Liberals Secure Majority Government After Byelection Wins

Liberal candidate Danielle Martin celebrates winning the byelection for the riding of University–Rosedale, in Toronto on April 13, 2026. The Canadian Press/Chris Young

Liberal candidates won all three byelections in Ontario and Quebec on April 13, securing a majority government for their party.

Liberal candidates Danielle Martin and Doly Begum became clear winners shortly after polls closed in the University–Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest ridings in Toronto, while it took longer for Tatiana Auguste to emerge as the clear victor in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne, which was closely contested by Bloc Québécois candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné.

Prime Minister Mark Carney congratulated the Liberal candidates on their wins, and said their victory means that “voters have placed their trust in our new government’s plan.”

“We accept that support with humility, determination and a clear understanding of what this moment demands,” Carney said in a statement. He also repeated his recent call for unity as emphasized in his speech at the Liberal convention on April 11, and said his party will work collaboratively with the opposition.

“This is a time to come together so we can build a Canada strong for all,” he said. “This is how we will continue to govern. We will work with all parties and solicit all perspectives in Parliament. The work ahead demands collaboration, partnership, and ambition to deliver at the speed and scale Canadians are counting on.”

In her victory speech, Martin said the governing Liberals now have a stronger mandate to work on their platform.

“As of tonight, Mark Carney and our entire incredible Liberal team have earned an even more powerful mandate to continue building a better Canada,” said Martin, who is a family physician. Martin won 64.5 percent of the votes, with the NDP and Conservative candidates gaining 18.9 percent and 12.4 percent respectively.

Begum, who resigned as Ontario NDP’s deputy leader and MPP to run for the federal Liberals, thanked her supporters and emphasized inclusion and the importance of building the country in her victory speech.

Liberal Party candidate Doly Begum celebrates winning the byelection for the riding of Scarborough Southwest, in Toronto, on April 13, 2026. The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn

“We have to do the hard work of building. Building a country where opportunity is real, where dignity is protected, and where every single person has a fair chance to succeed,” she said. Begum won 69.9 percent of the votes, with the Conservative and NDP candidates gaining 18.4 percent and 6 percent of the votes respectively.

Auguste, who was the MP for Terrebonne before the Supreme Court of Canada called for a re-election in the riding, won the April 13 contest with 48.4 percent of the votes, with Bloc’s Sinclair-Desgagné getting 46.8 percent. Auguste said after her win that the fact people already knew her as their MP for a few months made a difference compared to the April 2025 election campaign.

“I was their MP for nine months and they know what kind of person I am and how I work,” she said.

Ahead of the byelections, the Liberals held 171 seats, just one shy of a majority, after five opposition MPs crossed the floor to join the governing party. After the byelection wins, the Liberals now hold a majority with 174 seats, and are the first government in Canadian history to achieve a majority between elections.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre faulted the Liberals for securing their majority through floor-crossings.

“The Carney Liberals did not win a majority government through a general election or today’s by-elections. Instead, it was won through backroom deals with politicians who betrayed the people who voted for them,” Poilievre said on social media. “While the Prime Minister spent the year on this cynical power grab, he has doubled the deficit, and given Canada the worst grocery prices and housing costs in the G7.”

The Liberals’ wins in the two Toronto ridings were expected, as both have long been Liberal strongholds. The seat for University–Rosedale was vacated by former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, while the Scarborough Southwest seat was vacated by former Defence Minister Bill Blair.

Majority Government

Ahead of the byelections, the Liberals held 171 seats and needed only one win among the three contests to reach the 172-seat technical threshold required for a majority in the 343-seat House of Commons.

The Liberals won a third consecutive minority government in 2025 after securing 169 seats. That seat count has fluctuated over the past year due to floor crossings and resignations.

Five opposition MPs crossed the floor to join Carney’s Liberal caucus within a few months. The crossings began last November with Tory Chris d'Entremont, a Nova Scotia MP, joining the Liberals’ ranks. Fellow Conservative MP Michael Ma followed suit in December, as did Matt Jeneroux in February, and Marilyn Gladu last week. Lori Idlout is the lone NDP MP to join Carney’s caucus.

Canada’s fixed election date legislation stipulates the next federal election must take place no later than October 2029.

Terrebonne

In the 2025 federal election in the Terrebonne riding, the Liberals’ Auguste was declared the winner by a single vote over Bloc’s Sinclair-Desgagné.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste greet people as they campaign in her riding in Terrebonne, Que., on April 9, 2026. The Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi

The Bloc filed a legal challenge following its election loss, asking the court to invalidate the result, after a Terrebonne voter told several media outlets she had mailed in her vote supporting Sinclair-Desgagné weeks before the April 2025 election but had her marked ballot returned to her on May 2, 2025. The Supreme Court in February annulled the Terrebonne election results, citing clerical errors on the return address of mail-in ballots.

The court’s ruling led to the byelection taking place on April 13.

The Longest Ballot Committee announced last month its intention to target the Terrebonne byelection. The activist group seeking electoral reform collected enough signatures to run 41 candidates in the byelection to protest Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system. The list of 48 candidates led Elections Canada to decide against offering traditional folded ballots with each candidate’s name, instead requiring write-in ballots.

Preliminary data from Elections Canada indicates that 18,200 people cast ballots in advance polls for Terrebonne, which amounts to almost 20 percent of those on the voters’ list.

University-Rosedale

The University-Rosedale riding was previously represented by Freeland from 2015 until she stepped down at the beginning of the year to become an adviser on economic development to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Toronto-area riding saw a lower degree of voter turnout at the advance polls than in Terrebonne. Only 9,400 cast early votes in University-Rosedale, accounting for 10 percent of voter turnout, according to Elections Canada.

Scarborough Southwest

Like University-Rosedale, the Scarborough Southwest riding has been represented by the Liberals since 2015 when Blair unseated NDP candidate Dan Harris. Blair resigned in February after accepting an appointment by Carney as Canada’s new High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Scarborough Southwest has voted Liberal more times than not since its creation in 1968. It has elected six Liberal candidates—including two that served for multiple terms—two Conservative candidates, and two NDP candidates. Blair was the second longest-serving MP for the riding after winning four terms behind Liberal Tom Wappel who won six.

Just 10,300 ballots were cast in Scarborough Southwest advance polls, according to Elections Canada, which amounts to 12 percent of voter turnout.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.