Canada election 2025
Part 2: When can I vote?
Short answer: April 28, 2025
Long answer: April 13 to April 28, depending on location, which I'll explain below.
April 28 is the day when most Canadians will vote, which is also called casting a ballot. It's also the day votes will be counted, and the day that the results of voting will be announced. However, there are several types of advance voting that ensure voters who aren't available on April 28 can still vote.
April 13-16 are Vote on Campus days. Students away from their usual place of residence, and younger people generally, tend to have lower voter turnout, so starting in 2015 Elections Canada (the independent, non-partisan agency responsible for conducting federal elections and referendums) began holding special voting on campuses across the country to encourage young people to vote. This year there are approximately 120 campuses participating, and you can find them listed here.
All electors (people who are eligible to vote. we're not technically voters until we, ya know, vote) can vote at a Vote on Campus location, it's not just for students even if they are the primary audience. Getting more young people to vote is critical. There's debate on whether young people tend to vote more toward the left, so depending on your political leanings that's one reason. But more importantly, in my opinion, young people need to vote because they're the ones who will have to live with the results of the election the longest.
The laws that are made by the politicians voted into office at this election could impact my life for 30-40 years, max. Someone who's 20 years old now could be living with the impact of this election for 60 or more years. Of course there will always be opportunities to fix things down the road, but ask anyone who remembers what politicians did to healthcare in Alberta in the 90s, for example, and we'll tell you that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure.
April 14-19 are the days that Canadian Armed Forces electors can vote at the military poll set up for their base or unit.
April 16 is the day incarcerated electors can vote at the place where they are serving their sentence. NO ONE LOSES THE RIGHT TO VOTE because they've been charged or convicted of a crime, regardless of whether they're incarcerated at election time or not. April 16 is the only day though, so if you're planning on doing a crime and could get imprisoned sometime between April 17 and April 28, vote at an advance polling station first.
April 18-21 is when the advance polling stations are open, and anyone can vote in advance, for any reason (and you don't need to tell anyone why you're voting in advance, the election workers don't care). All electors are assigned an advance polling station based on where you live and you can find that using your postal code on the Voter Information Service page, along with all sorts of useful info to help you vote.
April 20-22 are the days when people who are hospitalized can vote. An election officer from Elections Canada will even come to your hospital bed and set you up with a funky screen (aka cardboard tri-fold) so you can vote in privacy. If you request, they can also help you vote.
From now until April 22, 6pm anyone can visit their local Elections Canada office and vote. They're open 7 days a week, and have more than 500 offices across Canada.
April 22 is the deadline to apply to vote by mail. Anyone can vote by mail, but plan ahead! If Elections Canada doesn't receive your mailed ballot by April 28, your vote won't get counted.
Monday, April 28 is election day. It's the day when all regular polling stations are open for 12 hours, and when mobile polls will serve electors in long-term care facilities and seniors' residences.
Voting hours on April 28 vary depending on timezone, and are staggered so that the majority of results are available at approximately the same time across the country.
Some electoral districts cover more than one time zone, so check out the Elections Canada website or your Voter Information Card for more details.
The electoral districts spanning more than one time zone are:
- Labrador
- Gaspésie–Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine–Listuguj
- Kenora–—Kiiwetinoong
- Thunder Bay–Rainy River
- Columbia–Kootenay–Southern Rockies
- Kamloops–Shuswap–Central Rockies
- Nunavut
