Terrebonne in the 2025 Canadian federal election

As part of the 2025 Canadian federal election on April 28, 2025, an election took place for the federal electoral district of Terrebonne, Quebec. This election was a close contest between the incumbent Bloc Québécois candidate, Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, and the Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste. This election became known for its narrow margin of victory and disputes over its result, with the seat changing hands three times over the preliminary count, validation process, and judicial recount.

In a preliminary count, Auguste was originally assumed to be the winner by 35 votes, but on May 1, the validation of election night results declared Sinclair-Desgagné as the winner by 44 votes. The narrowness of this margin triggered an automatic judicial recount overseen by the Superior Court of Quebec.^[1][2] On May 10, the recount added 74 votes, with 56 of them going to Auguste and 11 to Sinclair-Desgagné. After this recount, the result was reversed, with Auguste certified as the victor by one vote. The shift moved the Liberal seat count to 170, two short of a majority government.^[2]

The results became controversial after a would-be Bloc voter disclosed on May 13 that her mail-in ballot was rejected and returned to her due to a postal code misprint on the envelope provided by Elections Canada.^[3] On May 14, Elections Canada acknowledged the error but stated that it did not have legal standing to overturn the judicial recount. The following day, the Bloc announced that it would challenge the result in the Superior Court and seek a by-election. The same day, Elections Canada stated that five other mail ballots with the incorrect returning address printed had been rejected for having arrived at the Elections Canada office after the deadline; the statement said that they could not determine if the incorrect address had led to the fatal delay.^[4] The application was filed in court on May 23,^[5] with the hearing taking place in October.^[6]

In September, Elections Canada reported that 115 special ballots had been issued to electors in Terrebonne. Their disposition was as follows:^[7]

The case began on October 20 at the courthouse in Saint-Jérôme, and was originally estimated to last three days. No witnesses were scheduled to appear, as all parties were interviewed over the summer and filed consequential affidavits in order to speed up the hearing.^[8]

On the first day, it was revealed that the Elections Canada employee estimated that 40 to 60 envelopes had been sent out with the wrong postal code on the return address. He did not think it necessary to inform the Returning Officer about that, as he had seen envelopes being delivered by Canada Post despite the error, and also noted that the return rate for special ballots was in line with previous elections.^[9] The Bloc's advocate, Mr. Stéphane Chatigny, submitted that this was still a grave error, which was sufficient to meet the high bar set by the Supreme Court of Canada in a previous contested election case in 2012.^[9][10]

The Liberals' advocate presented his case on the second day, submitting that what happened could be described as an everyday error, and a single vote represented just a margin of 0.0016%. The advocate for Elections Canada stated that it recognized that an error had been committed in the election, but noted that the Supreme Court, while giving high priority to the right to vote, also said that Canadian elections were not designed to attain perfection.^[11]

The proceedings achieved notoriety not only in Canada, but also internationally, being reported in such outlets as CNN^[12] and The Guardian.^[13]

On October 27, the court ruled that a byelection would not be held. Dufour J held that what happened did not constitute an irregularity as defined in Canadian election law, saying, "It is a simple human error, which sometimes occurs in general elections, committed inadvertently and without any dishonest or malicious intent."^[14]

On November 3, Sinclair-Desgagné announced that she would be appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada, saying, "The judgment of the Superior Court of Quebec contains several errors of fact as well as an interpretation of the law and jurisprudence that invites an appeal", and she was also planning to set up a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the litigation costs.^[15][16][17] The Liberal Party subsequently filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Canada Elections, alleging that litigation costs form part of campaign expenses under the Canada Elections Act, and the anonymity given to crowdfunding donors violates the Act's limits on individual and corporate donations. Sinclair-Desgagné responded that she had received two legal opinions on the matter before proceeding with the initiative, and stated that the Liberal claim was "unfounded and malevolent".^[18]

On December 12, the Supreme Court announced that it would be hearing the appeal on February 13, 2026.^[19]

This is not the first time that Terrebonne has witnessed an unusual electoral result. In 1841, during the election for the 1st Parliament of the Province of Canada, Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine was forced to withdraw because of intimidation by supporters of his opponent Michael McCulloch, thus allowing McCulloch to be elected by acclamation. LaFontaine would enter the Legislative Assembly in a later by-election elsewhere.^[20]

In the 1935 provincial election, the election of Athanase David was contested on the ground that the ballot papers were not printed in the form prescribed under the Election Act. At the subsequent hearing, the judge ruled that all cast ballots were thus void. Immediately afterwards, the returning officer announced that, as this resulted in a 0–0 tie, he cast his deciding vote in favour of David.^[21][22] The returning officer's action was considered to have been without precedent anywhere in the world in countries with parliamentary-style legislatures.^[23] The Conservatives lodged an appeal,^[23] but the result was upheld by the Quebec Court of Appeal in April 1936.^[24] David would become the only member of the Assembly in Quebec history to be elected on only one cast vote.^[25][26]

In the March 2025 provincial by-election, while the riding flipped from the CAQ back to the PQ after being held for two elections by Pierre Fitzgibbon, Québec solidaire was also squeezed out of third place by the PLQ, dropping in support by over eight percentage points (while the Liberals had lost two points). Nadia Poirier, a second-time QS nominee,^[27] complained afterwards about the lack of support she received from the party, noting that none of its 12 MNAs came out to help in her campaign and that the party had solidarity in name only.^[28] QS responded that, as Terrebonne had been a péquiste stronghold for 25 years, it allocated its resources based on a serious analysis of its chances of winning.^[27] In June 2025, Poirier announced that she was leaving QS to join the PQ.^[29]

• 2025 Terrebonne provincial by-election
• 2025 Canadian federal election in Quebec
• Burnaby Central in the 2025 Canadian federal election
• Carleton in the 2025 Canadian federal election
• List of close election results