OTTAWA — As Canadians handed the Liberals a fourth mandate on Monday, Jagmeet Singh announced he'd be resigning as NDP leader and the Bloc Québécois appeared to be in a position to hold the balance of power.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, ballots were still being counted and dozens of seats were still too close to call. It's not yet known whether the Liberals will lead a majority or minority government.
But Prime Minister Mark Carney will take a seat in the House of Commons for the first time having won his Ottawa-area seat and will lead Canada through an economic crisis triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre conceded to the Liberals around 1 a.m., but noted the results are extremely close and said change can sometimes take time. Poilievre said he will continue to hold the Liberal government to account but will also stand united against the tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Poilievre hushed some booing from the crowd when he congratulated Carney on his win.
"No, no, we'll have plenty of opportunity to debate and disagree. But tonight we come together as Canadians," he said.
Poilievre said his purpose in politics "will continue to be" working for Canadians to have a safe and affordable country, and said he ran in "a very difficult environment" but said the public will still desire change in the next election.
"We have to learn the lessons of tonight, so that we can have an even better result the next time," he said.
With the NDP at risk of losing official party status — and after losing his own riding — Singh said he'd be stepping down as leader once the party selects an interim replacement.
"We may lose sometimes and those losses hurt," Singh said, fighting emotion as he stood beside his wife on a stage in Burnaby, B.C.
"We're only defeated when we believe ... those that tell us that we can never dream of a better Canada, a fairer Canada, a more compassionate Canada."
In Ottawa, cheers erupted at the hockey arena where Liberal supporters gathered to watch the results after media outlets declared the party would form government.
But anxiety among the exhausted partisans in the room ran high over how tight the races were. One woman walked around the floor draped in a Canada flag.
As networks declared a Liberal government, the Conservative supporters who gathered at a downtown Ottawa convention centre went silent. A man wearing a "Pierre Poilievre for prime minister" T-shirt held his head in his hands.
Some expressed frustration and disbelief after hearing the news that Carney will still be prime minister.
"I truly do not understand," said Joanne Gurman.
About 20 minutes after the call was made, some of the party faithful began a chant of "bring it home" — one of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's most popular slogans during the campaign.
The Liberals have seen a massive rebound since the start of the year, after more than a year of the Conservatives being favoured to win a majority government while Justin Trudeau was in power.
The NDP appears unlikely to have official party status, well shy of the 12 seats needed to get that bump that comes with additional privileges and research funding in the House of Commons.
The Liberals were on track to gain more than a dozen seats, and the Conservatives more than 20, but both parties saw incumbents lose to the other party.
In the Ontario riding of Peterborough, outspoken Conservative incumbent Michelle Ferreri was defeated by Liberal candidate Emma Harrison.
The Liberals flipped Toronto — St. Paul's, with Leslie Church defeating Conservative Don Stewart less than a year after she lost to him in a byelection.
That loss, in what is typically considered a safe seat for the Liberals, sent shock waves through the party and pressure immediately began to mount on Trudeau to resign.
The Newfoundland riding that had been held for a decade by Gudie Hutchings, a Liberal cabinet minister, also flipped to the Conservatives. Hutchings had opted not to seek another mandate in this election.
The Tories lost the South Shore — St. Margarets riding in Nova Scotia, which had been held by Rick Perkins since 2021. Liberal candidate Jessica Fancy-Landry won there, after the NDP candidate withdrew just before nominations closed.
Carney, Singh and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spent five weeks pitching their cases to voters.
Each of the main party leaders settled into their home ridings Monday after an eventful but compressed election period that lasted the minimum 37 days.
Carney, a former central banker and a political neophyte, presented himself during the campaign as a safe pair of hands for a country facing Trump's economic threats, while Poilievre focused on addressing crime and the high cost of living.
While Singh started the campaign saying he was running for prime minister, he changed his message after two weeks and started calling on Canadians to elect New Democrats to protect social programs.
Trump loomed large over the campaign with his tariff threats and calls for Canada to become a U.S. state, causing Carney to leave the campaign trail at various times to hold meetings in his capacity as prime minister.
The American president even weighed in early on election day with a post on his Truth Social platform, where he repeated calls for Canada to join the U.S. and wished "good luck to the Great people of Canada."
"Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America," he wrote.
On the final full day of the campaign, all major party leaders paused to address a deadly vehicle attack at a Filipino community event in Vancouver that took the lives of at least 11 attendees, leaving more injured in hospital.
When Parliament was dissolved, the Liberals held 153 seats in a minority government and the Conservatives formed the official Opposition with 120 seats. The Bloc Québécois held 33 seats, the NDP 24 and the Greens two. There were three independent MPs.
Because of changes to riding boundaries, the 2025 general election had 343 seats contested, up from 338.
Majority government status requires a minimum of 172 seats.
— With files from Kyle Duggan, Sarah Ritchie, and Craig Lord in Ottawa, Rianna Lim in Toronto and David Baxter in Burnaby, B.C.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2025.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
