The Canadian Press
Polls have now closed throughout Atlantic Canada.
And it will be a while before the rest of the country catches up, with the last of the polls closing in B-C at 10 p.m. Eastern Time.
Newfoundland and Labrador is solid red with Liberal candidates winning five of seven ridings and leading in another.
Scott Simms has been elected in Coast of Bays-Central-Notre Dame and Judy M. Foote has won the riding of Bonavista-Burin-Trinity.
Liberal Ken McDonald, mayor of Conception Bay South, leads the field in Avalon.
The incumbent was Scott Andrews, who left the Liberal caucus in a scandal over allegations of sexual harassment.
Andrews is currently third with New Democrat Jeannie Baldwin second.
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(Voter-Turnout)
If the advance vote is any indication, more Canadians will be voting today than in the federal election four years ago.
About 3.6 million Canadians cast ballots during the four-day advance polling period over the Thanksgiving long weekend _ amounting to an increase of 71 per cent over the 2011 election, when only three days of advance polls were held.
Just 61.4 per cent of eligible electors cast a ballot in 2011, which was up marginally from the 58.8 per cent in 2008.
That was the lowest ever in a federal election.
A high volume of web traffic made the Elections Canada website briefly unavailable early today.
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(Results-BC)
A political expert says British Columbians likely won’t be swayed by knowing election results from elsewhere in Canada before polls close.
David Moscrop of the University of B-C’s political science department says a close race between the three main parties elsewhere in Canada might trigger a higher turnout in B-C, if voters think they could hold the key to the outcome of the election.
But he says if early results show the rest of Canada has picked a winning party, British Columbians heading to the polls late in the day could be dissuaded from voting at all.
Moscrop says a ban against releasing early results would be “silly” in the age of social media.
