Mark Carney’s Liberals will form government after a hard fought battle that saw close races across the country — especially in the Greater Toronto Area.
But as of 9:45 a.m. ET on Tuesday, it remains unclear if Carney will lead at minority or majority government.
Here are the GTA seats where we’re still waiting for a result:
What’s the hold up? There’s just one poll left to report in each of the above ridings, but those are often special or advance ballots. In some cases, CBC News has observed, those ballots contain thousands of votes, which could easily tip a tight race. Also, these votes are being counted by hand, not a tabulator.
This is what we know for sure:
The Liberals dominated in the City of Toronto. But the Conservatives are in line to flip several 905 ridings from red to blue. Zoom out to the Ontario-wide picture and the Liberals lead or are elected in 69 ridings, while Conservatives have 53 — though that number could obviously change.
The NDP doesn’t have a single seat in the province and leader Jagmeet Singh announced his resignation.
Carney’s Liberals are poised to win all but one seat in Canada’s biggest city.
Conservatives pulled out their sole win in York Centre, though they still have hope in Eglinton-Lawrence, while Liberals cruised to victories from Etobicoke to Scarborough.
Freeland projected to win University-Rosedale in Toronto
In York Centre, Liberal volunteer Leonardo Lacroix said he’s pleased with the party’s comeback.
“If you look at what the Liberal party was like three months ago, it was a mess. We would have never imagined this was the result we were going to have.”
The Eglinton-Lawrence race is interesting. The Liberal candidate Vince Gasparro came within 200 votes of picking up this seat for the Ontario Liberal Party in the February provincial election.
He’s hoping another try, at another level of government, will do the trick. But Gasparro’s locked in another tight race with Karen Stintz, who Torontonians will remember as a former city councillor.
Supporter Bob Atkinson, clutching a red wine, said he thinks Gasparro will win, but he’s worried the Liberals will only win a minority government.
“It looks like it’s very close to a problem,” he said.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, a former NDP MP, issued a statement Tuesday saying she’s looking forward to working with Carney, particularly to address the city’s housing crisis.
This wasn’t the election result Pierre Poilievre and his supporters were hoping for, but not all is lost for the Conservatives.
The party is line to pick up GTA seats at the expense of the Liberals, including ridings it had targeted like Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill and Newmarket-Aurora.
CANADA ELECTION | GTA results in under 2 minutes
Conservatives also flipped Vaughan—Woodbridge by a significant margin, with candidate Michael Guglielmin earning 60 per cent of the vote. Liberal incumbent Francesco Sorbara had represented the riding since 2015.
Meanwhile, the City of Brampton is emerging as another red-blue battleground.
Brampton has six ridings, two of which have been called for the Liberals and one for the Conservatives. The remaining three are too close at this time.
‘We’re going to celebrate:’ Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman speaks after re-election in Thornhill
Fresh off reelection in Bowmanville-Oshawa North, Jamil Jivani ripped Ontario’s premier during a speech to supporters, and then repeated his criticism in a live TV interview with the CBC’s David Common.
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani criticizes Ford after re-election in Bowmanville-Oshawa North
Jivani, who was once an adviser to the Ford government, said he sees Ford as a “problem” for the province and country.
“He couldn’t stay out of our business,” Jivani said. “Trying to make it about him, trying to position himself as some kind of political genius.”
Ford and his former campaign manager have been sharply critical of the Conservative campaign, with the premier himself saying “sometimes the truth hurts.” The premier is expected to speak with reporters on Tuesday and has already sent out a statement congratulating Carney on the win.
Jivani said he tried to fix issues in the province when he was an advisor, but Ford would get in the way.
“And all his goons around him all the time, they wouldn’t make anything better,” Jivani added.
Last summer the Conservatives pulled off a stunning byelection win in Toronto-St. Paul’s, long heralded as a Liberal stronghold smack in the centre of the city. The loss amped up calls for Justin Trudeau to resign as prime minister.
Fast forward to tonight, and candidate Leslie Church has won back the seat.
“The world has changed and St. Paul’s feels that,” Church told CBC News after her win.
Liberals retake Toronto-St. Paul’s
Every party put forward some star candidates in this election, but not all of them could secure a win.
Bhutila Karpoche (NDP): The popular NDP politician who became the first Tibetan-Canadian elected at Queen’s Park has lost her first federal run, with Liberal Karim Bardeesy projected to win in Taiaiako’n-Parkdale-High Park.
Jamil Jivani (CON): Jivani’s college buddy is … U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance. That may have made the race in Bowmanville-Oshawa North tighter than it was in the byelection Jivani won, but he’ll still be going back to Ottawa.
Jennifer McKelvie (LIB): McKelvie, who served as the acting mayor of Toronto after John Tory stepped down, won her first federal contest in Ajax.
