With the 36-day election campaign in the books, Canadians head to the polls today to elect the members of the 44th parliament.
The ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic means that this will be a federal election unlike any other in Canadian history. Polling stations will follow local distancing and masking regulations, voters will mark their ballots with single-use pencils, and there will be plenty of hand sanitizer to go around.
A record number of Canadians – nearly 5.8 million – have already voted at advance polls. Others have selected their preferred candidates via mail-in and special ballots.
Although the latest data from Nanos Research suggests the battle to form government is a two-way race, there are more than 20 parties running candidates in multiple ridings.
In a one-day sample of 800 Canadians performed by Nanos Research for CTV News and The Globe and Mail, the Liberals are at 32.4 per cent, while the Conservatives trail close behind at 31.2 per cent.
The NDP remain in third place at 17.5 per cent, while the Bloc Quebecois sits at 7.5 per cent.
The People’s Party of Canada (PPC) is in fifth place at 6.6 per cent and the Green Party is in sixth place, with 4.5 per cent support.
Of those surveyed, 8.2 per cent are still undecided.
“This is a lot like 2019,” Nik Nanos, founder and chief data scientist at Nanos Research, said earlier Sunday on CTV’s Question Period.
"The 2019 election also saw a dead heat between the two parties in the national ballot. But the Liberals, because of vote efficiency, were able to win a minority government because they won more seats in the House Commons."
-- with files from CTV News --