A simple guide to Canada's federal election

Mark Carney is due to be sworn in as Canada's next prime minister in the coming days, having won the race to succeed Justin Trudeau.

It means he will lead the governing Liberal Party of Canada in the next election - which is expected to be called soon.

Several political leaders had called for a vote after Trudeau announced he was resigning as leader of the Liberals in January.

But after US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on the country, potentially sparking a trade war, opposition parties have suggested Canada should vote as soon as possible.

By law, the maximum time between federal elections in Canada is five years. The next vote is officially scheduled for 20 October 2025.

However, there are a couple of scenarios in which an early election can be triggered:

• When the governor general accepts the prime minister's advice to dissolve government, or
• If the governor general accepts the PM's resignation after the government is defeated in a confidence vote in parliament

When Trudeau resigned in January, he suspended parliament so that the Liberal Party, which currently controls government, could have a leadership race to find his replacement.

Carney, announced as Trudeau's replacement on Sunday, could call an election early.

Pierre Poilievre, who leads the opposition Conservative Party, has already said he will call for a vote of no confidence once parliament returns, as has Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party.

In the Canadian federal election - as in the UK's general election - voters do not cast a ballot directly for a prime minister. Instead, it is the leader of the party with the majority of members of parliament (MPs) who becomes PM.

That means Carney will be in the running, along with Poilievre and Singh.

Four main parties will contest the next election - the Liberals, the Conservatives, the New Democrats (NDP) and the Bloc Quebecois.

The Liberals have been in power since 2015, when Trudeau was voted in. They currently hold 153 seats.

The Conservatives are the official opposition with 120 seats.

The Bloc Quebecois, which only runs candidates in the province of Quebec, has 33 seats, and the NDP has 24.

The Green Party hold two seats.

During the latter stages of Trudeau's premiership, opinion polls consistently showed the Conservatives with a strong lead.

But the numbers tightened after Trudeau stepped down. Trump has since taken office in the US and introduced steep tariffs against Canada, which has raised expectations of a closer vote.

When Trudeau resigned at the beginning of this year, he did so under significant pressure from his own party - it was felt that his personal unpopularity was damaging the party's hopes of winning the next election.

National polling averages, shared by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), show how support for the Liberals waned throughout 2023 and 2024.

At the same time, support for the Conservatives soared. On 20 January of this year - the day of Trump's inauguration - the Conservatives were polling 44.8% while the Liberals were on 21.9%.

Since then, polls suggest that support for the Liberals has ticked back up. The latest averages indicate that 40.4% of Canadians back the Conservatives, while 30.8% support the Liberals.

In the process of regaining some support, the Liberals have attempted to draw comparisons between Poilievre and Trump in the aftermath of the US president introducing 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports to the country.

After being announced as Trudeau's successor, Carney said regarding the trade war that "Americans should make no mistake... Canada will win".

• Read more on this here: How Trump's threats have changed everything about Canada's politics

There are 343 federal ridings - also called constituencies or electoral districts -across the country. Each has a corresponding seat in the House of Commons.

All the seats in the lower chamber, the House of Commons, are up for grabs during an election.

Members of the Senate, the upper chamber, are appointed and do not run for election.

Like the UK, Canada has a "first-past-the-post" electoral system.

The candidate who gets the most votes in each riding wins that seat and become an MP. They do not need to get the majority of all the votes cast in their area. Other parties win nothing in that area.

The leader of the party with the largest number of elected MPs will normally form the government. The second-placed party usually forms the official opposition.

If no party ends up with a majority seats - the result is known as a hung parliament or a minority government. Practically, it means the party will not be able to pass legislation without the help of other parties.

To vote in a Canadian election, someone must be a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years old, and have proof of identity and address.