OTTAWA — The latest on developments and results in the federal election. All times are eastern.
9:30 p.m.
Polls are now closed in Ontario — a key battleground that could determine the outcome of the federal election.
In 2019, the Liberals swept Toronto and many of the so-called 905 ridings around the city.
There are some reports of long lineups at polling stations in the province tonight.
Fewer polling stations were open today since many schools were not used as voting locations due to the pandemic.
Polls are also closing in Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Meanwhile, Montreal police say seven people, including a four-year-old, were transported to hospital after they were hit by a car in the parking lot of a polling station in the western part of the city.
Police say none of the victims’ lives are in danger.
Montreal police spokeswoman Const. Caroline Chèvrefils says the driver of the car, a 51-year-old woman, has been detained for investigative purposes.
She says police believe the collision, which took place at about 5 p.m., was accidental.
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9:10 p.m.
The New Democrats look to have lost their only seat in Atlantic Canada.
The Canadian Press is projecting that Liberal Joanne Thompson has won the riding vacated by the retirement of Jack Harris.
The NDP has tempered expectations as party officials say any seat gains will be considered a success.
In New Brunswick, it appears the Liberals and Conservatives are on track to win the same seats they held prior to the election.
One change could be in the riding of Fredericton which was won last time by the Green party with Jenica Atwin, who is running this time as a Liberal after a split with her former party.
In the 90 minutes since the polls closed, the lead has flip-flopped between Atwin and Conservative candidate Andrea Johnson.
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9 p.m.
The Liberals are holding on to all four seats in Prince Edward Island.
The Canadian Press projects Bobby Morrissey in Egmont, Lawrence MacAulay in Cardigan, Sean Casey in Charlottetown and Heather MacDonald in Malpeque.
But the results are not good for another longtime Liberal MP.
The Canadian Press projects that Scott Simms has lost his riding of Coast of Bays-Central-Notre Dame to Conservative challenger Clifford Small.
Simms was first elected in 2004, defeating the Conservative incumbent at the time, Rex Barnes.
Voting continues in the rest of the country where the next set of polls are scheduled to close at 9:30 p.m..
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8:45 p.m.
The Liberals are now leading or elected in 24 ridings in Atlantic Canada, followed by the Conservatives with nine.
The NDP lead in St. John’s East has disappeared as candidate Mary Shortall has fallen behind Liberal candidate Joanne Thompson.
Provincial and federal NDP party luminaries are gathered in a newly opened Memorial University building overlooking the St. John’s harbour on Signal Hill to watch the results roll in.
The mood decidedly changes as figures show Thompson pulling ahead of Shortall, who hopes to replace Jack Harris.
People have fallen quiet and all eyes focus on a large screen projecting numbers from the back of the room.
Harris says holding the riding is enormously important to the party, noting it is the only Atlantic Canadian seat held by the NDP.
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8:37 p.m.
The Conservatives appear to have picked up a seat in Nova Scotia at the expense of a high-profile Liberal cabinet minister.
The Canadian Press projects that Conservative Rick Perkins will upset Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan.
The Canadian Press also projects that Liberals Serge Cormier will be re-elected in Acadie-Bathurst, Churence Rogers in Bonavista-Burin-Trinity, and Mike Kelloway in Cape Breton-Canso.
Early results from Atlantic Canada show the People’s Party of Canada with just under four per cent of the vote.
The party is holding its election night rally at the Saskatoon Inn where Leader Maxime Bernier is expected to make a speech later this evening.
The event is being held in Saskatchewan because organizers wanted a traditional rally that wasn’t possible in Quebec due to limits on crowd sizes.
The party set up two rallies — one inside and one outside the hotel — to give people the option to participate, but those who choose the indoor rally must wear a mask.
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8:20 p.m.
The Canadian Press is projecting that Ken McDonald is going to keep his Newfoundland seat of Avalon and Dominic LeBlanc will hold on to Beausejour in New Brunswick.
McDonald was first elected in 2015, while LeBlanc has represented his riding for over 20 years.
Also projected to win is Liberal Yvonne Jones, who first won the riding of Labrador during a 2013 byelection.
That gives the Liberals four seats as early results roll in from Atlantic Canada.
The Canadian Press also projects that Conservatives will hold Tobique-Mactaquac and West Nova.
Two seats to keep an eye on include two high-profile Liberal candidates: Bernadette Jordan in South Shore-St. Margarets, and Jenica Atwin in Fredericton.
Jordan is the fisheries minister who was first elected in the riding in 2015, but early results have her trailing Conservative candidate Rick Perkins.
Atwin crossed the floor from the Greens and got a boost in the waning days of the campaign from a visit from Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.
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8 p.m.
The Canadian Press is projecting that Liberal Seamus O’Regan, the natural resources minister, is going to hold is riding of St. John’s South — Mt. Pearl.
The Liberals are now leading in 15 ridings in Atlantic Canada, including Beausejour in New Brunswick, where incumbent and longtime Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc has an early lead.
Conservative candidates are leading in five ridings, and the New Democrats in one — in St. John’s East that the NDP is hoping to hold.
The NDP expect a long wait for results in St. John’s East district.
Campaign manager Amanda Will says her numbers from Elections Canada show 6,349 people in the riding applied for a special ballot.
She says so far, 4,273 of those ballots have been returned, leaving more than 2,000 more to come in.
Will says special ballot counting will begin Tuesday.
In the 2019 federal election, Jack Harris won the St. John’s East seat for the NDP by just over 6,100 votes.
In Prince Edward Island, where the Liberals hope to keep their stronghold on the four seats, Liberal Lawrence MacAulay is also off to an early lead.
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7:30 p.m.
Liberal candidates are leading in four of the seven seats up for grabs in Newfoundland and Labrador as early results roll in, but the parties are keeping a close eye on St. John’s East and Bonavista-Burin-Trinity.
The NDP hold their only Atlantic Canadian seat in the downtown riding St. John’s East, but Jack Harris, who won the riding back from the Liberals in 2019, isn’t running again.
The party is hoping labour leader Mary Shortall will be elected as his replacement.
Meanwhile, Liberal incumbent Churence Rogers in Bonavista-Burin-Trinity holds an early lead over Conservative Sharon Vokey.
Rogers had Chrystia Freeland, the country’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, campaigning for him last weekend.
Polls across the rest of Atlantic Canada are now set to close.
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7 p.m.
The first polls are closing across the country in Canada’s 44th general election.
Results should soon start rolling in from Newfoundland.
Across Atlantic Canada, the Liberals at the dissolution of Parliament held 27 of the 32 seats available across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Polls suggest the Liberals and Conservatives were running neck-and-neck going into election day, ahead of the New Democrats and Bloc Québécois, which is only running candidates in Quebec.
Parties were working hard during the day to get their supporters out to the polls.
Elections Canada reported a handful of disruptions at polling stations across the country, as millions of Canadians cast their ballots in the country’s first pandemic election.
Some stations had to be relocated or opened late, alongside reports of long lineups at polling stations where voters waited longer than usual to cast a ballot because of health measures.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2021.
The Canadian Press
