Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won all three parliamentary special elections that were held in Canada on Monday, indicating ongoing public support for the prime minister well into his second year in office and after recent trade tensions with the US. The votes were triggered by the resignations of three MPs. The most notable result saw Carney’s party claim a Québec seat previously held by an opposition Conservative.
In the other two votes, in Ontario and British Columbia, the Liberals held onto their seats as pollsters expected.
Carney has received a bump in the polls following his decision to end trade talks with the US, accusing Canada’s southern neighbour of proposing terms that were “unfair”.
The prime minister congratulated the three victorious Liberal candidates in a post on X. Reflecting on the wider issues facing his premiership, he wrote: “Canada is being tested in a changing world, and Canadians are up for it.”
The results mean Carney will keep his slim majority in the House of Commons.
Canadian media projected a sizeable victory for the Liberals in the Québec district of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord. Liberal candidate Daniel Gobeil, a dairy farmer, becomes the district’s new MP, having claimed more than half of the overall vote.
He beat the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives into second and third places respectively. The seat had been a narrow three-way race last time round.
Addressing his supporters in French, Gobeil said “this victory means we can maintain Canadian unity all across the country”, CBC reported.
Elsewhere, Tanveer Shahnawaz won his contest in Beaches-East York, Ontario, and Braeden Caley emerged victorious from the race in North Vancouver-Capilano, British Columbia.
The Conservatives have struggled to close the gap with the Liberals since losing last year’s federal election, with the latest polls suggesting they are trailing behind Carney’s party by about 10 points.
Four members of their ranks crossed the floor to the governing Liberals since the April 2025 election, and three others have either resigned or have announced plans to do so.
Richard Martel, the former Conservative MP of the Quebec constituency that held Monday’s by-election, stepped down last month after he was appointed by Carney to Canada’s Senate. Senators in Canada are not elected.
The loss of Martel’s seat to the Liberals is another blow to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who won a leadership test in January by a landslide but has faced questions about his ability to navigate the current political climate in Canada.
Meanwhile, the approval of Carney’s government rose four points in recent weeks, as has the prime minister’s personal popularity, according to figures released on Monday by Canadian pollster Abacus Data.
David Coletto, founder of Abacus Data, credits this boost to US President Donald Trump’s lack of popularity with Canadians, as well as the country rallying around Carney’s decision to walk away from trade talks with the White House.
This trend is most pronounced in Quebec, Coletto wrote in a note on Monday, where “Carney’s personal rating is stronger there than anywhere else in the country”.
Quebec stands to be one of the most provinces most affected by Trump’s new 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods, which came into effect after trade talks collapsed earlier this month.
In a recent report, global forecasting firm Oxford Economics warned that Quebec could lose C$2bn ($1.4bn; £1bn) in annual output by 2028.
By BBC News
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