2015 Canadian federal election

2015 Canadian federal election
← 2011 October 19, 2015 (2015-10-19) 2019 →
338 seats in the House of Commons
170 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout68.3%[1] (Increase7.2pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Justin Trudeau APEC 2015 (cropped).jpg
Stephen Harper 2014 (cropped).jpg
Thomas Mulcair 2015 (cropped).jpg
Leader Justin Trudeau Stephen Harper Tom Mulcair
Party Liberal Conservative New Democratic
Leader since April 14, 2013 March 20, 2004 March 24, 2012
Leader's seat Papineau Calgary Heritage Outremont
Last election 34 seats, 18.91% 166 seats, 39.62% 103 seats, 30.63%
Seats before 36 159 95
Seats won 184 99 44
Seat change Increase148 Decrease60 Decrease51
Popular vote 6,942,937 5,613,633 3,469,368
Percentage 39.47% 31.91% 19.72%
Swing Increase20.56pp Decrease7.71pp Decrease10.91pp
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Gilles Duceppe 2011 (cropped).jpg
Elizabeth May 2014 (cropped).jpg
Leader Gilles Duceppe Elizabeth May
Party Bloc Québécois Green
Leader since June 10, 2015 August 27, 2006
Leader's seat Ran in Laurier—Sainte-Marie (lost) Saanich—Gulf Islands
Last election 4 seats, 6.04% 1 seat, 3.91%
Seats before 2 2
Seats won 10 1
Seat change Increase8 Decrease1
Popular vote 821,144 602,933
Percentage 4.67% 3.43%
Swing Decrease1.38pp Decrease0.49pp
Prime Minister before election

Stephen Harper
Conservative

Prime Minister after election

Justin Trudeau
Liberal

The 2015 Canadian federal election held on October 19, 2015, saw the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, win 184 seats, allowing it to form a majority government with Trudeau becoming the next prime minister.

The election was held to elect members to the House of Commons of the 42nd Canadian Parliament. In keeping with the maximum four year term under a 2007 amendment to the Canada Elections Act, the writs of election for the 2015 election were issued by Governor General David Johnston on August 4. The ensuing campaign was one of the longest in Canadian history.[2] It was also the first time since the 1979 election that a prime minister attempted to remain in office into a fourth consecutive Parliament and the first time since the 1980 election that someone attempted to win a fourth term of any kind as prime minister.

The Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, won 184 seats, allowing it to form a majority government with Trudeau becoming the next prime minister.[3] Trudeau and the rest of his cabinet were sworn in on November 4, 2015.[4] The Conservative Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper, won 99 seats, becoming the Official Opposition after nearly a decade on the government benches. The New Democratic Party, led by Tom Mulcair, won 44 seats, becoming the third-largest party in the House of Commons, after having formed the Official Opposition following the 2011 election.[5] The Bloc Québécois won 10 seats, the Green Party won 1 seat, and Strength in Democracy lost all its seats.

The Liberal Party's increase of 148 seats from the previous election was the largest-ever numerical increase by a party in a Canadian election. Prior to the campaign, the Liberals had held only 36 seats—the fewest seats ever held at dissolution by any federal party that won the following election. The Liberals also became the first federal party in Canadian history to win a majority of seats without having been either the governing party or the Official Opposition in the previous parliament, and this was only the second time a party went from having the third-most seats to the most seats (the first being in 1925). It was the second largest number of seats won in a federal election for the Liberals, the best being 191 in 1949. The election also had the highest voter turnout since 1993.[1] Every party represented in the House of Commons except the Liberal Party recorded a decrease in its popular vote share. There was an increase in voter turnout among all age groups. The largest was among eligible voters aged 18 to 24, which increased 18.3 points, to 57.1%. Elections Canada reported that this was the biggest increase in turnout among this age group since it began making demographic turnout estimates.[6]

Following the election, Harper conceded defeat to Trudeau and resigned as leader of the Conservative Party.[7] Gilles Duceppe resigned as leader of the Bloc Québécois shortly after the election on October 22, 2015. Tom Mulcair announced his intention to remain leader of the NDP, but was forced to step down in October 2017, after losing a party vote on his leadership in the spring of 2016.

  1. ^ a b Schwartz, Daniel (November 5, 2015). "Federal election voter turnout 68.3 per cent, highest in 22 years: official vote count". CBC News. Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  2. ^ Only the first two election campaigns after Confederation were longer: 81 days in 1867 and 96 days in 1872. In those early days voting was staggered across the country over a period of several months, necessarily extending the length of the campaigns. Since then, the longest campaign was 74 days, in 1926. (Canadian Press, "Imminent federal election to be costliest, longest in recent Canadian history" Archived September 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Toronto Sun, July 29, 2015)
  3. ^ Zurcher, Anthony (October 20, 2015). "Trudeau brings Liberals back on top". BBC News. Archived from the original on October 21, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  4. ^ Treble, Patricia (October 20, 2015). "When does Justin Trudeau become prime minister?". Maclean's. Archived from the original on October 23, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
  5. ^ Woolf, Nicky (October 19, 2015). "Justin Trudeau set to become Canadian PM as Liberals sweep board in election". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
  6. ^ Grenier, Eric (June 15, 2016). "2015 federal election saw youth vote in unprecedented numbers". CBC News.
  7. ^ Dehaas, Josh (October 19, 2015). "Stephen Harper resigns as Conservative leader". CTV News. Archived from the original on October 20, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.