Although Election Day is over and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is poised to form another minority government, more than one million mail-in ballots have yet to be counted across the country.
While in many ridings mail-in votes will merely deepen a result or leave the victor with a slightly less resounding win, some too-close-to-call ridings could see a shift in who will head to Ottawa.
One such race is Vancouver Granville, where Liberal incumbent Taleeb Noormohamed is just 230 votes ahead of NDP newcomer Anjali Appadurai, with 6,264 mail-in ballots yet to be counted. But that’s not the only riding in the Lower Mainland that could flip. In South Surrey–White Rock, Conservative Kerry-Lynne Findlay leads the Liberal’s Gordie Hogg by 2,299 votes, with 4,767 mail-in ballots yet to be counted.
LIVE MAP: Canada’s 2021 federal election results by riding
In the South Okanagan–West Kootenay riding, 6,693 mail-in ballots are yet to be counted in a race where just 3,619 votes separate the NDP’s Richard Cannings from second place Conservative Helena Konanz.
On Vancouver Island, Nanaimo–Ladysmith remains up in the air with 989 votes separating NDP frontrunner Lisa Marie Barron from Conservative Tamara Kronis. There are 7,572 votes yet to be counted which puts not only the NDP and Conservatives in the running but also the Greens’ Paul Manly who is 2,734 votes behind the frontrunner.
In Alberta, Edmonton Centre remained contested as Liberal Randy Boissonnault was just 136 votes ahead of Conservative James Cumming, with 3,191 mail-in ballots yet to be counted.
Overall, Elections Canada received 1,025,896 mail-in ballots, the majority from within Canada – including from incarcerated voters and the Canadian Armed Forces – but more than 20,000 from abroad by the election night deadline.
Returning officers will begin counting mail-in ballots after they’ve completed a verification process, which involves a check to make sure that voters who sent in mailed ballots did not attempt to vote in person. This process did not begin until Tuesday morning and can take up to 24 hours. Results for mail-in ballots in some ridings may not begin to be made public until Wednesday and could take several days.
All candidates running in a riding may have representatives present to observe the counting process.
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