voter turnout Canada federal election 2021
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Voter turnout was down 5.1% for the 2021 federal election, at 60.9%

by Lorraine Carpenter

The number will go up when mail-in ballots are counted, but it’s clearly a steep decrease from 2019.

The preliminary numbers have come in for voter turnout in this week’s federal election in Canada, with CBC is reporting that 60.9% of eligible Canadians cast a ballot. The number is due to increase slightly when all mail-in ballots are counted.

In the 2019 election, voter turnout across Canada was 66%, while in 2015 it was 68.5%.

Low voter turnout and a lack of engagement in the election could be due to fears around the pandemic, and the fact that three quarters of Canadians felt that the election was unnecessary.

Election results in seven ridings across the country are still too close to call and the count is ongoing, but the current tally is 158 seats for the Liberals, giving the Liberal party a minority government, 119 for the Conservatives, 34 for the Bloc Québécois, 25 for the NDP and 2 for the Green party.

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by Lorraine Carpenter

Editor in chief
Lorraine Carpenter was born in Montreal and studied communications and journalism at Concordia. She co-founded Cult MTL in 2012 following 12 years at the now-defunct Montreal alt weekly the Mirror, where she worked in editorial as copy editor and music editor. She’s dedicated to supporting the cultural scene in Montreal.