night is not yet over, because it is still unclear whether the liberals will gain the majority or will have to rely on the support of smaller parties. To create a majority government, they must receive at least 172 seats in the 343-member lower chamber of Parliament.

However, it is clear that this is their fourth victory in a row. Only three months ago, the unpopular liberals lagging behind in some surveys by three tens of percentage points. In Ottawa, they celebrated the unprecedented « comeback » on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump.

Two leaders, neighboring districts

Liberals celebrated the election night in the Ottawa TD Place Arena. Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney ran here in Ottawa right in the district adjacent to where the leader of the Conservative Pierre Pierre stood. Even their election headquarters in Ottawa are not far apart. Poilievre was less than ten minutes of driving from here with his supporters in the Rogers Congress Hall.