Closing summary
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has led the Liberal party to a fourth term in office, in a race that was upended by threats and aggression from Donald Trump.
As it stands, the Liberals are leading with 168 seats, or 43.6% of votes. The Conservatives are on 144 seats, Bloc Québécois on 23 and the New Democratic party on 7 seats.
Here’s what you need to know:
Some ridings are still too close to call, but results suggest the Liberals fell just short of a majority government and will therefore need the support of political rivals to govern. Monday’s vote appeared likely to produce a similar result as the previous federal election, with the Liberals and the NDP together holding enough seats to pass legislation.
The results marked a remarkable recovery for the Liberals who were, until recently, on track for electoral devastation. The Liberal triumph capped a miraculous political resurrection and marked a landmark victory for Carney, the former central banker and political novice who only recently succeeded Justin Trudeau as prime minister.
Carney used his victory speech to claim that Trump wanted to “break us, so that America can own us”, adding: “That will never, ever happen,” to cheers from the crowd. In an interview with the BBC, Carney said Canada deserves and expects respect from the US and will only enter trade and security talks with Trump “on our terms”.
In a shock result, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre lost the seat he has held since 2004, even as his party performed better than had previously been expected. The Tory leader pledged to keep his job during his election night speech. The Conservatives had for the past two years seemed all but certain to form a government, but their 25-point poll lead evaporated within weeks of Trump’s threats and the emergence of Carney as the new Liberal leader.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the progressive New Democratic party (NDP) leader, also lost his seat in a national vote that saw the NDP have their worst-ever result. In an emotional speech, Singh announced he would resign as leader. The progressive party failed to meet the 12-seat threshold needed to retain official party status.
French president Macron congratulates Carney and says they had 'excellent discussion'
Prime minister Mark Carney has spoken today with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, following his election victory.
Macron, in a post on X, said he had an “excellent discussion” with Carney, adding:
I congratulated him on his election, and we reviewed the joint projects between Canada and France, as well as the challenges ahead of the G7 Summit in Kananaskis this June.
Updated
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the Progressive Conservative party leader who has served as the premier of Ontario since 2018, has congratulated Mark Carney on his victory in the federal elections.
In a statement, Ford said the election comes at a “crucial time” when workers, families and businesses are “navigating the economic uncertainty caused by President [Donald] Trump’s tariffs.”
Ontario stands ready to work with the federal government to unleash our economy by cutting red tape so we can make Canada’s economy more competitive, resilient and self-reliant, capable of withstanding tariffs and whatever challenges may come our way.
Ford added:
As Premier of Ontario, I look forward to working with Prime Minister Carney to protect the workers, businesses and communities of Ontario and Canada.
Jagmeet Singh announced late last night that he will step down as leader of the left-wing New Democratic party (NDP) after conceding the loss of his seat in Burnaby Central.
Singh said he would stay on in the interim until a new leader was found.
During his concession speech, Singh choked back tears several times as he spoke about his love for his party, family and the hope for the future. Here’s a clip:
'We'll see', says Carney on when he will speak to Trump
Prime minister Mark Carney, as he arrived at his office in Ottawa on Tuesday, was asked when he planned to speak to Donald Trump.
“We will see,” he said, adding he and the US president would speak “like two sovereign nations,” Canadian press reported.
Asked if he would call a byelection so that opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, who lost his seat in the Ontario district of Carleton to the Liberal party, could run for a seat in parliament, Carney said results are still coming in.
Asked how his night went, Carney replied: "“It was fun. Not a lot of sleep!”
Former prime minister Stephen Harper has posted his congratulations to Mark Carney and the Liberal party for its election victory.
“I wish him, and the government he will lead, success as they navigate our country forward during these challenging times,” the former Conservative leader wrote in a post on X.
Harper also congratulated Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative party on making “significant gains, both in seats and popular vote” and on “bringing an entire new generation of Canadians to the Conservative Party”.
Poilievre was a minister in Harper’s government between 2013 and 2015.
Mark Carney said there was a “win-win possibility” for Canada if it could secure a deal with the US and also build on trading relationships with the EU and the UK.
“We could expand the level of integration between our countries, like-minded countries.” he told the BBC, adding:
You think about defence partnerships, and those conversations have just just begun, so there’s a lot that we can do.
The Canadian leader said Donald Trump’s threat of making Canada the “51st state” of America was “never, ever going to happen”:
Frankly, I don’t think it’s ever going to happen with respect to any other [country]... whether it’s Panama or Greenland or elsewhere.
Canada 'deserves respect from US' and will deal with it 'on our terms', says Carney
Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney said his country deserves and expects respect from the US and will only enter trade and security talks with Donald Trump “on our terms”.
Carney, in an interview with the BBC, said he would only visit Washington when there was a “serious discussion to be had” that respected Canada’s sovereignty.
Talks with Trump would be “on our terms, not on their terms,” he said, adding:
There is a partnership to be had, an economic and security partnership … It’s going to be a very different one than we’ve had in the past.
