LIVE UPDATES: Mark Carney's Liberals to form next government

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After a gruelling five-week-long campaign, the shape of Canada’s political landscape rests on the choices of electors across the country today.

Voters will head to the polls Monday in Canada’s 45th general election to mark their ballots and choose their MP, determining how the next Parliament will look and who will become prime minister.

Here’s everything you need to know on this Election Day.

ELECTION RESULTS

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LILLEY: LIBERALS AIDED BY NDP COLLAPSE, TRUMP’S COMMENTS

It was a campaign that went from a Conservative landslide to a Liberal landslide to an expected nail-biter. This campaign is one like no other with changing leads, changing narratives and one of the major players in the election not even a Canadian citizen.

Donald Trump popped his head in and out of the election, including a post to Truth Social on election day effectively asking Canadians to vote for Trump.

At the beginning of the campaign, it appeared that Trump would be the dominant issue. In the end, he drove many votes to Mark Carney and the Liberals, but there were still many voters turning to issues such as housing, affordability and a whole host of others.

The early numbers out of Atlantic Canada showed the Liberals leading in most seats, but the Conservatives picked up one seat — and were in contention to flip two others — and were outperforming expectations in the popular vote. Leger, Ipsos and Abacus all projected the Liberals to be pulling 57% with the Conservatives topping out at 37%. Instead, the Liberals were pulling 50% of the vote, as of this writing, while the Conservatives were taking 43% of the vote.

Read Lilley’s column here.

MCKELVIE TO JOIN LIBERALS IN OTTAWA

Former Toronto deputy mayor Jennifer McKelvie appeared on track to trade her office at City Hall for a government seat in the House of Commons.

The Toronto councillor, who decided more than a month ago to run in Ajax for the Liberal Party seat vacated by incumbent Mark Holland, was ahead of Conservative Greg Brady in the early going.

McKelvie, who has been on Toronto city council since first elected in 2018, took a leave of absence from City Hall, where she represented the Ward 25 area of Scarborough-Rouge Park.

During her time on council, she filled in as mayor for a brief stint in 2023 — from February to July — after John Tory stepped aside, citing personal relationship reasons.

TWO BIG SWING GTA RIDINGS

Two GTA swing riding races that were being closely watched on Monday night were Toronto-St. Paul’s and Eglinton-Lawrence.

With poll results slowly trickling in, Liberal Leslie Church had a modest lead over Conservative Don Stewart. The NDP’s Bruce Levy was in third.

As for Eglinton Lawrence, it was also going red in the early going with Liberal Vince Gasparro slightly ahead of Conservative Karen Stintz.

Church — a top aide to former finance minister Chrystia Freeland — was trying to win back the riding for her party.

Read the story here.

CARNEY’S LIBERALS TO FORM NEXT GOVERNMENT

Mark Carney and the Liberal Party will form the next government in Ottawa.

Postmedia’s election desk is calling for a fourth Liberal term after Carney took over as leader of the party from former prime minister Justin Trudeau in March.

CONSERVATIVES’ STRONG START MAY BE FOR NOUGHT

Canada’s Conservatives got off to a good start in Atlantic Canada on Monday, but it’s expected that the Liberals will form the next government.

Results began trickling in at 7:30 p.m. after polls closed in Newfoundland and Labrador and the rest of Atlantic Canada. Several outlets, however, had projected by just after 10 p.m. that Mark Carney’s Liberal party would form the next government.

The Tories got off to a good start, flipping one Liberal riding in Newfoundland — Long Range Mountains — with Conservative Carol Anstey winning over broadcaster Don Bradshaw, who is running for the Liberals.

That seat was previously held by Liberal MP Gudie Hutchings, who chose not to seek re-election.

Read the story here.

POLLS ARE NOW CLOSED ACROSS CANADA

All polls are now closed across Canada as voting has ended in British Columbia and Yukon.

Results will now flow in all 343 ridings as of 10 p.m. EDT.

According to Elections Canada, more than one million votes have already been counted.

HUNTER: TRUMP OBLITERATED NDP SUPPORT

For the NDP, the writing has been on the wall since January.

And the news has been very bad indeed: Canada’s democratic socialist party was poised to be obliterated in the federal election.

Over the last 36 days, that’s exactly what has happened.

“Blame the orange man down south,” a longtime party member told the Toronto Sun, referring to sabre-rattling U.S. President Donald Trump. “The same thing happened to the Tories, but it’s worse for the NDP.”

Read Hunter’s column here.

POLLS CLOSE FROM QUEBEC TO ALBERTA

The majority of polls are now closed across the country.

Poll workers in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta will begin to count the vote shortly after 9:30 p.m. EDT.

Preliminary results will soon be trickling in after votes had their say in more than 260 ridings.

