Canada Special Elections: Carney Secures Majority for Liberals

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney secured a majority government with special election wins Monday night, allowing his Liberals to pass legislation without the support of opposition parties.

Voters cast ballots for three vacant seats of the 343 districts represented in Parliament. In Toronto, Liberal Doly Begum won the Scarborough Southwest seat while Liberal Danielle Martin won the University Rosedale district. A Quebec district's outcome was anticipated later.

The Liberal Party could stay in power until 2029 after Monday’s results.

Carney won Canada’s election last year, fueled by public anger over U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats, and he has vowed to reduce Canada’s reliance on the U.S.

Since then, five defections from opposition parties, including four from the main opposition Conservative party, put Carney’s Liberals on the cusp of the majority

One of those defectors referenced Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as helping in his decision. Carney was widely praised for his speech in which he denounced economic coercion by powerful nations against smaller nations.

Since taking over as prime minister in 2025, Carney, a former head of both the Bank of England and Canada's central bank, has shifted the Liberals to the centre-right.

In social media messages, Carney congratulated Begum and Martin but made no mention of winning a majority.

“As of tonight, Mark Carney and our entire incredible Liberal team have earned an even more powerful mandate to continue building a better Canada,” Martin said.

Daniel Béland, a political-science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said the Liberals also had a shot at winning the Quebec seat.

Béland said the deterioration of Canada-U.S. relations under the second Trump presidency has convinced many Canadians, including people who do not identify as Liberal, to rally behind the prime minister.

“Mark Carney entered the political arena about 15 months ago, but he is proving himself to be an astute politician,” Béland said. “He remains popular nearly a year after leading his party to victory in late April 2025 and, with the help of a series of floor-crossings, he is now at the helm of a majority government that provides more stability and greater capacity to move forward with his economic and policy agenda.”

The Liberal majority and the recent defections are another blow to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who lost the previous national election last year and even his own seat. He has since rejoined Parliament.

Poilievre still struggles to govern his legislators despite winning a party leadership review earlier this year.

Poilievre declared on social media on Monday night that he "will continue to lead that fight every day and in every way in Parliament, across the country and in the next election, when Canadians will reclaim the country we know and love."

With inputs from AP