There is 1 hour until the voting booths close in Canada today, to determine its next government. This thread is intended as the thread for discussion of the event. This election has been one of the closest in Canada's history, with each of the three parties spending time at the top of the polls in the past 11 weeks. It's only been in the past 2 weeks that we have seen a party pull ahead to seemingly be the victor. Current polls show that the Liberal party will likely win with a minority government, which leads to the idea that the Liberals are going to form a coalition with the NDP, the socialist party currently third place in the polls, in order to pass social reforms in Canada. However, there is still a chance that the Conservatives will pull out a victory due to vote splitting in the first-past-the-poll system. While there is a 7% difference between Conservative and Liberal support, there is still an 18% chance of a Conservative victory. 170 seats are required for a majority government. Most recent polls place the Liberals at 38% support, Conservatives at 31% support, and NDP with 22%. The Canadian election is relevant to people of different nationalities too, because Canada is the USA's largest trading partner, and the election results could ultimately determine its relationship with the USA for the next 5 years, as well as Canada's relations with all other countries within that time period. Feel free to post your thoughts on this election, who you support the most, and contribute to any discussion related to the election. I'll update the thread after all the votes have been tallied. Updates (in GMT): (Parties could lose seats in between updates here as I'm showing candidates leading in the current count as well as elected officials already) 00:09: The Liberals are currently leading in the first 2 ridings. 00:23: Liberals are leading in the first 5 ridings, and have already won the first 2. 0:33: The vote count for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador is nearly complete. So far it appears 6/7 of the seats will be Liberal, with 1 being NDP. 0:50: Liberals - 19, Cons - 1, NDP - 2, as counting continues in Atlantic Canada. 01:06: Liberals - 28, Cons - 2, NDP - 1. Liberals are crushing in Atlantic Canada, which could hint at a possible majority government with a possible "Red Wave". 01:15: I am surprised. The Liberals are winning 100% of the seats right now. 02:03: Liberals still have 100% of the seats, which is 33 now. The big provinces of Quebec and Ontario are coming up, which will basically tell us if the Liberals have a chance for a majority. 02:35: Liberals won 33 seats in the Maritime Provinces, totally blocking everyone else out. Now Ontario and Quebec head to the count. Currently in those provinces we have: Liberals leading 8, Cons leading 6, and NDP leading 1. 02:54: the aggregate vote count leaders are: Liberal - 87. Con - 53, NDP - 13, Bloc Québécois - 1. Liberals need to gain a large victory in Ontario and Quebec if they are to defeat the Conservatives, who will be winning almost all of SK and Alberta. 03:02: Lib - 127, Con - 80, NDP - 18, Bloc Québécois - 4. The Bloc is attempting to regain major party status this election by trying to regain at least 12 seats. It lost major party status last election when it earned less than half that amount. 03:06: 151 seats (that they're leading in currently) for Liberals now, which is only 19 seats from a majority. A majority government is now a definite possibility. 03:13: Liberals now seem to be heading towards a majority. They're now winning 164 seats - 6 short of a majority. Conservatives have 93 seats they're winning, NDP has 25, and BLQ has 7. 03:19: Liberals are now winning a majority of the seats. A majority seems to be inevitable at this point. 03:39: The election is now heading towards landslide territory as the Liberals pick up 185 seats. The NDP leader, Tom Mulcair, has been in a tight race in his own riding, and for a time, was even losing in his own riding. 04:16: Elizabeth May of the Green Party has won her seat, and seems happy with the Liberal victory. 05:00 Liberals are projected to win 190 seats with a strong majority. The leader of the Conservative Party, Stephen Harper, has announced he will resign as Conservative Leacer, while Tom Mulcair has not made a statement. Trudeau is set to make his victory speech later tonight. I will also post election results once every vote has been tallied. Update: Liberal majority by like 10 seats. NDP got crushed, Conservatives are the official opposition, both the NDP and Green leaders are staying in power in their parties, while Harper and Duceppe are both stepping down as leaders of their parties. It's been suggested that Trudeau put Elizabeth May in his cabinet to be environment minister, but Trudeau and May talked about it and decided against it. The Liberals got 40% of the vote but over 50% of the seats. They pledged to change the voting system to proportional representation or ranked ballots for fairer elections, and that's a promise that I hope they follow through with.
Elections are about to get tallied in Quebec, Ontario and I think Manitoba, which, with the Maritime provinces, represent the majority of Canada.