logo
Inside Canada's election recount process: What voters should know

Inside Canada's election recount process: What voters should know

Toronto Star14-05-2025

One vote.
That's what ultimately separated the Liberals from the Bloc Québécois in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne after a judicial recount.
On election night, April 28, unofficial results showed Liberal Tatiana Auguste defeating Bloc incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné by 35 votes. But after a required postelection validation process, Sinclair-Desgagné took the lead by 44 votes — triggering an automatic judicial recount due to the narrow margin.
The recount process wrapped up on May 10, confirming Auguste as the winner.
Her victory gave the Liberals 170 seats in the House of Commons — just two short of the 172 needed for a majority government — and ended weeks of back-and-forth in the riding.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
However, what may have looked like results swinging between the two candidates is actually evidence of a 'rigorous' democratic process, said Randy Besco, a political science professor at the University of Toronto.
'Sometimes people describe this as the result changing — that's not correct,' he said. 'The result is the result. There's only one. It's just that now we know for sure what the correct one is.'
Following the final result in Terrebonne, three more judicial recounts are underway. One began Monday in Newfoundland and Labrador's Terra Nova—The Peninsulas riding. Another is in progress in Ontario's Milton East—Halton Hills South. A third, in Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, is scheduled to begin May 20.
Federal Politics
Live chat: The Conservative party, Carney's cabinet and politics in 2025
Star staff
Here's what to know about the official recount process.
How are recounts triggered?
In the days following an election, Elections Canada officials validate the preliminary results by checking if the correct number of ballots were counted and reported accurately. This validation takes place in every riding, no matter how close the race is.
Errors can be made in the initial reporting, Elections Canada said in an email, because results are phoned in to the returning officer.
'The staff at the returning officer's office could mishear one of the results being phoned in or make a typo when entering the reported result into the system,' Matthew McKenna, a spokesperson for Elections Canada said. 'The validation process exists because these sorts of errors can happen.'
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
If the margin between the top two candidates is less than one one-thousandth of all valid votes, a judicial recount is automatically triggered. However, a judicial recount can also be requested by any voter — typically by the losing candidate.
In this case, they must first notify the returning officer in writing, then file a request with a judge. They then also need to provide evidence supporting their claim and pay a $250 deposit.
Irek Kusmierczyk, the Liberal incumbent in Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, lost to his Conservative rival by just 77 votes in the federal election, but was granted a judicial recount after submitting a request.
'The bar is fairly low,' Besco said. 'But judges don't always agree.'
How does the 'rigorous' process work?
A recount can be done in three ways: by the judge totalling up the reported results from each voting location, recounting only properly marked ballots or recounting all ballots, including rejected, spoiled or unused ones. The judge then totals the ballots cast for each candidate, depending on the chosen procedure.
A ballot is spoiled if it's damaged or filled out incorrectly and replaced before being cast. A rejected ballot is submitted but not counted because it's improperly marked or the voter's intent is unclear.
The judge oversees the recount, though Besco said it's mostly Elections Canada staff counting the tens of thousands of ballots.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
'They might have like ten or twenty teams of people with the ballots out on tables in a big room, and they just count them off,' he said.
At any point, the judge can end the recount if the person who requested it submits a written withdrawal — unless it's an automatic recount, which must proceed.
As Elections Canada staff tear off part of each ballot during the election to collect a receipt, they know how many votes were cast. During a recount, they ensure the number of ballots matches the original count.
'What they're looking for usually is math errors,' Besco said. 'They have to make sure they actually haven't missed any.'
Another key part of a recount, Besco said, is reviewing whether ballots were marked correctly. Recount teams examine any ballots rejected or spoiled on election night, and everyone present — returning officer, candidates, two candidate reps not on the recount team, legal counsel for the candidates and the chief electoral officer — must unanimously agree for one to be counted.
If they can't agree, the judge — who can hear reasoning from both parties — makes the final decision on whether the ballot should count.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
'There is a little bit of judgment there,' Besco said. 'That's why sometimes the number of votes is slightly different.'
How often do recounts happen?
Judicial recounts aren't 'unusual,' Besco said — a few will typically occur after every federal election.
In 2021, there were two recounts. One flipped the result in Châteauguay–Lacolle to the Liberals, while the other confirmed the Bloc Québécois win in Trois-Rivières. Two additional recounts were requested but later withdrawn.
'Two-to-four recounts is pretty standard,' Besco said. 'If you keep rolling a dice, eventually you're going to get a one, and eventually we're going to get a very close riding.'
Why are recounts important?
For Besco, recounts are a crucial device to ensure the 'right winner.'
'We need to be sure that the people who are elected are actually the people that won,' he said. 'It's also important that everybody knows and sees that it is correct.'
Despite the Liberals inching closer to a majority, they'll be shy of 172 seats if they win all remaining recounts. Two of the seats are already Liberal-held, with Kusmierczyk the only candidate trying to flip one.
Still, Besco said the thorough, robust and, sometimes, drawn-out process is key to maintaining trust in the election's outcome.
'I think Canadians have a lot of faith in our elections,' he said, 'and that's a great thing about Canada.'

