And that’s a fact: noteworthy stats on the federal election

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/04/2025 (185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s 45th federal election is in the books.

The Liberals came out of the five-week election with a mandate to govern, and the Conservatives finished a strong second.

The 2025 election will be remembered for U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war and his taunts about making Canada the 51st state.

It will also be remembered for the Tories blowing a lead of 25 percentage points, Prime Minister Mark Carney winning his first election, the NDP losing official party status and the Bloc Québécois losing votes to the Liberals.

Other noteworthy things happened locally and across the country during the election.

Here are 10 facts about the election:

1. Voter turnout was up in both Manitoba and across Canada. Turnout in Manitoba was 67.3 per cent, an increase from 61.6 per cent in 2021. Across Canada, voter turnout was slightly better at 68.6 per cent, up from 62.6 per cent in 2021. (Neither figure includes electors who registered on election day.)

2. Forty-seven men and 22 women ran for office in the province’s 14 ridings. Ten men and four women were elected.

3. It’s unknown whether Leila Dance’s 194 days is a record for the shortest term served by an MP, but her time in office certainly wasn’t long. The New Democrat was elected in a byelection on Sept. 17, 2024, and was voted out on April 28. That is shorter than the 273 days the Joe Clark government was in power in 1979 and 1980.

4. James Bezan is the longest-serving current Manitoba MP. He was elected in Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman in 2004 and has been re-elected seven times. The Conservative has a long way to go before becoming Canada’s longest-serving MP. That honour goes to BQ MP Louis Plamondon, who has been serving since 1984. Plamondon was elected as a Progressive Conservative for his first two terms.

5. If NDP supporters were encouraged to vote for Liberal candidates to prevent the Conservatives from picking up seats, it was the wrong thing to do in Elmwood-Transcona. Dance won last year’s byelection with 13,597 votes, compared with Tory Colin Reynolds’ 12,415 votes and Liberal Ian MacIntyre’s 1,362. This time around, Dance lost by more than 3,000 votes. Reynolds had 19,303 votes, while MacIntyre had 10,313.

6. NDP MP Niki Ashton held the Churchill-Keewatinook Aski riding for five elections, the most since Progressive Conservative Robert Simpson held it for six elections from 1957 to 1972. The last two Liberal MPs there, Tina Keeper and Elijah Harper, held the seat for single terms before being defeated by the NDP. The last Liberal to hold it for two terms was George Weaver, from 1949 to 1957.

7. With Liberal Dr. Doug Eyolfson taking back the seat (now called Winnipeg West) he lost two elections ago, the Liberals hold five of the eight federal seats in Winnipeg. It’s not the party’s best showing in the city; it won seven of the seats in 2015.

8. Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh lost their seats, but it’s not the first time in Canadian electoral history that leaders of two major parties have done so in a single election. Michael Ignatieff of the Liberals and Gilles Duceppe of the BQ failed to retain their seats in 2011. The NDP’s Tommy Douglas and A.B. Patterson of the Social Credits did the same in 1968. In 1958, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation’s M.J. Coldwell and Social Credit’s Solon Low both lost their seats.

9. The NDP, with only seven members elected, is short of the 12 needed for official party status. It’s also the lowest seat count the party has had since it was founded in 1961 by the CCF and the Canadian Labour Congress. The party’s previous lowest total was nine, under leader Audrey McLaughlin, in 1993.

10. The People’s Party of Canada was shut out across Canada. Its candidate in Portage-Lisgar — where leader Maxime Bernier ran in a 2023 byelection — had its best showing of any of its candidates in the province. Kevin Larson received 973 votes, well short of the winner, Tory Branden Leslie, who received 31,687 votes.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

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