Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals secured a majority government after clinching all three federal byelections held on Monday night.
Nearly a year after last April’s minority government win and on the heels of courting five opposition MPs to cross the floor, Carney’s grip on power just got tighter.
In the Liberals’ first win of the night in University-Rosedale, Ont., candidate Danielle Martin won the party’s 172nd seat in the House of Commons.
Her victory put the prime minister in a steadier, more predictable position in Parliament, though it was not the last Liberal win of the night.
Moments later, CTV News also projected that Doly Begum – who stepped down as deputy leader of Ontario’s NDP to run for the Liberals – won her Scarborough Southwest seat.
Then, in Terrebonne, Que., where a special ballot was used due to the number of candidates, Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste won a nail-biting race that was called just after midnight Tuesday over her Bloc Quebecois opponent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné.
Carney goes back-to-business
The last time a federal political party formed a majority was Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2015, before being reduced to a minority in 2019, a parliamentary posture the party held in every election since.
Despite this feat, Carney did not speak to the results Monday night, beyond issuing social media posts welcoming his newest MPs. Instead, his office has signalled his intention will be to return to business-as-usual Tuesday, scheduling an announcement of “new measures to bring down costs for Canadians.”
He’s also got plans to participate in a practice with the Ottawa Charge, the capital’s PWHL team, alongside Finnish President Alexander Stubb who is in town and will be visiting Parliament.
Political insiders that were part of CTV News’ special coverage characterized the Liberal Party’s turnaround from the end of the Trudeau era as stunning and widely attributed it to Carney’s specific brand of leadership and his handling of the geopolitical landscape.
From diversifying Canada’s trading partners in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s evolving threats, to promising to build major projects at home, the prime minister’s plans – which he now likely will have a longer runway to execute – have attracted politicians from across the political spectrum in a manner not seen in decades.
Though, the way the prime minister has cobbled this majority together – while entirely legitimate under Canada’s political system – has not sat well with the opposition parties and the voters who supported them in the 2025 federal election. The pressure will now also ratchet up considerably for Carney to leverage his stronger standing to start delivering on his host of big promises.
“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,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in a statement reacting to the results.
Liberals celebrate
Martin, the newest MP for University-Rosedale, Ont. was previously the chair of the University of Toronto’s family medicine program. She beat out Conservative candidate Don Hodgson and New Democrat Serena Purdy.
The riding has been held by a Liberal since 2015, when it was created from portions of Trinity-Spadina and Toronto Centre, which also had strong histories of sending Liberals to Ottawa.
Celebrating her victory, Martin said “as of tonight, Mark Carney and our entire incredible Liberal team have earned an even more powerful mandate to continue building a better Canada.”
“This is not a mandate to be quiet. It is not a mandate to take our time. It is a mandate to get to work,” she continued.
In Scarborough Southwest, Begum defeated Conservative candidate Diana Filipova and NDP hopeful Fatima Shaban, in a riding that has been held by Liberals for decades, with the exception of between 2011 and 2015 when New Democrat Dan Harris held the seat.
“Tonight we celebrate something so powerful, not just this incredible campaign, but a community coming together, putting aside their differences to choose hope, compassion and progress,” Begum said. “Tonight we celebrate a new beginning.”
Auguste’s win over the Bloc’s Sinclair-Desgagné was the dramatic battle of the night, with the latter having held the Terrebonne seat from 2021 until last year’s election. It was another close battle, with Auguste capturing 48.4 per cent of the vote, versus 46.8 per cent for Sinclair-Desgagné. The Conservatives’ Adrienne Charles captured just 3.3 per cent of the vote.
In the April vote, the seat was declared for the Liberals, before flipping to the Bloc Quebecois during the validation process, and then back to the Liberals after a judicial recount.
The result was then further challenged due to the fact the Liberal win came down to a single vote, and a Bloc Québécois supporter said her mail-in special ballot was never counted.
Last month, the Supreme Court of Canada invalidated the election result, freeing up the seat and requiring a byelection to fill it. Over the last few weeks, the Liberals put a concerted effort on ensuring a series of senior cabinet ministers knocked on doors in this constituency.
While the Terrebonne vote count was already facing higher scrutiny because of last results, it also drew the attention of the Longest Ballot Committee, a protest group pushing for electoral reform.
With 48 people on the ballot in Monday’s byelection, Elections Canada allowed write-in ballots to make the process simpler for voters, but as a result lengthened the vote-counting process.
Floor-crossers helped Liberals get here
Before results rolled in the Liberals said they were optimistic about the outcome and dismissed opposition criticism that Carney’s path to a majority wasn’t entirely directed by voters.
Conservatives – still fielding inquiries about efforts to lure them to cross the floor – said no matter the outcome, they would be determined to keep fighting for their constituents and push for what will make a difference in Canadians’ lives.
The Liberals had hovered around the 172-seat threshold for a majority government since the 2025 general election, when they came up just three ridings short, winning 169 seats.
After months of working across party lines to garner enough support to pass bills, and those two aforementioned Trudeau-era cabinet ministers resigning, a series of floor-crossings started to make the math easier for Carney’s minority government.
In about as many months, Carney attracted five opposition MPs to cross the floor, putting his party at 171 seats as of last Wednesday when Marilyn Gladu became the newest Liberal recruit.
The standings in the House of Commons going into Monday’s byelections were: Liberals 171 seats, Conservatives 140 seats, Bloc Quebecois 22 seats, NDP six seats, Greens one seat, and of course the three vacancies. Combined, the opposition parties held 169 seats.
Just one riding victory granted the Liberals a majority on paper, but would have required Liberal MP and House Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia to cast a vote in their favour in the case of a tie. The second and third victories slightly strengthen their ability to control parliamentary outcomes.
While the prime minister no longer has to worry about losing a confidence vote triggering an early election, his functioning majority is still very slim. That’s because House Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia is counted in the Liberal ranks but does not vote in the House of Commons except in the event of a tie, and so to go from a technical to functioning majority additional seats are needed.
There is also still rampant speculation that additional opposition floor-crossers are waiting in the wings to join the Liberals, and any additional MP gained that way will further bolster Carney’s position.
Carney has already insisted that he is not considering proroguing Parliament if he secures a majority. He wouldn’t need to, in order to take control of House committees, which are widely considered where the bulk of work in the Commons can be accomplished.
“We are absolutely focused on working with Parliament, getting legislation through Parliament, adjusting legislation where it needs to be, where it’s better informed by the discussions in Parliament,” Carney said in late March.
Carney is expected to face a series of questions on Tuesday about his intentions now that the results are in. CTV News will bring you the latest, across platforms.
