Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a federal election for Monday, April 28. He made the announcement on Sunday, just nine days after being sworn in as Prime Minister.
He also visited Governor General Mary Simon on Sunday, asking her to dissolve Parliament he said, adding, “And she has agreed, we are facing the most significant crisis of our lifetimes because of President Trump’s unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty.
“Our response must be to build a strong economy and a more secure Canada.”
The election’s total campaign will be just 36 days, the shortest allowed under Canadian law.
Candidates have until Monday, April 7, to complete the nomination process.
A complete list of candidates running the Battle River-Crowfoot electoral district will not be available until Wednesday, April 9. At present, at time of writing, there are no candidates registered in the constituency.
The Prime Minister has announced his intention to run in the Ottawa riding of Nepean.
In Canada, the voting system is often called “first past the post.” That simply means that the candidate who gets the most votes in a riding wins.
Candidates who receive the most votes in their riding become the Member of Parliament, representing that riding in the House of Commons.
The political party who has the most MPs generally forms the government. The leader of that party also becomes Prime Minister.
Unlike the US system, Canadians cannot vote directly for the Prime Minister. In a federal election they only cast one vote: for the candidate in their constituency.
Each constituency across the country is roughly the same size, or has the same population, and electoral boundaries are often adjusted in between elections, for fairness as populations change.
The Battle River-Crowfoot electoral boundaries were modified slightly in 2022-23.
For the 2025 election, Battle River-Crowfoot, which encompasses the entirety of Flagstaff County and Beaver County, has a total population of 110,212, and covers 52,589 square km.
The riding has over 50 individual municipalities, not including counties and municipal districts, and includes the City of Camrose and Town of Wainwright.
In the last federal election, the constituency had 58,660 people vote, with 71.3 per cent of those votes going to the Conservative encumbant, Damien Kurek.
Leslie Cholowsky
Editor