Carney Calls Six Canadian By-Elections for December 7

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on November 1, 2026 that by-elections will be held on December 7, 2026 in six electoral districts across Canada. The announcement, issued from Ottawa, sets a single voting day for every seat that is currently empty in the House of Commons.

The six districts named in the announcement are Brantford-Brant South, Laurier-Sainte-Marie, Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot-Acton, Scarborough North and Yorkton-Melville. Three of the districts are in Quebec, two are in Ontario and one is in Saskatchewan. The prime minister's release stated the date plainly, saying that "by-elections will be held on December 7, 2026" in the six districts.

Six vacancies, one voting day

The call fills a House that has been short six members. The Liberals hold a majority government with 173 seats, and there were six vacancies in the House of Commons before the call.

Reporting on October 31, citing La Presse, had flagged that Carney would call the six by-elections on November 1 for December 7, with the announcement expected in the morning Ottawa time. The release on November 1 matched that schedule.

Three open seats in Quebec

Three of the vacancies are in Quebec, and each comes from a different party's hands. Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie was previously held by the NDP. Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot-Acton was previously held by the Bloc Quebecois. Laurier-Sainte-Marie was held by former Liberal cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault.

That mix makes the Quebec races more than a test for one party. A seat that was New Democratic, a seat that was Bloc Quebecois and a seat that was Liberal are all open on the same day, in the same province.

The Ontario and Saskatchewan races

Scarborough North, in Ontario, is a Liberal stronghold, and the Liberals have named businessman James Li as their candidate there. The second Ontario race is Brantford-Brant South. That seat became vacant when Conservative MP Larry Brock resigned earlier in the fall. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre appointed Kevin Davis as the candidate, and long-time local Conservative Dave Carrol announced he will run as an independent, which gives the race a contest inside the conservative vote as well as between the parties.

The Saskatchewan seat, Yorkton-Melville, starts from the strongest Conservative ground in the set. The Conservatives won it in the past election with 77 per cent of the vote. The Liberals named Yorkton Mayor Aaron Kienle as their candidate there, a local office holder carrying the Liberal banner in a seat his party lost heavily last time. The Conservative candidate is Nelson Pohl.

A fundraising reversal before the races

The parties go into these races with a money result that ran against the usual order. Elections Canada records published Friday showed the Liberals raised 4.9 million dollars in the third quarter of 2026 against 3.9 million dollars for the Conservatives. That is a reversal of the usual fundraising order between the two parties, and it arrived in the same week the six races were called.

Voters in the six districts now have their date. Campaigns that have already named candidates, in Scarborough North, Brantford-Brant South and Yorkton-Melville, can point to December 7, and the seats that have stood empty in the House of Commons will be filled that day.