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

New Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia hopes he doesn't have to give anyone a game misconduct
New Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia hopes he doesn't have to give anyone a game misconduct

Montreal Gazette

time43 minutes ago

  • Montreal Gazette

New Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia hopes he doesn't have to give anyone a game misconduct

By Sitting in his stately office just down the corridor from the Chamber of the House of Commons, where he has to keep the sometimes rowdy MPs in order, the new Speaker of the House used a hockey analogy to describe his job. 'You're not seeking to give a penalty or a game misconduct,' said Francis Scarpaleggia, who was elected Speaker on May 26, the first day of the new Parliament. 'That's not what you're looking to do.' Scarpaleggia, who lives in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, has been the member of Parliament for the West Island riding of Lac-Saint-Louis since 2004. In the last session of Parliament, debates and question period became increasingly acrimonious, with heated fights between former prime minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre. Previous speaker Greg Fergus kicked Poilievre out of the Commons in April 2024 after the head of the Conservatives called Trudeau 'wacko' for supporting British Columbia's past policy of decriminalizing some hard drugs. In an interview last week, his second week on the job as Speaker, Scarpaleggia said so far the verbal sparring in question period has been relatively polite. A couple of hours later during question period, there was some energetic back-and-forth between the Liberals and both the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois, with the opposition parties criticizing Prime Minister Mark Carney for failing to make a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump on tariffs and not doing enough about inflation. But no one called Carney a wacko. 'The trick is to find that fine line between maintaining order and allowing enough latitude to the opposition to express themselves,' Scarpaleggia said. 'Of course that line changes depending on the mood of the House on any given day. But we're at the start of a mandate and things so far have been going well.' The Speaker's job doesn't just involve keeping the MPs in the chamber in line. They are also the liaison between Parliament and the Crown, which is why Scarpaleggia introduced King Charles before the monarch gave the Throne Speech last month. He also has to wear that unusual-looking hat and leads what is called a parade to open each day's Parliamentary session. The position also has a diplomatic side that involves the Speaker liaising with ambassadors and embassies representing other countries. He is also in charge of the administration and finances of the House of Commons. When we spoke, Scarpaleggia was still getting used to the job. 'Second week in the role, so every day is a learning experience,' Scarpaleggia said. 'But I've been watching Speakers perform their duties for 20 years.' The Speaker is elected by a secret ballot. There were six candidates, all Liberal, after the two Conservative candidates, Chris d'Entremont and John Nater, dropped out of the running. There is an informal campaign leading up to the vote. 'You do have lots of conversations with colleagues from all sides of the House before,' Scarpaleggia said. 'You make lots of phone calls.' A tradition that the prime minister and leader of the opposition pull the Speaker to the chair on his or her first day resulted in a funny photo of Carney and interim opposition leader Andrew Scheer dragging him to his chair. 'That goes back apparently many centuries ... when the King was still very powerful and even though he granted rights to the Commons, the Speaker, as representative of the Commons, could incur the wrath of the King, with a fatal end,' said Scarpaleggia. 'So when the Throne Speech is read … (the Speaker) reads a statement to the Governor General, or in this case the King, where he or she says basically, 'If you're displeased with something, it's not the fault of my fellow members of Parliament, I take the blame.' So you can understand that many centuries ago, it was a risky job, which is why they had to drag the person into it. Obviously it's done as performance. The tradition is to be dragged in and to pretend to resist.' Scarpaleggia, 68, receives an extra $99,900 to serve as Speaker, in addition to his salary of $209,800 as MP. He gets an apartment in the West Block and has an official estate in Gatineau Park, known as The Farm. It is used for hosting foreign dignitaries. His wife, Jan Ramsay, spends more time in Ottawa with him, because their two daughters are in their mid-20s. He was national caucus chairman for the Liberals from 2011 to 2021 and he has chaired many Commons committees over the years. As Speaker, he has to be non-partisan. He can't criticize the government or the opposition. He no longer votes in the Commons unless there's a tie, in which case he casts the tie-breaking vote. This is a minority Liberal government, with 169 MPs, three shy of a majority. If there was ever a tie in a vote of confidence, Scarpaleggia said he would have to vote to keep the government in power. 'The Speaker wouldn't vote to cause an election,' he said. Scarpleggia went to Loyola High School, then Marianopolis College before receiving a B.A., honours, in economics from McGill. He also has degrees from Columbia and Concordia. He was legislative assistant to MP Clifford Lincoln from 1994 to 2004. Lincoln, 96, was at Scarpaleggia's riding office on election night and remains a close friend. Scarpaleggia is a passionate music fan who still sees lots of shows. 'I like it all. I like it when it's fresh and innovative. I like a Jack White quite a lot. That might come as a surprise. I saw him at Place Bell a few years back. One of the first albums that my father bought me when I was very young, at 11 or maybe 12, (was) The Band album, the second one, and I wore that thing out.' When asked for his favourite artist of all time, he jokes that given his Speaker's job 'impartiality requires me not to choose between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.'

