Canadian Federal Election, 2015 (TrueGrit101)

The 2015 Canadian federal election was held on April 15th, 2015 to elect members of the House of Commons of the 42nd Parliament of Canada.

The writ for the election was dropped on March 8th by the Governor General on the request of incumbent Conservative Prime Minster Stephen Harper. This was a strategic mode so that Harper could run his campaign on the balanced budget recently passed by the government.

The election resulted in Harper's majority being reduced to a minority.

Summary of the 2015 Canadian Federal Election Results

Party	Leader	Leader's Riding	Vote	Percent of Vote	Percent Change	Seats Won	Seat Change
Conservative	Stephen Harper	Calgary-Heritage (AB)	4,796,321	31.3%	-8.3%	130	-36
New Democratic Party	Thomas Mulcair	Outremont (QB)	3,968,841	25.9%	-4.7%	97	-6
Liberal	Justin Trudeau	Papineau (QB)	3,432,511	22.4%	+3.5%	95	+61
Green	Elizabeth May	Saanich-Gulf Islands (BC)	1,241,221	8.1%	+4.2%	1	=
Force et Democratie	Jean-Francois Fortin	Avignon-La Mitis-Matane-Matapedia (QB)	1,133,955	7.4%	+7.4%	11	+11
Bloc Quebecois	Mario Beaulieu	Hochlega (QB) Lost Election	505,682	3.3%	-2.7%	3	-1
Christian Heritage Party	Rod Taylor	Kitimat-Stikine (BC) Lost Election	144,043	0.9%	+0.8%	0	=
Libertarian	Tim Moen	Fort McMurray-Cold Lake (AB) Lost Election	47,504	0.3%	+0.3%	0	=
Independents and Others	N/A	N/A	55,165	0.4%	-0.8%	1	+1
Total			15,323,710	100%		338	+30

Aftermath

The election was mixed results for the Conservatives. While the government was able to hold on to first place out of all the parties, they lost their majority and fell to a minority. Harper resigned his position as prime minster on August 30th, 2015, meaning he served 9 years, six months, and 24 days as prime minster. This would make him the 6th longest-serving prime minster of Canada.

Quebec MP Denis Lebel was appointed interim leader of the Conservatives and therefore interim Prime Minster of Canada. The Conservatives held a leadership election in early December, 2016 and Alberta MP Jason Kenney was elected leader over Ontario MP Lisa Raitt. He was sworn in on December 16th, 2016 as the 24th Prime Minster of Canada. 

The election was also bittersweet for the NDP. Though the centre-left party lost seats, they far surpassed there place in opinion polls, which predicted they would fall to as few as 40 seats. Leader Tom Mulcair decided to stay on for the next election, and won a party leadership review with 82% of the vote. 

The Liberals tripled their seats, but this was not enough for a party that polls had predicted could form government, or at least official opposition. Leader Justin Trudeau failed a leadership review on May 30th, 2015 and resigned as leader the next day. He was suceded as interim leader by Marc Garneau. A leadership election was held on October 18th, 2015 and New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc was selected over Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison, BC MP Jody Wilson-Raybould, and Ontario MPs Chrystia Freedland and Bill Morneau. 

The Greens dramatically increased their vote, and Leader Elizabeth May won her seat again. The Green's other MP, Bruce Hyer, who crossed the floor from the NDP, narrowly lost his seat in Northern Ontario by 4% to the NDP. The Greens also came close to winning in Guelph and Victoria. Force et Democratie, a new Quebec-based regional party, picked up several seats from the NDP. Meanwhile, the Bloc lost one seat, but leader Mario Beaulieu stayed on. Two fringe parties, Christian Heritage and the Libertarians, greatly increased their vote but did not come close to winning seats. Meanwhile, one independent was re-elected, Brent Rathgeber in Edmonton-St. Albert.