It didn’t take long after the polls closed for various media outlets to project Pierre Poilievre as the winner of the by-election in Alberta’s Battle River-Crowfoot constituency.
Voting stopped at 8:30 p.m. for the by-election on Monday, August 18th and before 10 o’clock his projected win was being announced. At 10:15 p.m. the Leader of the Official Opposition had garnered over 80 per cent of the votes with in excess of 40 per cent of the polls reporting. The MP-elect spoke to a crowd of supporters at his campaign headquarters in Camrose once the win was in hand and expressed gratitude to the Battle River-Crowfoot electors. The 46-year-old from Calgary says he “will fight every day and every way for the people in this region who feed, power and protect all of Canada.”
Poilievre had to deal with being one of a record total of 214 candidates running in the by-election. As a result, Elections Canada created an adapted ballot for it with all of those candidates running and the limitations of the large ballots that have been used in some prior elections. Elections Canada officials noted the adapted ballot is similar to a special ballot and allows electors to write the name of the candidate they are voting for on it.
Check out the latest on the total number of votes for each candidate and voter turnout on the elections.ca website. Independent candidate Bonnie Critchley was a distant second with around 9 per cent of the votes by 10:30 p.m.
Poilievre had spent 2004 until 2025 as the Member of Parliament for his Carleton, Ontario riding until falling to Bruce Fanjoy of the Liberals by five per cent in Canada’s 45th General Election back in April of this year. He assumed office as the Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in September of 2022. Poilievre is expected to face a party leadership review in Calgary in January of 2026.
The electoral boundaries for Battle River-Crowfoot include Kneehill County, Three Hills, Trochu, and Drumheller in the south up to Camrose, Tofield, Viking, and Wainwright in the north.
