Minority or majority? Many ridings too close to call with ballots still being counted

OTTAWA — With more than a dozen ridings still too close to call, the Liberals still had a faint hope on Tuesday to form a majority government. Elections Canada resumed counting in the morning, including advance polls and special ballots for Canadians who are either travelling, living abroad, incarcerated or cast their votes on college or university campuses. Liberals picked up a seat in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne in Quebec. Liberal challenger Tatiana Auguste won by 35 votes ahead of Bloc Québécois incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, but the close result will likely be going to a recount. Final election results were expected to be unveiled later in the day. Liberals were on course to win a projected 168 seats — four seats short of a majority — on Monday but that could change, depending on if they manage to pick up enough seats to get to the magic number of 172 seats they need to serve a full four-year term. In Nunavut, NDP incumbent Lori Idlout was 54 votes ahead of Liberal candidate Kilikvak Kabloona with two polls left to report. The NDP’s Don Davies was also hanging onto his seat in Vancouver Kingsway by 308 votes against Liberal challenger Amy K. Gill. In New Brunswick’s Miramichi—Grand Lake, Conservative candidate Mike Dawson was holding on to the seat previously held by fellow Tory Jake Stewart. Dawson faced a fierce battle from Liberal candidate Lisa Harris, who was behind 394 votes. Liberals were also trailing the Tories by a few hundred seats in a handful of Ontario ridings. That was the case in Windsor—Tecumsek—Lakeshore, where incumbent Irek Kusmierczyk was behind Conservative challenger Kathy Borrelli by 359 votes, and in Milton East—Halton Hills South where the Conservative candidate Parm Gill was ahead by 556 votes. Conservatives were also leading the Liberals in Kitchener South —Hespeler, where Matt Strauss was ahead of incumbent Valerie Bradford by more than 1,100 votes, and in Hamilton East —Stoney Creek where the Liberal is behind by more than 1,600 votes. In the Quebec riding of Shefford, Bloc incumbent Andréanne Larouche was holding on to her seat with 651 votes ahead of Liberal challenger Felix Dionne. In British Columbia, the riding of Cloverdale—Langley City was one to watch, with less than 1,000 votes between the Conservatives and the Liberals with two polls left to count. In Pitt Meadows —Maple Ridge, Conservative incumbent Marc Dalton was holding on to his seat with less than 1,500 votes but there were still eight polls left to count. Liberals were also leading with tight margins in the B.C. riding of Kelowna with 170 votes and the Newfoundland and Labrador riding of Terra Nova —The Peninsulas with 46 votes. In the Quebec riding of Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, Liberal candidate Natilien Joseph won against Bloc incumbent Denis Trudel by 749 votes. National Post calevesque@postmedia.com Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.