It is a tight race in the Toronto-St. Paul’s byelection tonight with results still trickling in more than an hour after polls closed.
At nearly 10 p.m. just 11 polls out of 192 have reported results with Liberal Leslie Church just slightly ahead of Conservative Don Stewart.
Elections Canada warned the count would take longer than usual because there is a record-breaking 84 candidates on the ballot.
It has been a safe Liberal riding for 30 years but issues including housing and the Israel-Hamas war are eating into Liberal support, as is a general malaise for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The riding is considered a must-win for the Liberals, with a loss expected to put pressure on Trudeau to step down ahead of the next election.
Just after the polls closed at 8:30 p.m. Conservative strategist Jenni Byrne, an informal adviser to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, told CBC News she did not expect her party to win.
Still, the results are extremely close and with more than 10,700 ballots cast in the advance polls it may be some time still before a winner is declared.
The ballot’s length is causing delays because it is more than a metre long and must be unfolded like a map in order for each one to be counted.
A protest group calling themselves Longest Ballot Committee stacked the ballot with independent candidates to draw attention to the drawbacks of the first-past-the-post system.
Church is a long-time Liberal staffer who worked as chief of staff for multiple ministers including most recently Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Don Stewart is a financial professional who has previously worked at a lobbying firm owned by Byrne.
The byelection was prompted by the resignation of former Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, who held the seat for more than 25 years and was recently appointed ambassador to Denmark.
Bennett won the seat in every election since 1997, usually with more than 50 per cent of the vote.