Can you vote in the official language of your choice during Canadian federal elections? The answer depends on which government agency you ask.
A Matter of Interpretation
The Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada and the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada have a different interpretation of sections 24(2) and 24(3)(b) of the Official Languages Act (the Act):
24 (2) Any federal institution that reports directly to Parliament on any of its activities has the duty to ensure that any member of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from all of its offices or facilities in Canada or elsewhere in either official language.
(3) Without restricting the generality of subsection (2), the duty set out in that subsection applies in respect of …
(b) the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer;
In a 2019 audit follow-up report, the Commissioner of Official Languages explained this difference in interpretation. According to the Commissioner, polling stations report directly to the Chief Electoral Officer. As a result, voters have the right to receive bilingual services at all polling stations across the country.
For its part, Elections Canada is of the opinion that the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer and the offices of returning officers (ROs) – who are responsible for polling stations, among other matters – are separate entities. They are, therefore, subject to the Act in different ways. Elections Canada assigns a linguistic designation to polling stations based on the level of demand for services in the minority official language – English in Quebec and French in the other provinces and territories. The criterion of “significant demand” is set out in the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations (the Regulations).
Calculation of “Significant Demand”
According to Elections Canada’s Returning Officer’s Manual, the linguistic designation of a polling station depends on its type and its location:
- During referenda or elections, all RO offices are designated bilingual.
- In the National Capital Region (Ottawa–Gatineau), polling stations (including advance polling stations), the offices of additional assistant returning officers and the offices of an external service point are all designated bilingual.
- In other regions, the official language minority must represent 5% or more of the total population of a polling division for its polling stations to be designated bilingual. For the 2025 federal election, the percentage of the official language minority in each polling division was calculated using the “first official language spoken” variable established by Statistics Canada based on language data collected in the 2021 census.
This calculation of “significant demand” does not take into account the new criteria adopted in 2019 following an initiative to modernize the Regulations (which has not yet been fully implemented). In addition to the numerical criterion (i.e., the 5% threshold for providing bilingual services), the Regulations now include a qualitative criterion, namely, the presence in the polling division of a public elementary or secondary school of the official language minority, as well as a more inclusive definition of that minority. The definition now includes citizens whose first language is the minority official language and those who use the minority official language primarily or regularly at home. According to Elections Canada, the Treasury Board Secretariat’s Official Languages Centre of Excellence exempted the organization from applying the new criteria for determining significant demand in the case of offices open only during elections.
Elections Canada says that it is difficult to recruit and retain enough bilingual election officials, even in regions where there is an official language minority community. Applying the “significant demand” criterion to assign a linguistic designation to polling stations helps it to prioritize the offer of bilingual services in polling divisions where there is clear demand.
Nevertheless, Elections Canada does take steps to try to provide bilingual services. ROs are instructed to prioritize hiring bilingual election officials. The goal is to have at least one bilingual employee on hand at all times in all polling stations that are designated bilingual. Elections Canada also works in collaboration with official language minority communities through community relations officers.
Offer of Bilingual Services During the 45th Federal General Election
During the 45th federal election, which took place in 2025, it was noted that 148 (or 43%) of the 343 electoral districts had significant demand for services in the minority official language. However, it should be noted that Elections Canada does not assign the same linguistic designation to all polling stations in the same electoral district. Since an electoral district comprises several polling divisions, the language designation of each polling station depends on the distribution of members of the official language minority among the various polling divisions.
For example, only three of the 243 polling divisions in the electoral district of Long Range Mountains in Newfoundland and Labrador meet the significant demand threshold. Therefore, a francophone from that electoral district living outside the three designated bilingual polling divisions will be assigned to a unilingual polling station.
Outside the National Capital Region, voters are unable to find out which language they can vote in since information on the linguistic designation of polling stations is not publicly available. It does not appear on the voter information card or in Elections Canada’s database of electoral district information. To find out the linguistic designation of a polling station, voters must contact the RO office for their electoral district.