WARMINGTON: GET SERIOUS ABOUT CRIME, CURRENT AND FORMER COPS SAY

As a cop, Ron Chhinzer was known for stopping crimes before they happened.

This is why he decided to run for politics. He started his career in intelligence, which offered an opportunity to intercept a plan before it happened and to try to protect his community.

He was good at it and won awards, including Toronto Police officer of the month in 2014.

From guns and gangs to community policing, Chhinzer did an amazing job for two decades with the Peel Region and Toronto services before also going into private business. Born as Randeep but known by everybody as Ron, he has continually said that his goal is to make Canada safe again.

Read Warmington’s column here.

POLLS CLOSE IN MARITIME PROVINCES

The polls have officially closed in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Elections Canada says it will begin to provide preliminary results shortly after 7:30 p.m. EDT.

There are 25 electoral districts up for grabs among the three provinces.

POLLS CLOSE IN NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

The polls have officially closed in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Elections Canada says it will begin to provide preliminary results shortly after 7 p.m. EDT.

There are seven electoral districts in the province.

FIRE FORCES EVACUATION OF WINDSOR POLLING STATION

In a case of the worst timing possible, Elections Canada was forced to scramble Monday morning to find a new election day polling location when a fire forced a shutdown of voting at the WFCU Centre.

“We’re crazy-busy trying to move to St. Joe’s high school,” an Elections Canada worker told the Star shortly before 11 a.m.

She said the hope was to have the polling station set up and ready for Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore voters at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, 2425 Clover Ave., within the hour.

A dozen Windsor Fire and Rescue Services vehicles had rushed shortly after 10 a.m. in response to reports of a working fire on the rooftop of the WFCU Centre at 8787 McHugh St. The fire was quickly brought under control.

Read the full story here.

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WHERE THE LEADERS ARE MONDAY

Each of the party leaders settled into their home ridings Monday after 35 days on the campaign trail.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre arrived at a polling station in his Carleton riding on Monday morning and encouraged Canadians to “get out to vote — for a change,” echoing his campaign slogan as he dropped his own ballot in the box.

He wrapped up his campaign with a rally Sunday night in his home riding — one of the seats that’s expected to be a close contest between the Liberals and the Conservatives as votes are counted tonight.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who cast his ballot amid the record-setting advance voting turnout earlier in the month, was still campaigning in Port Moody, B.C., on Monday. He joined supporters waving signs on the side of the road and offered inspiration to the NDP die-hards who were headed next to knock on doors and get out the vote.

The message Singh wanted them sharing at B.C. doorsteps was about electing New Democrats to stand up to whichever party ends up forming government.

“Remind people, it’s all because of you,“ he said. ”Because you vote NDP, we’re able to fight for you.”

Speaking to reporters after casting a ballot in his own riding, Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said he was more impatient than nervous as he waited to see his party’s fortunes later Monday.

Unlike his opponents, Blanchet has not framed the election as being the most significant in a lifetime.

“It is an important election, like any election is important, it should never be taken lightly,” Blanchet said.

TRUMP WEIGHS IN ON VOTE

U.S. President Donald Trump has wished “good luck” to Canada as voters head to the polls Monday to decide who will lead the country for the next four years.

Taking to his Truth Social platform, the 47th president of the United States posted that he hoped Canadians elect a prime minister who has the “strength and wisdom” to cut taxes, and increase military power and the size of businesses, among other things.

“Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America,” the president posted.

Reinforcing his stance that Canada should become the 51st state, Trump hinted he wanted to eliminate the border that divides the two North American countries.

Following Trump’s post, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took to X and told him to “stay out of our election.”

“President Trump, stay out of our election,” Poilievre posted.  “The only people who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box. Canada will always be proud, sovereign and independent and we will NEVER be the 51st state.”

Read the full story here.

HOW DO I VOTE?

In Ontario, polling stations are open from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Monday.

Voters need to be a Canadian citizen, over the age of 18 and be able to prove residency.

If you have a voter’s card, bring it to the polling station — but you don’t need one to vote.

Voters can choose one of three ways to prove their identity:

Driver’s licence or other government-issued ID with your photo, name and address

For those without a licence, you can bring two other means of ID — including a birth certificate, firearms licence, Veterans’ Affairs health card, social insurance card, utility bill, residential lease, voter registration card, etc. A full list of acceptable ID can be found on the Elections Canada website. At least one of these must include your current address.

If you have no ID, you can provide a written declaration if your name and address, along with somebody from the same electoral polling station to vouch for you.

WHERE DO I VOTE?

If you have a voter’s card — everybody on the voter’s list should have received theirs by April 11 — it will have your assigned polling station listed.

If you don’t have one or can’t find it, Elections Canada has a handy tool on their website showing you where to vote.

Also, keep in mind that electoral boundaries were redrawn since the last federal election — for more information, visit the Elections Canada website.