Top federal election officials knew the approximate date of the 2025 snap election months in advance, yet Elections Canada still failed to prevent widespread voting irregularities that plagued the April 28 ballot, internal records reveal.

Access to Information documents obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter show that staff at the Commissioner of Canada Elections were discussing the spring election date as early as mid-January — more than two months before the writ was dropped.

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DOCUMENTS: @Cef_cce knew timing of 2025 elxn months before it was called. Managers have yet to explain numerous irregularities despite the ample notice. https://t.co/2ZWGFwAfCf #cdnpoli #cdnfoi pic.twitter.com/7samc8eO5J

— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) August 6, 2025

“It appears we will have an election call on March 25 or 26,” wrote Pierre Verriere, communications manager in the Elections Commissioner’s office, in a January 17 email. The correspondence — casually discussing staffing, budgets, and holiday plans — reveals near-exact knowledge of the date that would later be confirmed when newly installed Prime Minister Mark Carney called the election on March 23.

Despite this advance warning, Elections Canada has yet to explain numerous failures, including mishandled mail-in ballots, poll closures, and a breakdown of critical infrastructure.

Among the worst incidents:

• 822 mail-in ballots were discovered dumped at a returning office in Coquitlam, B.C., affecting 74 separate contests. The agency claimed on May 7 that the “outcome would not be affected.”

• In Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou, random poll closures contributed to an abnormally low turnout of just 47.6 percent. Liberals won the seat from the Bloc Québécois. Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault later apologized, admitting “some electors in Nunavik were not able to cast their vote.”

• In Terrebonne, Québec, the Liberals won by a single vote — despite Elections Canada admitting it failed to process valid mail-in ballots due to misprinted labels. A ruling from Québec Superior Court is pending.

• The agency’s electronic reporting system failed for hours on election night, leaving the public and media without real-time results. Elections Canada has not explained the cause of the outage.

• Most concerning, 120,641 mail-in ballots requested by voters were never counted. The agency has not released figures showing how many were mailed late. For comparison, 90,000 ballots went uncounted in the 2021 general election.

Parliament’s Procedure and House Affairs Committee has summoned Elections Canada officials to testify once the House returns from its summer recess on September 15.