Breakenridge: Supply management ignored for sexier political battles
Breakenridge: Supply management ignored for sexier political battles

Calgary Herald

timean hour ago

  • Calgary Herald

Breakenridge: Supply management ignored for sexier political battles

Article content Supply management is not something that typically shows up these days on most lists of Alberta's grievances with Ottawa. Article content In fact, there's likely still a fair amount of support for the supply management system among those in these regulated sectors of agriculture — dairy, eggs and poultry. Conversely, it's not something the Alberta government has devoted much time or energy to; the same goes for many of the other voices who have demanded a fairer deal for our province within Canada. Article content Article content Article content But not only is it a system that is bad for consumers and harmful to potential trade deals, it also disadvantages the West in favour of Quebec. Alberta's government should not only be opposing the latest attempt in Ottawa to shield supply management from any future trade agreements, but we should be pushing for the end of supply management itself. Article content Article content In short, supply management operates like a legal cartel system, where valuable quotas limit and control who participates in the market, where prices are set by a marketing board (which also involves discarding significant quantities of milk each year), and where foreign competition is kept out by a wall of sky-high tariffs. Despite the argument that the system protects farmers, there are far fewer dairy farms now than before supply management came into existence. Article content It should come as no surprise that even with cross-party support in Ottawa for supply management, its biggest political champion is the Bloc Québécois. The Bloc has once again tabled legislation that would legally preclude the government from including supply management in any future trade talks. The most recent attempt managed to pass in the House of Commons, but got stalled in the Senate. Article content Article content This is no small point. Last year, the U.K. walked away from trade talks with Canada over our intransigence on this issue. The U.S. has made its displeasure with supply management well known, even though CUSMA did allow for some minor carve-outs for American products. Article content Article content The rest of the ag sector, on the other hand, is quite heavily reliant on access to foreign markets. Alberta exports billions of dollars worth of just beef and canola products to the U.S. each year. As the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance warns, this bill would 'harm the thousands of farmers, ranchers, processors and agri-food exporters who rely on open access to global markets.' Article content But there's another aspect to this issue that's highlighted in a recent report from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute — the regional favouritism that supply management creates.

