Canada's Federal Election Winner Has Been Revealed On Election Night For The Past 40 Years

So close but so different. With federal elections in Canada, it’s a very different process than the U.S. and one expert said they’ve been called on election night in the last 40 years. So, Canadians haven’t had to wait as long as their neighbours to find out who their leader will be.

Narcity spoke with Dave Matthews, the executive director of the Canadian Media Elections Consortium, about how federal elections in Canada compare to what’s been happening in the U.S.

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When are federal elections called in Canada?

While Elections Canada oversees federal elections, it doesn’t actually call a winner but puts out preliminary results on election night and official results at a later date.

Matthews said that because voting hours are staggered here in Canada during federal elections, the winner is usually called by news outlets when results from B.C. come in.

That’s about four and a half hours after results start to come in from eastern Canada.

However, that’s not always the case.

"It depends on the election. Some elections are very tight and some aren't,” Matthews said.

Sometimes, based on the numbers that have come in already, it’s already known which party will get enough votes to form a majority or minority so the race can be called before results come in from B.C.

Has what's happening in the U.S. happened here?

"What you're looking at is unbelievable in the United States," Matthews said.

In his experience as the Executive Director of the Canadian Media Elections Consortium and someone who called elections for the CBC for many years, what’s happening in the U.S. right now hasn’t happened in Canada in the last 30 to 40 years.

He’s never known or heard of a federal race here that hasn’t been called on election night.

Though delayed results and a delayed call might have happened way back in the past, it hasn’t happened recently.

How is Canada's election system different?

In Canada, people vote in their riding for MPs and not who they want to be the Prime Minister.

However many MPs are elected for each party then determines which party will govern with either a majority or minority government and the leader of the party becomes the Prime Minister.

Ballots that are cast on election day are counted when polls close.

Elections Canada starts to publish live preliminary results online after 7:00 p.m. ET.

Under the Canada Elections Act, all results in federal elections have to be validated by the returning officer in each riding within seven days and they send the results to the Chief Electoral Officer.

In the U.S., people actually vote for who they want to be the leader of the country. 

"It's a very different way of electing,” Matthews said.

Since states have their own way of doing things it can be "awkward” and lead to some results coming in sooner or later than in other places.

After Canadians saw what was happening in the U.S., many tweeted their love for Elections Canada.