Ottawa, Incumbent Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party was poised to form a minority government after securing enough votes in a tightly contested general elections, media reports said.
Despite some early losses in Canada’s eastern provinces, the Liberals won in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario, giving them a second term in office. The party won a majority (184 seats) in the 2015 polls
Monday’s polls, which took place for 338 ridings or seats, were the country’s 43rd general elections to elect members of the House of Commons.
This federal election was seen as a referendum on Trudeau, had to apologize not just for wearing blackface during a school event nearly two decades ago, but admitting that he had no idea how many times he had chosen to do so in his life.
The Liberals were neck and neck with their centre-right Conservative rivals.
They took most of the seats in Atlantic Canada – a region the party swept in 2015 – with one significant loss in Newfoundland and Labrador as St. John’s East flipped back to the New Democrat Party (NDP) led by Jagmeet Singh, the first turban-wearing Sikh to sit as a provincial legislator in Ontario, reports CBC News.
Trudeau won his Montreal riding of Papineau, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May won her riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands while the incumbent Prime Minister’s main rival, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer was predicted to win in Regina-Qu’Appelle.
The Bloc Quebecois, which went into the election with only 10 seats, has won 25 seats in Quebec and led in another eight. The Party’s leader Yves-Francois Blanchet was poised to win in Beloeil-Chambly.
The main contender of the People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier lost his seat in the riding of Beauce, Quebec to Conservative candidate Richard Lehoux.
The NDP, which started the federal election with 14 MPs in Quebec, has appeared to have lost most of those seats to the Bloc. Singh is however, looking to hold his seat Burnaby South.
Elections Canada said roughly 27.4 million people were eligible to vote at approximately 20,000 polling places across the country.
While most voters cast their ballots on Monday, around 4.7 million Canadians did so in advance last weekend.
