Was forwarded some interesting data on Canadian elections today and I thought that I should post it here in case anyone out there in the ether is searching for questions like “How long are elections in Canada?” or “What is the length of the writ period for Canadian elections?”.

According to the Elections Canada Act, an election must be no shorter than 36 days. In more technical terms, the writ must not be issued or dated less than 36 days before polling day. This changed from 47 to 36 days in 1997.

Length of Federal Election Campaigns (1867 to date)

Between Parliaments **Date

Dissolved** Election Date Length in Days of Election Campaigns

1st – 2nd

1872.07.08

1872.07.20 – 1872.10.12

–

2nd – 3rd

1874.01.02

1874.01.22

20

3rd – 4th

1878.08.17

1878.09.17

31

4th – 5th

1882.05.18

1882.06.20

33

5th – 6th

1887.01.15

1887.02.22

38

6th – 7th

1891.02.03

1891.03.05

30

7th – 8th

1896.04.24

1896.06.23

60

8th – 9th

1900.10.09

1900.11.07

29

9th – 10th

1904.09.29

1904.11.03

35

10th – 11th

1908.09.17

1908.10.26

39

11th – 12th

1911.07.29

1911.09.21

54

12th – 13th

1917.10.06

1917.12.17

72

13th – 14th

1921.10.04

1921.12.06

63

14th – 15th

1925.09.05

1925.10.29

54

15th – 16th

1926.07.02

1926.09.14

74

16th – 17th

1930.05.30

1930.07.28

59

17th – 18th

1935.08.14

1935.10.14

61

18th – 19th

1940.01.25

1940.03.26

61

19th – 20th

1945.04.16

1945.06.11

56

20th – 21st

1949.04.30

1949.06.27

58

21st – 22nd

1953.06.13

1953.08.10

58

22nd – 23rd

1957.04.12

1957.06.10

59

23rd – 24th

1958.02.01

1958.03.31

58

24th – 25th

1962.04.19

1962.06.18

60

25th – 26th

1963.02.06

1963.04.08

61

26th – 27th

1965.09.08

1965.11.08

61

27th – 28th

1968.04.23

1968.06.25

63

28th – 29th

1972.09.01

1972.10.30

59

29th – 30th

1974.05.09

1974.07.08

60

30th – 31st

1979.03.26

1979.05.22

57

31st – 32nd

1979.12.14

1980.02.18

66

32nd – 33rd

1984.07.09

1984.09.04

57

33rd – 34th

1988.10.01

1988.11.21

51

34th – 35th

1993.09.08

1993.10.25

47

35th – 36th

1997.04.27

1997.06.02

36

36th – 37th

2000.10.22

2000.11.27

36

37th – 38th

2004.05.23

2004.06.28

36