The remarkable similarity of the results and those of the 2019 federal election may have reinforced voters' sentiments that the early election was unnecessary, and its meagre results have left their mark on the electorate. A survey by Maru Public Opinion revealed that 77 per cent of respondents believe that Canada is more divided than ever, and 52 per cent feel that Canada's democratic system is broken.
Political parties Several factors were quickly identified as having had a significant influence on the results. Some political scientists and commentators debated whether the PPC's better performance, compared to the
2019 federal election, contributed to the Conservatives under
Erin O'Toole losing to the Liberals.
Mainstreet Research CEO Quito Maggi and
University of Toronto political science professor Nelson Wiseman posited that the PPC may have cost the Conservatives at least ten ridings. The votes obtained by PPC candidates were larger than the margin of victory in 21 ridings, where the Conservative candidate was in second place (12 in Ontario, five in BC, two in Alberta, one in Quebec and one in Newfoundland). Of those seats, 14 went to the Liberals, six to the NDP, and one to the Bloc; however, it has been described as not a simple generalization, as a significant amount of PPC support arose from non-Conservative voters. Important vote swings to the Liberals were also noted in ridings with significant
Chinese-Canadian populations, with especially large ones arising in Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill and Richmond Centre. This was predicted early on in the campaign in polling by Mainstreet Research, which observed that they "were not supporting Conservative candidates in the same way they did in the last couple of elections." Even before the mail-in ballots were counted, the Liberals were projected as leading in 158 seats despite seeing their vote share fall from 33.1 per cent to 32.3 per cent.
Gerald Butts, former
principal secretary to Trudeau, praised the result as a "smart campaign" that prioritized "vote efficiency"; this view was criticized as detracting from other essential aspects of an election campaign. Other commentators questioned whether the Liberal vote has reached its effective limit, commenting that minority governments have occurred with greater frequency since the
Unite the Right movement and the formation of the Conservative Party in 2003. Had he not been ousted by his caucus, O'Toole would have faced a mandatory leadership review at the next Conservative national conference in 2023. A member of the national council quickly called for a petition to accelerate the process. Other Conservatives urged continued support of O'Toole, and called for the party to unify around him. Most party and caucus members seemed to have appeared to favour a
post-mortem review along the lines conducted by the party after the
2004 federal election. The Green Party saw its share of the vote collapse to 2.3 per cent, its lowest level since the
2000 federal election. Internal dissension and poor morale contributed to the decline, and
Elizabeth May called for an inquiry to determine the underlying reasons for it. Paul announced her resignation as party leader on September 27.
Calls for electoral reform Commentators at
The Conversation noted that for a second election in a row the Liberals won the greatest number of seats but lost the popular vote to the Conservatives under the
first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system. During the campaign, Trudeau said he remains open to getting rid of Canada's FPTP if re-elected, provided there is consensus on the issue; he also expressed his preference for
ranked voting over
proportional representation. Trudeau had promised during the 2015 campaign that the 2015 federal election would be the last federal election to use FPTP. The Wexit Party, led by former Conservative MP
Jay Hill, positioned itself as a
western separatist alternative to the federal Conservatives, drawing comparisons to the Bloc Québécois. The party changed its name to the
Maverick Party in September 2020. Support for western separatism rose during 2020, with polling showing as much as 45–48% support for independence in Alberta. However, media attention toward the movement and the party declined after the rebranding. There was inconsistency about whether to treat the Maverick Party as a major party, with some outlets—such as
338Canada— including it in regional projections. Caught off guard by the early election call, the party managed to nominate only 29 candidates, primarily in Conservative strongholds in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Though they had also nominated a few in British Columbia and Manitoba. Some analysts suggested that the People's Party of Canada attracted part of the Maverick Party's potential voter base. The Maverick Party ultimately received just 0.21% of the national popular vote. However, in the ridings where it fielded candidates, it received approximately 2.3% of the vote and outperformed the
Green Party in Alberta and Saskatchewan. After the election, western separatist sentiment appeared to wane. Some Maverick Party members were involved in the 2022 "
Freedom Convoy" protests. The party's public activity declined afterward, and it formally dissolved in early 2025, citing lack of electoral success and organizational challenges.
