Elections Canada pauses vote counting, majority in question

Elections Canada says it has decided to pause counting of special ballots until later Tuesday morning.

A handful of ridings remain too close to call, and the move means Canadians won’t know until later in the day whether Mark Carney’s Liberals have won a minority or majority mandate.

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

The counting is to resume 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