[a][3] The Liberals emerged from the election with a strategic advantage in seats in both Ontario and Quebec, and the Conservatives' weakness on election day may lead to questions about the future of its leader Andrew Scheer,[4][5] but there is also discussion as to whether the Tories' shortfall is due to more systemic reasons,[6][7][8] especially with respect to the urban/rural divide in the electorate.

[10] Seats won fell within poll projections, but it was noted that at least eight seats expected to go to the NDP actually went Liberal, leading to the conjecture that the prior departure of their long-time NDP MPs revealed the underlying weakness of the party brand.

The reasons for the changes were: Of the 44 seats that were open at dissolution, 11 were won by candidates of non-incumbent parties: Three open seats were filled in earlier byelections, retained by the winners in the ensuing general election: Two vacancies were filled in earlier byelections, but the winners failed to keep them in the general election.

Jody Wilson-Raybould contested her seat as an Independent and won, after having been expelled from the Liberal caucus.

[16] An Ipsos-Reid exit poll conducted on election day[12] found that 26% of all voters made their choice as to try to ensure which party did not win, and the Liberals were the main beneficiary of such activity.

Vote-splitting mainly benefited the Conservatives in Ontario and Metro Vancouver, the Liberals in Quebec and the Maritimes, and the NDP in BC and Ontario outside the GTA, while the Bloc benefited from multiple splits in the federalist parties, a wide group of all the nation-wide parties that ran candidates in Quebec.