Canada’s most recent general election came with a hefty price tag of $570 million, Elections Canada has confirmed, with much of the spending tied to staffing, logistics, and communications.Blacklock's Reporter says in a new report outlining the revised cost of the April 28 federal vote, the agency said the bill worked out to roughly $19.79 per registered voter. The biggest expense was the recruitment and training of 250,000 temporary workers to staff polling places across the country.Other costs included printing ballots, shipping election materials, leasing polling stations, launching public communications campaigns, hiring temporary staff, and deploying IT systems. Elections Canada said the final tally won’t be confirmed until all invoices are in — likely sometime in 2026..By comparison, the 2019 election cost $492.4 million or $17.99 per voter. The 2021 pandemic-era vote cost even more than this year’s, at $574.2 million or $20.87 per voter, due to public health measures like masks, hand sanitizer, and extra security. That election saw 102 police calls over disputes related to COVID-19 mandates.According to a 2022 Elections Canada survey, only 3% of poll workers said they had to frequently remind voters to wear masks during the 2021 election. Still, 8% reported experiencing harassment on the job, mostly verbal abuse. Of those harassed, 39% said the aggression was related to pandemic safety protocols.The tone of the 2021 campaign was widely criticized for contributing to public hostility. Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull told a 2022 House committee the campaign saw a rise in political anger and conspiracy-driven rhetoric, which he said was damaging Canadian democracy..Joël Lightbound, now the minister of public works, expressed regret over the federal Liberals’ approach to pandemic messaging during the 2021 election. At the time, he said the government had shifted from a “positive and unifying” tone to one that sought to “wedge, divide and stigmatize.”Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau fueled controversy during the campaign by portraying unvaccinated Canadians as a threat to public safety. In one interview, he referred to them as “extremists who don’t believe in science,” and added that they were “often misogynists, also often racists.”
