Mail-ins and nail biting: how the closest races of the federal election unfolded

A day after the polls closed in Monday’s federal elections, voters in more than two dozen constituencies across the country were still waiting to find out who would be their representative in the next Parliament.

As of Tuesday night, races had yet to be called in some highly contested constituencies, in part due to the large number of mail-in ballots that were a hallmark of an election held during the fourth wave of the COVID pandemic. 19.

In downtown Toronto on horseback from Davenport, the race was so close that the result was not expected to be finalized until Wednesday. At 8:30 pm Tuesday, Julie Dzerowicz, a two-term Liberal incumbent, held a slight 347-vote lead over NDP rival Alejandra Bravo, with 172 of 182 polls reporting.

Going into the election, the New Democrats saw Davenport as their best chance to break the liberal hold on Toronto, and both parties invested resources in what became a hotly contested seat.

The race at nearby Spadina-Fort York, which unexpectedly became more competitive after the Star revealed a dropped sexual assault charge in 2019 against liberal candidate Kevin Vuong, also remained too close to call Tuesday night. However, with only one poll to report, Vuong, whom liberals have said will not be part of the party’s caucus if elected, led by more than 1,300 votes.

North of Toronto, King-Vaughan’s leadership remained in the balance, but conservative challenger Anna Roberts came within a distance of achieving a significant victory by ousting Liberal Cabinet Minister Deb Schulte. In a repeat of the 2019 showdown that Roberts narrowly lost, on Tuesday night the Conservative led with 45.4 percent of the vote to Schulte’s 42.5 percent, with 144 of 145 polls reporting.

East of Toronto, two constituencies that were still disused Monday night had fallen into the Liberals’ path Tuesday.

Incumbent Jennifer O’Connell ended up comfortably beating conservative Jacob Mantle by more than 5,600 votes in Pickering-Uxbridge. Next door, on Whitby’s swing, Ryan Turnbull was projected to defend a challenge from conservative Maleeha Shahid.

Two bypasses of Kitchener, Kitchener-Conestoga and Kitchener South, Hespeler, remained undecided Tuesday, but at the Kitchener Center, Mike Morrice was projected to double the number of Greens seats by achieving the game’s only victory east of the island of Vancouver. He was on his way to handily beat Mary Henein Thorn of the Conservatives in a parade where liberal Raj Saini withdrew after accusations of unwanted sexual advances.

Elsewhere in Ontario, the liberal Terry Sheehan clung to the narrower slopes in Sault Ste. Marie. Sheehan has been up to the task since 2015, but with only one poll results to be counted, he was outscoring conservative rival Sonny Spina by just 55 votes.

On the West Coast, the Liberals’ attempt to regain the old Jody Wilson-Raybould seat was also unraveling. Wilson-Raybould, the former justice minister who was expelled from the Liberal caucus in 2019, won re-election in Vancouver Granville as an Independent two years ago, but this time he did not run. As of Tuesday night, Anjali Appadurai of the NDP was behind liberal Taleeb Noormohamed in the race by 230 votes.

In New Brunswick, Fredericton’s race that turned red in June, when Green Rep. Jenica Atwin crossed the field to join the ruling Liberals, still had no clear winner Tuesday. But Atwin led conservative Andrea Johnson by less than 500 votes.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto reporter covering Star transportation. Contact him by email at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr