12 Indigenous candidates elected in 2025 federal election

Indigenous candidates are on track for victories in ridings across Canada as results firm up in the 2025 general election, with 12 First Nations, Inuit or Métis people elected as the ballot count continues Tuesday.

It was a dramatic turnaround Monday for Mark Carney's Liberal Party, which previously seemed doomed to defeat after three governments under Justin Trudeau — and it was a minority government win helped by flips in northern ridings with numerous Indigenous voters.

In Quebec, former grand chief of the Grand Council of the Crees Mandy Gull-Masty toppled the Bloc Québécois in Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou, a riding held by the NDP until 2019.

In Manitoba, Rebecca Chartrand, who identifies as Anishinaabe, Inninew, Dakota and Métis from Pine Creek First Nation, ousted 17-year NDP MP Niki Ashton in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski. 

"There's almost nearly 80 per cent Indigenous people in this riding," Chartrand told CBC News on election night, suggesting strong turnout and the Liberal record on reconciliation helped her party.

"I think people are more engaged with federal and provincial politics and they're understanding what a vote means, and especially now. The stakes have been too high."

Meanwhile, Métis candidate Buckley Belanger became the lone Liberal MP in Saskatchewan, taking Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River from the Conservatives.

For their part, the Tories now have four Indigenous candidates leading or elected where last Parliament they only had two.

In a dramatic flip, Ellis Ross, a former Haisla Nation chief and B.C. Liberal MLA, defeated the NDP's Taylor Bachrach in Skeena-Bulkley Valley, an NDP-held riding since 2004. Former Enoch Cree Nation chief Billy Morin was elected in Edmonton Northwest.

Marc Dalton, who is Métis, retained his seat in Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge in B.C. for the Conservatives.

The gains for the Conservatives and Liberals highlight the NDP's cataclysmic collapse. However, two of the party's seven MPs will be Indigenous.

Leah Gazan, a member of Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation in Saskatchewan, kept her seat in Winnipeg Centre. A prominent advocate last Parliament, she pressed for a Red Dress alert system, got unanimous consent  for a motion labelling residential schools as genocide, and tabled legislation to combat residential school denialism.

In Nunavut, Inuk lawyer and incumbent MP Lori Idlout, the NDP's former critic for Indigenous Services, won over Liberal challenger Kilikvak Kabloona in a tight race.

Eleven candidates who identified as Indigenous were elected to the House of Commons in 2015 and 11 in 2019, though some have faced questions about their identities since then.