How do I vote on election day?

All Canadian citizens who are at least 18 years old on election day are eligible to vote in the upcoming federal election.

• Electors must be registered to vote. If you’ve voted or filed a tax return before, Elections Canada should have already sent you a card with the polling location and times. If it’s your first time voting or you need to update your voter information, you can register at your local polling station.
• Voters must be able to prove both their identity and address at the polling station in order to cast a ballot, such as a driver's license, passport, or two forms of non-photo ID that list name, with one also including address.
• Eligible voters can cast a vote in person at their local polling station. Voters can find their riding, list of candidates and polling station location on the Elections Canada website.

How many Canadians have voted so far in 2025?

A record-breaking 7.3 million Canadians voted in advance polls, according to Elections Canada. Advance polls were open from April 18 to April 21, and saw a 25-per-cent increase in voters from the 2021 election. Elections Canada has also issued more than 1.2 million special ballots to Canadian voters who applied for the mail-in option since the opening of the early voting period on March 23. More than 960,000 of those ballots have already been returned. These volumes are close to matching the pandemic-era 2021 election, which saw more than a million mail-in ballots received by election day, and is a sharp increase from the 50,000 issued in 2019. .

When are the polls open on April 28?

Voting windows vary by time zone:

• Newfoundland Time: 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Atlantic Time: 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Eastern Time: 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
• Central Time: 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Mountain Time: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Pacific Time: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

If a district spans more than one time zone, one local time will be determined for voting throughout the district. Voting hours can be found online or on voter information cards, with correct hours sent to electors in those districts.

Election Canada says that the voting hours are staggered so that the majority of results are available at approximately the same time across the country.

Who is ahead in the latest Globe-CTV-Nanos polls?

Together with CTV and Nanos Research, The Globe is conducting daily surveys throughout the campaign to track which party and leader Canadians prefer.

How can I follow the results on election night?

Check back here on April 28 to view full results and a riding-by-riding map for Canada’s federal election.

You will be able to see:

• See the overall seat count
• Our map with full results for all 343 ridings
• Important battleground ridings
• Seat changes compared with 2021

How to see live results on your iOS device

Readers with The Globe and Mail app installed on their device can receive live election results without having to check the app. Users with version 8.4 or higher will see our election tracker on their lock screen, making it easy to stay updated through the night or see if any party has crossed the line of majority.

To use this feature, make sure your operating system is 16.2 or higher and that you have push notifications from The Globe’s app enabled.

You do not need to be subscribed or registered with The Globe and Mail to use this feature.

When will we know the final results?

Ballots aren’t counted until after the polls close, but polling is staggered by time zone so that results are available at roughly the same time nationwide. Results that come in on election night are only considered preliminary. The official results are generally validated within a week of the election. The process is intended to ensure that any human error from election night is found and corrected.

Important ridings to watch

Check back on election night to see key ridings and their results highlighted as the night progresses.

• Canada has five new ridings in this federal election, for a total of 343. The districts were added in 2022, required by the 10-year census and the Canada Elections Act. They're meant to reflect the growing population in Canada. Three of the new seats are in Alberta, with one in British Columbia and one in Ontario. Most ridings were redrawn, as populations have shifted around the country and grown at different rates. Toronto lost one of the Ontario ridings completely in the redrawing process, dropping from 25 districts to 24.
• Party leaders Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre are running for seats in neighbouring Ottawa ridings. Both leaders face local candidates eager to defeat the heads of their opposing parties, but Mr. Poilievre’s hold on his district seems to be particularly tenuous.