The Liberals appear to have won the election but decisively lost the popular vote to the Conservatives.
According to Elections Canada, the Conservatives received at least 240,000 more votes than their Liberal counterparts. The Liberals still received 36 more seats than the Conservatives.
This occurred due to the high level of support in Western provinces such as Alberta for the Conservative party, reducing the overall voter efficiency in a similar vein to what occurred in the United States during their recent presidential election. There Hillary won almost 2 million more votes, largely from California, but still decisively lost the electoral college.
While the loss of the popular vote is interesting, the massive overall drop is also itself a story.
The Liberals received roughly 33.1% of the vote, which is by far the lowest level obtained by a minority government, Conservative or Liberal in the nation’s entire history.