There are certain accommodations available to voters in a unilingual polling division who want to exercise their right to vote in the minority official language. They may choose to vote at the local Elections Canada office (one per electoral district during an election period) or apply to vote by mail, courier or in person using a special ballot. At polling stations, they can also use the interpretation services provided by Elections Canada or they can bring a trusted person with them to act as an interpreter.
In 2021, outside of Quebec, New Brunswick had the highest proportion of people who reported French as the only official language they knew and among people of voting age, the 65 and over age group was the most represented. In total, 7.9% of New Brunswickers and 10.8% of those aged 65 and over spoke only French. Among immigrants in the province, the proportion was 3.2%. For both the general population and the immigrant population, the proportion of women who spoke only French was slightly higher than that of men: 8% of women+ versus 7.7% of men+ in the general population, and 790 women+ versus 630 men+ in the immigrant population. It should be noted that Statistics Canada’s figures refer to “men +” and “women +,” with each category including a number of non-binary individuals.
In Quebec, among people of voting age, the 25–44 age group was the most represented among Quebecers who reported English as the only official language they knew. In total, 5.3% of all Quebecers and 5.9% of Quebecers aged 25 to 44 reported speaking only English. Men were more likely than women to speak only English (5.5% of men+ compared to 5.1% of women+). Among the province’s immigrant population, this percentage rose to 15.4%. However, the number of immigrant women who spoke only English was slightly higher than that of immigrant men: 94,390 immigrant women+ and 92,400 immigrant men+ did not know French.
Overview of Complaints
During every federal election, the Commissioner of Official Languages receives complaints about the availability of bilingual services. Table 1 below shows the number of admissible complaints about bilingual services offered at polling stations during Canadian federal elections between 2011 and 2025.
Table 1 – Number of Admissible Complaints received by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada Concerning Bilingual Services at Polling Stations, by Election Year and by Province and Territory, 2011 to 2025
| Election Year | 2011 | 2015 | 2019 | 2021 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | – | 2 | 1 | – | 4 |
| Alberta | 1 | – | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Saskatchewan | – | 1 | – | – | 2 |
| Manitoba | 3 | – | 4 | 4 | 11 |
| Ontario | 9 | 10 | 76 | 10 | 16 |
| Quebec | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
| New Brunswick | 9 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 4 |
| Nova Scotia | – | – | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Prince Edward Island | – | – | 2 | 1 | – |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | – | – | 2 | – | – |
| Yukon | – | – | 1 | – | – |
| Northwest Territories | – | 1 | 1 | – | – |
| Nunavut | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 25 | 19 | 112 | 27 | 46 |
Source: Table prepared by the Library of Parliament based on data obtained from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada.
The number of admissible complaints varies between 20 and 30 on average per election year. There was a noticeable increase between the 2021 and 2025 elections. In 2019, the Commissioner of Official Languages received a record number of complaints, mostly from Ontario, specifically the Greater Toronto Area and Eastern Ontario. It is important to note that a complaint deemed admissible is not necessarily substantiated.
Expectations and Reality
Elections Canada is finding it difficult to provide official language minorities with services of equal quality to those offered to the rest of the population at polling stations. A distinct lack of bilingual staff poses problems, and access to bilingual services is still linked to the geographical distribution of the official language minority across polling divisions. This means that not all voters in the same electoral district are always able to receive the same services. Nevertheless, voters can still exercise their right to vote in the official language of their choice by taking certain steps with Elections Canada.
Additional Resources
Elections Canada. Returning Officer’s Manual: Volume I – Election Fundamentals. March 2025.
Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. Report on the 44th General Election of September 20, 2021.
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. Droits linguistiques en période électorale [in French].
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. Annual Report 2015–2016, pp. 43 and 44.
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. Annual Report 2019–2020, pp. 27–30.
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. Audit of Services Provided to Electors in English and French by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. Final report, July 2015.
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. Audit of Services Provided to Electors in English and French by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. Follow-up report, May 2019.
By Lucie Lecomte, Library of Parliament
Categories: Education, language and training, Law, justice and rights