Liberals to form minority government as vote counting nearly wrapped

The next Liberal government will be a minority as ballot counting winds down after a historic election day in Canada.

Elections Canada has nearly wrapped up counting all the ballots in what turned out to be a razor-close race that will leave the Liberals three seats short of winning a majority.

Currently, the Liberals have 169 seats, 144 for the Conservatives, 22 for the Bloc, the NDP picked up seven and the Green Party have one.

Elections Canada decided early Tuesday morning to pause the marathon counting of special ballots with a handful of ridings remain too close to call.

Special ballots are cast by mail or at Elections Canada offices by voters away from their ridings during the election.

The counting resumed at 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

“We understand the importance of having timely results after polls close. As a result of the high participation rate in this election, particularly by special ballot and at advance polls, more time was needed to count ballots and report results,” an Elections Canada spokesperson tells CityNews.

“To help ensure the accuracy of the counts, at around 5 a.m. [ET] after election night, the counting of special ballots at our facility in Ottawa was paused to give counters and scrutineers a break. We anticipate having all ballots counted and results reported later [Tuesday].”

Voters returned Carney and the Liberals to power on Monday night, but there were a large number of advanced votes and counting stretched on until early Tuesday morning.

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre was defeated by Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy in his Ottawa-area riding of Carleton, ending Poilievre’s long tenure as MP in that riding.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who lost his Vancouver-area riding, announced he will step down once an interim leader is chosen.

With files from Lucas Casaletto of CityNews