Terrebonne resident has ballot rejected after Elections Canada error, Liberals win by 1 vote

A Terrebonne woman’s mail-in ballot was rejected due to an error by Elections Canada, leading the Liberal Party of Canada to win the riding by a single vote, Noovo Info has found.

Emmanuelle Bossé says she voted for the Bloc Québécois, but the envelope she was given by Elections Canada had a mistake in the postal code, and Canada Post returned her letter.

• READ MORE: Recount sees Liberals take Quebec riding of Terrebonne by single vote

“It wasn’t me who wrote the address, she said. “It was Elections Canada that gave me the envelope with the sticker, and all I had to do was write my return address.”

Bossé says she mailed in her vote on April 5, and almost a month later, on May 2, it was returned to her, after the April 28 election.

“If I had known beforehand, I would have gone and voted in person,” she said.

• READ MORE: Double digit gains in Quebec help Liberals win minority government at expense of the Bloc

Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste won after receiving 23,352 votes, just one more than the Bloc Québécois candidate, Nathalie Sinclair Desgagné.

On social media, Sinclair Desgagné addressed the close race and the judicial recount.

“Following a judicial recount that led to a dramatic and unexpected swing in the election, I am obliged to assess all the options available to us. I will keep you informed of the next steps,” she wrote on Facebook.

Elections Canada confirmed that “there may have been an error with the mailing address on an elector’s return envelope,” and said it would verify what happened.

A spokesperson told CTV News that it was still looking into the matter.

Carney responds to concerns about voting issues in Terrebonne

Minutes after swearing in his new cabinet on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney was asked about the investigation Elections Canada is conducting in Terrebonne.

“First of all, it’s better to win by one vote than to lose by one vote. So, that’s my first observation,” the prime minister quipped to reporters. “There was a judicial verification that was just completed. We do have a judicial process. It’s not up to me to judge a formal process such as that.”

Carney was then asked if there should be another election.

“That’s not up to me, that’s up to Elections Canada,” he added. “Let’s be clear: we can’t have any situation where the prime minister of Canada would decide when we have another election. We have an independent institution and that institution makes those decisions.”

At the local Elections Canada office, the team on site seemed stunned by the news.

They said 80 voting kits were sent out, but only 55 returned.

The team couldn’t confirm whether the 25 voting kits that did not return had address errors, as was the case with Bossé.

• READ MORE: Here’s how Quebec’s 78 seats went on 2025 election day

Noovo Info was able to confirm that the labels printed on some of the other envelopes had the correct postcode.

A number of public figures, including Journal de Montréal columnist Mathieu Bock-Côté, have said on social media that a new election should be called.