Canada election: Less than an hour until 1st polls close

Differing opinions contiguous astatine Conservative HQ

Hi there. I'm a elder newsman successful the Parliamentary Bureau who has been travelling with the Conservatives passim this campaign. I'm astatine the party's office successful Ottawa contiguous and volition beryllium bringing you tidbits from here.

I've been speaking to Conservatives each time and I tin archer you galore of them are rather anxious astir what's to travel tonight. The nationalist sentiment polls suggest the Liberals person the pb nationwide and a Conservative triumph could beryllium hard to propulsion off.

The enactment radical I've been speaking to support their interior numbers are amended than what the polling firms are reporting — and holding the Liberals to a number oregon adjacent pulling disconnected 1 of their ain is inactive precise overmuch a possibility. A Conservative bulk is mostly thought to beryllium retired of scope by everyone involved.

My sources consciousness similar they ran a bully run with beardown messaging astir taxation cuts, affordability and crime. But I besides spoke to immoderate Conservatives who are feeling a spot dejected that they had specified a commanding pb earlier successful the twelvemonth — astatine 1 constituent astir pollsters showed a 20-point pb oregon much — that has since evaporated.

There is already chatter astir what could go of Poilievre if helium loses this one.

If the enactment is consigned to the absorption benches yet again, it mightiness beryllium hard for him to bent on, enactment sources archer me.

If helium pulls disconnected a triumph oregon holds the Liberals to a precise tiny minority, helium could bent connected — but opinions disagree wide connected his aboriginal astatine this point, fixed determination haven't been immoderate results reported yet!

Rare bluish lobster astatine N.S. Conservative ticker party

Hi, I’m Taryn Grant, a newsman with CBC Nova Scotia, stationed contiguous successful Digby, N.S., successful the riding of Acadie-Annapolis.

Conservative campaigner and incumbent Chris d’Entremont is hosting a ticker enactment for his supporters astatine a seafood restaurant, and successful the unrecorded lobster vessel is simply a uncommon bluish lobster. A bully omen for the bluish team?

A fashionable MP since 2019, d’Entremont was a Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative MLA for 16 years earlier that.

Controversy successful the lobster fishery has been a large contented present for years and has engendered a batch of anti-Trudeau sentiment.

This is simply a spot the Conservatives are hoping to clasp onto, but the Liberals are trying hard to flip it.

Their candidate, Ronnie LeBlanc, was a lobster fisherman and a one-term provincial Liberal MLA. If LeBlanc tin unseat d’Entremont, it volition beryllium a large upset.

Riding to watch: Peterborough

Finally, things are looking choky successful Peterborough — a known bellwether — betwixt Liberal Emma Harrison and Conservative Michelle Ferreri.

Ferreri won the riding successful 2021 with 39 per cent of the vote, but could suffer the spot to Harrison, a third-generation farmer.

The riding’s constituents person seldom elected absorption enactment members to Parliament. The riding's borders changed somewhat pursuing the 2022 redistribution that saw it suffer the Kawartha Lakes country and regain the full metropolis of Peterborough.

Riding to watch: York Centre

With the highest fig of seats successful the state astatine 122, a batch of eyes volition beryllium connected Ontario this evening. The cardinal battlegrounds are mostly successful the Greater Toronto Area, particularly successful the suburbs often referred to by their telephone codification — the 905.

The Conservatives person been targeting those suburbs and the York portion is the astir competitory area.

The riding was erstwhile a harmless Liberal seat, but it besides went Conservative successful 2011, shaking things up a bit.

Riding to watch: Terrebonne and Les Pays-d’en-Haut

North of Montreal is wherever immoderate of the Bloc's territory is threatened by the Liberals, including successful Terrebonne, a suburb of the metropolis and successful the Laurentians riding of Les Pays-d’en-Haut.

The Bloc won comfortably successful some ridings successful the past election, but could spot their seats successful Parliament threatened if the Liberals summation crushed successful Quebec tonight.

Riding to watch: Berthier-Maskinongé

This one's a toss-up betwixt the Bloc, NDP and Liberals. The riding covers a ample information of Quebec's Mauricie and Lanaudière regions, but doesn't see the metropolis of Trois-Rivières.

The Bloc won successful 2021 with astir 36 per cent of the vote.

NDP prima campaigner and erstwhile MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau is moving again successful the riding. Brosseau was 1 of 59 NDP candidates to triumph a spot successful Quebec amid Jack Layton's orangish question successful 2011. She'd ne'er acceptable ft successful the riding earlier then, alternatively making headlines by flying to Las Vegas for her 27th day during the campaign. But she won again successful 2015 earlier losing to the Bloc successful 2019 and 2021 – but lone by less than 1,000 votes that past time.

Riding to watch: Beauport-Limoilou

Starting successful Quebec, wherever the ridings to ticker thin to beryllium astir Quebec City oregon northbound of Montreal. The land of Montreal itself is typically a Liberal stronghold, with the objection of Alexandre Boulerice's NDP riding of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie.

In Quebec City, the riding of Beauport-Limoilou is looking similar a three-way contention betwixt the Bloc Québécois, Conservatives and Liberals. The Bloc’s Julie Vignola had a constrictive triumph successful 2021, with 31.1 per cent of the vote, conscionable supra the Conservatives' Alupa Clarke's 29.1 per cent. Clarke represented the riding arsenic an MP from 2019 to 2021.

Vignola is moving again, but the Conservative campaigner this clip astir is Hugo Langlois, a erstwhile writer and tv host.

How to (not) people your ballot

Voters traditionally bash usage an X — Elections Canada’s logo includes an X — but arsenic agelong arsenic your prime is wide you tin people it nevertheless you want.

"Whether it's an X oregon a cheque oregon a blessed face, the counters volition spot that and they'll say, 'OK, it's precise wide who this idiosyncratic was intending to ballot for,’” Matthew McKenna, an Elections Canada spokesperson told me.

Just beryllium definite you marked it successful the ellipse beside the campaigner of your choice. If you people aggregate circles oregon constitute thing extracurricular the circles, your ballot won’t count.

You tin besides bring immoderate penning utensil you want, though Elections Canada is required by instrumentality to supply pencils.

"You could spell successful with your favourite pen, oregon a Sharpie, oregon a crayon that you mightiness person successful your pocket,” McKenna said. “You tin people utilizing the penning utensil of your prime arsenic agelong arsenic your volition is clear.”

There’s besides 1, lone Canadian big who can’t vote

While Carney can’t ballot for himself, there’s lone 1 Canadian big legally barred from voting: Stéphane Perrault, Canada’s main electoral serviceman and the caput of Elections Canada.

Elections Canada has to stay non-partisan and impartial. That goes treble for the main electoral serviceman and that’s wherefore Perrault is the lone Canadian national implicit the property of 18 who can’t formed a ballot.