Canada was the “biggest client for more than 40 states” in the US, Carney noted:
We deserve respect. We expect respect and I’m sure we’ll get it in due course again, and then we can have these discussions.
Elections Canada has resumed counting ballots after pausing overnight, and it says it expects preliminary results for all ridings to be available today.
As it stands, it reports that 19,217,507 of 28,525,638 registered electors have cast ballots, making it a 67.37% voter turnout.
CBC has not yet declared whether the Liberals will form a minority or majority government.
How Carney's victory owes much to Trump and circumstance
Mark Carney, the economist, banker and politician, has long professed a simple article of faith when navigating through crisis:
A plan beats no plan.
And his rapid ascent to Canada’s top job might be taken as evidence of such preparation.
But Carney’s election victory on Monday was shaped by a series of chance events that hinged more on luck and circumstance than meticulous forethought.
Half a year ago, the Liberal party was in crisis. The Liberals trailed the Conservatives by more than 20 points and the country’s two polling aggregators had the odds of a Conservative victory at greater than 99%.
Read the full analysis: Carney’s victory owes much to Trump and circumstance
Updated
Prime minister Mark Carney has been photographed walking to his office in Ottawa, Ontario, on Tuesday fresh off his electoral victory.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and British prime minister Keir Starmer were among the first to congratulate Carney on his party’s victory.
“The bond between Europe and Canada is strong and growing stronger,” von der Leyen said. “I look forward to working closely together, both bilaterally and within the G7. We’ll defend our shared democratic values, promote multilateralism, and champion free and fair trade.”
Starmer said he looked forward to Carney’s leadership on international issues, and to continuing to work closely “on defence, security, trade and investment”.
Canada's opposition leader Poilievre loses his seat in federal election
Canada’s main opposition leader Pierre Poilievre lost his seat in Monday’s general election, results from Elections Canada showed, as the Conservatives were beaten by the incumbent Liberal Party.
Poilievre, 45, failed to retain his seat in the Ontario district of Carleton, losing it to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy.
The Liberal Party’s victory means prime minister Mark Carney, former head of the central Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, will lead a minority government.
The Liberals secured 168 seats, short of the 172 required to form a majority government. The opposition Conservatives, led by Poilievre, won 144 seats.
That was an improvement on their performance in the 2021 election, but marked an upset as the Liberals, who were trailing in the polls, staged a comeback in the last three months.
In a victory speech before supporters in Ottawa, Carney stressed the importance of Canadian unity in the face of Washington’s threats.
He also said the mutually beneficial system Canada and the US had shared since the second world war had ended.
Carney celebrates win and insists Trump’s America will never ‘own us’
Hello and welcome to the Canada election 2025 live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next hour or so.
Mark Carney used his victory speech to claim Donald Trump wanted to “break us” as he led Canada’s Liberal party to a fourth term in office, in a race that was upended by threats and aggression from the US president.
The Liberal triumph capped a miraculous political resurrection and marked a landmark victory for Carney, the former central banker and political novice who only recently succeeded Justin Trudeau as prime minister.
Results early on Tuesday suggested the Liberals fell just short of a majority government and would therefore need the support of political rivals to govern.
Mirroring a theme of the campaign, Carney told election-night supporters that Trump wanted to “break us, so that America can own us”, adding: “That will never, ever happen,” to shouts from the crowd.
He also gave a stark assessment of a world order once defined by an integrated global trading system with the US at the centre, saying such a system was over, and he pledged to reshape Canada’s relationships with other nations.
For the full report on events so far, see here:
In other news:
The polls are still being counted. But as things stand the Liberals are leading with 168 seats. They need 172 for a majority. If the party falls short of the magic number it would need the support of political rivals to govern as a minority government.
The Conservatives will probably remain in opposition as the second-largest party. The party have currently secured 144 seats, with 99% of polls having reported results.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre lost in Carleton, Ontario, a seat he had held for two decades, to a Liberal candidate. “Conservatives will work with the prime minister and all parties with the common goal of defending Canada’s interests and getting a new trade deal that puts these tariffs behind us while protecting our sovereignty,” Poilievre told his supporters in Ottawa.
Even though he has lost his seat in the House of Commons, Poilievre remains the de facto Conservative leader for now.
The two main parties – Liberals and the Conservatives - saw a rise in their share of the national vote compared with four years ago as the smaller parties (Bloc Québécois, the New Democratic Party, the Green party and the People’s Party got squeezed out).
Carney, the former Bank of England governor who replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister just last month, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.
The left-leaning New Democratic party saw many of its supporters defect to Carney, and fell from 24 seats to fewer than 10; its leader, Jagmeet Singh, announced his resignation after being pushed into third place in his own seat. The separatist Bloc Québécois also saw its support collapse, falling from 32 seats to a projected 23 (you can read more in this summary of the election’s results).
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