Summary
- Polls are open across Canada where a snap election is being held to determine who will become the country’s next prime minister
- It comes just six weeks after Mark Carney was sworn in as PM, replacing his party colleague Justin Trudeau
- The two clear front-runners are the Liberal Party – led by Carney – who have been in power for a decade, and the Conservative Party, led by Pierre Poilievre
- US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the election via his social media account, repeating his calls for the nation to become the 51st US state
- Poilievre then told Trump to “stay out of our election” and Carney urged Canadians to be “united and strong” against the “crisis in the United States”
- An election expected to be a referendum on almost 10 years of Liberal governance is now firmly centred on who can best stand up to Trump
Voting, then donating blood – Vancouver community grieves after 11 killed
A polling station backs onto the street where a driver killed 11 people at Saturday’s Lapu Lapu festival in Vancouver.
People are still laying flowers as others walk through the perfumed air to vote.
Many victims of Saturday’s deadly incident remain in hospital.
Kay and Ross Howard-Jones stopped to talk.
“This is our neighbourhood, so we’ve been affected by it,” Kay said. “It’s absolutely devastating.”
But she’s heartened by the huge community response.
“Everybody is banding together. My son’s school is having a moment this afternoon, and we’re going from here, to exercise our right to vote, then to go donate blood.”
Other voters here said health care and security were their top issues.
Ross Howard-Jones said he “just wants to keep Canada Canada”.
Counting begins for some ballots
Polls have not closed but counting has already begun for mail-in ballots from Canadians who voted from abroad, according to an update from Elections Canada.
Those “special ballots” are being counted at a distribution centre in Ottawa, Canada’s capital.
Even though they are being counted now, results will not be released until after the polls have closed.
Party representatives are witnessing the count, and journalists have also been invited to observe, Elections Canada said.
Father and son work together but are divided politically
We visited the family-owned Ottawa steel company, Ideal Roofing, which has suffered under US tariffs and whose owners fear further pain after the 90 day tariff pause ends.
Father and son, Claude and Philippe Laplante, work side by side, but are divided politically.
Claude was considering Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, but he’s decided Mark Carney has more business experience and is better qualified to negotiate with the US president and deal with a potential recession.
Claude’s son Philippe, though, says they’ve had a failed Liberal government for years and they can’t keep doing the same thing, hoping for better.
He tells me, Trump is “putting Americans first and we need someone to put Canada first”.
Both stress how important it is for the next leader to keep good relations with the United States, their largest trading partner.
While trade deals with others would be potentially beneficial to other industries, Claude says it’s not feasible for them to ship their products across the Atlantic. The geography of the US makes it irreplaceable.
Carney latest party leader to vote in election
Mark Carney has just turned up and cast his vote in the Canadian federal election.
He went to a polling place in Ottawa, Ontario, as his opponent Pierre Poilievre did earlier in the day.
Carney appeared in good spirits and was accompanied by his wife Diana as he shook hands with other people at the location.
Carney is what Canada needs in the face of Trump, voter says
As a long-time Liberal voter, Denise Mitsche was disappointed – but not surprised – when her riding of St Paul’s in Toronto flipped from the Liberal Party to the Conservatives in 2024.
“It sounds like people were ready for a change,” she tells the BBC.
The riding had been under Liberal control for more than 30 years but flipped during last summer’s by-election in what many saw as a sign of growing discontent with the party in power.
Now, Liberals hope to get their territory back, as the party has surged in the polls in what would be a remarkable comeback.
For many, their support for Liberal leader Mark Carney has been fuelled by Donald Trump’s aggressive rhetoric about making Canada the 51st US state.
“I feel like he’s the right person for what we need right now and what we need right now is to protect Canadas sovereignty and stand up to Trump,” Mitsche says of Carney.
“He seems calm, he wants to do the right thing.”
Trump threats: How are the main parties responding?
The main theme of the campaign has been how Canada’s next prime minister will tackle a trade war with its closest economic ally and neighbour, after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and threatened its sovereignty.
Most of the leading federal parties agree on some form of retaliatory tariffs in response to those put in place by the US, though they have different ideas on how the money raised by these levies would be used.
The Conservatives promised to put it towards tax relief, especially for workers affected by tariffs. The Liberals have also said they would use money raised by counter-tariffs to help workers and businesses and the NDP vowed to put “every dollar” collected towards supporting those affected.
The Conservatives are also vowing to remove trade barriers between provinces, and have promised to call a meeting with premiers within a month of taking office.
Additionally, the Liberals have said they will spend C$5bn on measures to diversify trade internationally and within Canada and invest in infrastructure like ports and railroads. They have also vowed to spend C$2bn to protect Canada’s auto industry.
The Bloc Québécois has called for pandemic-style support for affected workers and are pushing for more support for Quebec’s aluminium industry, which has suffered under Trump’s metals levies.
The NDP have proposed a 100% levy on all Tesla products if Trump moves ahead with his tariffs on all Canadian goods, and to bar the president from the upcoming G7 summit in Alberta in June.
The election could come down to – who can handle Trump better?
Canadians know their next PM will have no choice but to deal with Donald Trump. So the question on many voters’ minds is: who can most capably handle the unpredictable US president?
The contest essentially boils down to the new Liberal leader Mark Carney and the Conservative’s Pierre Poilievre, who has led the Conservatives since 2022.
Carney, 60, brings experience on the world stage – he governed the Bank of England from 2013-2020 – but lacks time spent in the cut and thrust of political campaigning, and will get his first real test in this general election.
At 45, Poilievre may be significantly younger, but he is a political veteran. First elected to the House of Commons at age 25, he has two decades of experience in federal politics, including time in cabinet, and is known for his political acumen.
Canada and the US share deeply integrated economies, a long-standing security partnership and the longest “undefended” border in the world.
So when Trump says he wants to use “economic force” against America’s northern neighbour, calls the border an “artificially drawn line” and imposes steep tariffs, it marks a profound shift in the relationship between the two allies.
Trump’s interventions have already helped transform what seemed like a certain Conservative victory into a too-close-to-call battle with the Liberals.
And as campaigning began, all the party leaders focused their launch messages heavily on the US threats.
Trump has made his views on the election known, telling Fox News host Laura Ingraham on 18 March that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is “stupidly, no friend of mine” and that it may be “easier to deal actually with a Liberal”.
Ultimately, he added, who wins “doesn’t matter to me at all”.
What does it mean to be Canadian?
This election cycle has been dominated by the US-Canada relationship, including repeated remarks by the US president about making Canada the 51st state.
The BBC has asked voters across the country what it means to be Canadian – and what makes the country different from the US.
“We aren’t American,” says Edward, a British Columbia resident.
Many voters emphasise diversity, kindness and safety as reasons they love their country.
Some also criticise Canada. One voter calls it a “communist state”, another dubs it “broken”.
When asked whether they could ever see themselves being American, most voters the BBC spoke to responded with a resounding “no”. But some did say yes, or that they could see both the pros and cons.
The Canadian officials who can’t vote
One man who has a lot to do with the election but is legally not allowed to vote is Stéphane Perrault, who is the head of Elections Canada – the independent agency that administers the polls.
As the Chief Electoral Officer, Perrault cannot vote during his 10-year tenure, which began in 2018. After the end of his term, he is eligible to vote.
Perrault is not the only high-profile government official not voting today. Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon will also not be voting.
Simon is King Charles’s ceremonial representative in Canada and while she is not legally barred from voting, governor generals have traditionally abstained from the polls to maintain their political neutrality.