Raises, retention bonuses promised for Canadian Forces personnel
Raises, retention bonuses promised for Canadian Forces personnel

Toronto Sun

time2 hours ago

  • Toronto Sun

Raises, retention bonuses promised for Canadian Forces personnel

The initiatives were outlined during a technical briefing that followed Prime Minister Mark Carney's defence spending announcement Prime Minister Mark Carney greets Canadian troops of the 4th Canadian Division as he attends a tour of the Fort York Armoury in Toronto on June 9, 2025. Carney announced Monday that Canada will meet the NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP by the end of this fiscal year. Photo by COLE BURSTON / GETTY IMAGES Pay increases for military personnel as well as retention bonuses and increased training allowances for particular Canadian Forces members are to be part of the government's spending boost for defence. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In addition, it is expected that around 1,400 new staff will be hired at the Department of National Defence. The initiatives were outlined Monday during a technical briefing that followed Prime Minister Mark Carney's announcement that defence spending was being significantly increased. The Liberal government noted that it was pumping in more funding so Canada will meet the NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP by the end of this fiscal year. Carney repeated his election promises to purchase new submarines and other equipment as well as improve military housing and benefits. 'Members of our armed forces will get a well deserved salary increase, which will contribute to better recruitment and retention of personnel,' said Carney. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But defence officials at the technical briefing had few answers. They did point out that not only will there be pay increases but in some cases boosts in training allowances and retention bonuses for key military personnel. They did not have information on what specific Canadian Forces jobs or trades would be eligible for bonuses. More health-care workers will be hired for the Canadian Forces and the civilian workforce will be expanded so military personnel can focus on operations, government officials said at the technical briefing. Under government-imposed rules, the officials who provided the briefing cannot be identified. In January, the Ottawa Citizen reported that military staff were recommending retention bonuses to keep key personnel from leaving the ranks. But there were questions at the time about whether the government would fund such a plan. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Although the Canadian Forces doesn't currently have retention bonuses, the military does offer various extra pay or allowances for those in particular jobs or handling specific duties, the Department of National Defence has noted. In addition, the military does provide extra payment to recruit individuals with particular skills. Various western militaries, facing personnel shortages, have been using retention bonuses to entice individuals to continue to stay in the ranks. On Nov. 22, 2024, the British government announced bonuses equivalent to $54,000 for aircraft engineers who sign up for an additional three years of military service. Privates and lance corporals who have already served four years would be eligible for a new retention bonus, which is the equivalent of $14,000. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. An internal U.S. Air Force memo, recently leaked online, noted that 89 key occupations would be eligible for retention bonuses in 2025. Those bonuses range from the equivalent of $260,000 to $520,000. The retention money is aimed at a variety of jobs, including specialized maintenance crews to Chinese language analysts. In addition, the officials at the technical briefing noted that more money will be spent on ammunition production and helping Canadian defence firms sell their products overseas. The focus moving forward on defence procurement will be on using Canadian suppliers, they added. During his Monday speech, Carney repeated his promise that Canada will cut back on using its defence dollars to purchase U.S. military equipment. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The U.S. has become increasingly hostile to Canada, with President Donald Trump continuing with his economic efforts to punish Canada and push for this country to become the 51st state. 'We should no longer send three-quarters of our defence capital spending to America,' Carney said. 'The transformation of our military capabilities can help with the transformation of our economy.' Despite Carney's statement, a military official confirmed during the Monday technical briefing that the Canadian Forces has an interest in the U.S.-built High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS. The Ottawa Citizen reported in March that the Canadian military leadership was pushing the federal government to purchase the system in a sole-source deal. David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: Read More Toronto Blue Jays Ontario Olympics Sunshine Girls Hockey

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store