Candidates elected Forty-nine MPs were elected for the first time, and two more (
Randy Boissonnault and
John Aldag) returned after having been defeated in 2019. The number of female MPs—103, up from 100 in 2019—is a record high for the House, and 22 of the first-time MPs are women.
Kevin Vuong, whose candidacy was disavowed by the Liberals after nominations had closed, still won the riding of
Spadina—Fort York. Vuong announced that he would take his seat as an independent upon being sworn in.
Adam Vaughan, the previous incumbent, called on Vuong to resign as his victory was "compromised". In a radio interview in November, Vuong apologized to his supporters, and he later said, "Of the many, many people who have reached out since my interview, they've encouraged me to move forward. And that's what I'm going to be doing."
George Chahal, elected in
Calgary Skyview, was the subject of several complaints concerning the removal of campaign flyers of another candidate, substituting them with his own. In January 2022, he accepted and paid a $500
administrative monetary penalty assessed by the
Commissioner of Canada Elections in the matter, saying, "It's just a late night on an election campaign. Call it a dumb mistake or brain fogit really doesn't matter why I did what I did. I think what matters is I did it. And I acknowledged it fully, openly, publicly."
Chinese government interference A year following the election, Conservative Party politicians including former leader
Erin O'Toole blamed Chinese government interference as a factor behind the loss for the party. In a 2022 interview on the
UnCommons podcast with
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, O'Toole opined that media outfits linked to the
Chinese Communist Party could have cost the Conservatives up to "eight or nine seats." O'Toole's beliefs were supported by Conservative MP and foreign affairs critic
Michael Chong who stated that while the party was initially hesitant to blame China for influencing the vote due to inconclusive evidence at the time, he now believed "The communist leadership in Beijing did interfere in the last federal election by spreading disinformation through proxies on Chinese-language social media platforms that contributed to the defeat of a number of Conservative MPs" citing a report by
McGill University. Similar views were shared by O'Toole's director of parliamentary affairs Mitch Heimpel who claimed Canadian national security officers had contacted the Conservatives around election day to express concerns about potential foreign interference. Heimpel also cited the example of former Conservative MP
Kenny Chiu who had been targeted by a misinformation campaign by the Chinese social media platform
WeChat. Research into alleged electoral interference by McGill University indicated that there was no specific riding specific data to draw a full conclusion on the impact of potential interference and noted "Canadian-Chinese issues were not central to the campaign nor were they top of mind for voters" but concurred researchers had found Chinese state media had worked "with an apparent aim to convince Canadians of Chinese origin to vote against the Conservative Party." In February 2023,
The Globe and Mail published a series of articles, reporting that the
Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), in several classified documents, advised that China had employed disinformation campaigns and undisclosed donations to support preferred candidates during the campaign, all with the aim of ensuring that the Liberals would win again, but only with a minority. Other illegal tactics under the
Canada Elections Act were also revealed, such as directing international students to work for preferred candidates (ostensibly as volunteers, but being paid by sympathetic business owners), In April 2024, an inquiry into foreign interference heard that CSIS concluded in February 2023 that the Chinese government interfered in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
Canadian Election Study The 2021 Canadian Election Study (CES) comprised two phases: a Campaign Period Survey (CPS) and a Post-Election Survey (PES). The CPS involved three components—“CPS,” “CPS Modules,” and “CPS Oversample”—which were consolidated into a final dataset of 20,968 respondents. Data collection for the CPS was conducted between August 17 and September 19, 2021. The PES followed shortly after, occurring from September 23 to October 4, 2021, and yielded a sample size of 15,069. The survey's core questions were adapted from prior iterations of the CES to maintain consistency and focus on key topics, including voting intentions, demographics, issue positions, partisanship, and political engagement. The 2021 CES was directed by a team of researchers: Laura Stephenson, Allison Harell, Daniel Rubenson, and Peter Loewen. The data presented include questions from the CPS and PES, cross-tabulated with 2021 voting preferences. The weights applied to the data were adjusted to align with the actual results of the 2021 Canadian federal election.
Demographics == Student Vote results ==