Ottawa: The ruling Liberal Party showed an early lead in Canada’s election, capturing 19 of the first 25 seats results announced at 7 a.m. Tuesday (9:30 p.m. local time) as the counting continued for the remaining 313 seats.
The party was leading in six seats while the Conservative Party had won six seats and was leading in six others in the elections for the House of Commons.
The New Democratic Party led by Jagmeet Singh, allegedly a Khalistan sympathiser, had not won or led in a single seat.
In the aggregation of polls before Monday, the Liberal Party was ahead of the Conservative Party by just under 3 per cent, according to the government-funded Canada Broadcasting Corporation.
However, it projected the Liberals to win a commanding lead in the number of seats.
If the Liberal Party wins, Mark Carney, who replaced Justin Trudeau, will continue as prime minister.
The Conservative Party led by Pierre Poilievre rode high because of Trudeau’s unpopularity and polls showed the party heading for a landslide win.
But ironically, US President Donald Trump breathed new life into the Liberal Party when he declared a tariff war on Canada and threatened to annex it.
Because Poilievre is ideologically close to Trump, more Canadians rallied to the Liberals, which offered a nationalist opposition to the US president.
The Liberals won a majority in 2015 but have governed with a minority since 2019.
While the polling stations were closed on the east coast and central Canada, voting was continuing elsewhere in Canada because of its different time zones.
(IANS)
