Today's Edition
NEW YORK (dpa)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's ruling Liberals and the opposition Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre, are locked in a neck-and-neck race as Canada heads to the polls on Monday.
The final opinion polls still favoured the centre-left Liberals, but the Conservatives had narrowed the gap.
More than seven million Canadians have already cast early ballots - an all-time high, according to election officials. The first results are expected shortly after polls close Monday night, with around 29 million voters eligible to elect all 343 members of the House of Commons in Ottawa.
After nearly a decade in power, the Liberals looked spent and Poilievre's Conservatives came into the race as the safe bet.
But Carney, a former central banker, gained momentum in recent weeks. Carney has positioned himself as a stabilizing figure and proponent of diversifying trade ties with Europe and Asia to reduce reliance on the US.
Poilievre, meanwhile, has campaigned on a platform of tax cuts and reduced government spending. However, his populist approach appear to have unsettled some voters amid heightened tensions with Washington.
Both parties are vying for at least 172 seats - the threshold for an outright majority.
Canada's electoral system is based on first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies. Should neither party secure a majority, Carney or Poilievre would need support from smaller factions such as the New Democrats, the Greens, or the Quebec-based Bloc Québécois.
The Liberals have governed Canada, a nation of roughly 40 million people, since 2016. Initially elected with a majority, they have led a minority government in recent years under former prime minister Justin Trudeau. Citing declining public support due largely to cost-of-living concerns, Trudeau left office in March, paving the way for Carney's election as party leader and the next prime minister.
Carney subsequently called snap elections, pre-empting a looming no-confidence vote. Under Canadian law, the next election was due by the fall-four years after the last vote in October 2021.
The election is being held in the wake of a tragic incident in Vancouver at the weekend, when a man drove a car into a crowd of people at a Filipino community street festival, killing at least 11 people. A 30-year-old suspect was arrested. Police said it was not an act of terrorism.
