A wild election night has seen Canadians back a resurgent Liberal Party to a fourth straight term. But the form that government will take remains in question as several seats remained in play across the country.
As of Tuesday, 12 p.m. PT, the Liberals held or led 169 seats, up from their previous 160 seats but shy of the 172 needed to form a majority.
Election workers continued to count special ballots, leading the Quebec riding of Terrebonne to flip into the Liberal column just before noon.
The mail-in voting option allows absent Canadians to back a candidate in their riding whether they are in another part of Canada or overseas.
It’s not clear how many of the ballots will break in the Liberals’ favour and if they will be enough to push it over the threshold to form a majority.
In Nunavut, the Liberal candidate trailed the NDP incumbent by only 56 votes. In B.C., long-time NDP incumbent Don Davies was holding off Liberal candidate Amy Gill with a 308-vote lead, according to Elections Canada.
Tamara Jansen held a lead of just over 900 votes over Liberal challenger Kyle Latchford.
And in the southwestern Ontario riding of Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, the Conservative candidate leads the Liberal by 359 votes.
Elections Canada is expected to have final results ready by the afternoon.
The independent body said more than 19.2 million people representing over 67 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot in the federal election.
That’s a higher turnout than the 62.6 per cent turnout in the last federal election but shy of the record set in March 1958, when 79.4 per cent of eligible electors voted.
— With files from the Canadian Press
