A vote sign is posted as a person enters a polling station in the Vancouver East riding on federal election day in Vancouver on Monday, April 28, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
Liberal candidate Danielle Martin celebrates winning the byelection for the riding of University—Rosedale in Toronto, Monday, April 13, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Liberal party candidate Doly Begum celebrates winning the byelection for the riding of Scarborough Southwest, in Toronto, Monday, April 13, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
A vote sign is posted as a person enters a polling station in the Vancouver East riding on federal election day in Vancouver on Monday, April 28, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
EC
Liberal candidate Danielle Martin celebrates winning the byelection for the riding of University—Rosedale in Toronto, Monday, April 13, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
GAC
Liberal party candidate Doly Begum celebrates winning the byelection for the riding of Scarborough Southwest, in Toronto, Monday, April 13, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
OTTAWA - It took nearly a full year and a handful of byelections and defections for Prime Minister Mark Carney to assemble enough members of Parliament to turn his minority government into a majority — a feat that has never happened in Canadian politics before.
¹ú²úÓÕ»ó¸£Àû projected Liberal wins in two byelections in the Toronto area on Monday, giving the Liberals 173 seats in the House of Commons. The wins make Carney's government the first federal government in Canada's history to switch from a minority to a majority between elections.
"As of tonight, Mark Carney and our entire incredible Liberal team have earned an even more powerful mandate to continue building a better Canada," she said Monday night.
"This is not a mandate to be quiet. It is not a mandate to take our time. It is a mandate to get to work."
Carney congratulated Martin in a social media post.
"Danielle has spent her career building better public health care for Torontonians and all Canadians," Carney said on X.
"Now she's bringing her experience and determination to the House of Commons, and our country will be stronger for it."
Doly Begum was projected to win in nearby Scarborough Southwest, the seat left vacant when former cabinet minister Bill Blair left politics to become Canada's high commissioner in the U.K.
Begum surprised many when she left her seat in Queen's Park as a member of the provincial NDP to run federally.
She also represents the growing Liberal tent that Carney has been building for the better part of six months, as he courted five opposition MPs to join the governing party — four from the Conservative benches and one from the federal New Democrats.
Wins in two ridings on Monday mean the government will soon be able to pass legislation in the House of Commons without the support of another party, something the Liberals have not been able to do since 2019. They will also be able to control House committees.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Carney of spending a year on "a cynical power grab."
"The Carney Liberals did not win a majority government through a general election or today's byelections. Instead, it was won through backroom deals with politicians who betrayed the people who voted for them," he said in a post on X.
This report by ¹ú²úÓÕ»ó¸£Àû was first published April 13, 2026.
— With files from Kyle Duggan and Catherine Morrison in Ottawa, Erika Morris and Morgan Lowrie in Terrebonne, Que., and Diana Mussina and Rianna Lim in Toronto
