More than 7 million Canadians have cast their ballots in advance, setting a new record for early voter turnout, Elections Canada says. Advance polling stations were open across the country for four days, from Friday to Monday, over the Easter long weekend. Poll workers reported long lines, with two million people casting their ballots last Friday alone. With less than one week to go before election day on 28 April, federal leaders are now in the final stretch of campaigning. Voters will consider which party should govern the country amid an ongoing trade war with the US and President Donald Trump's repeated comments about making Canada the 51st US state. Elections Canada, the organization which runs federal elections, said 7.3 million Canadians — about a quarter of eligible voters — had cast their ballots, marking a 25% increase from early votes in the previous 2021 election. Mail-in voting is up as well, with over 754,000 returning their special ballots to the federal agency. That is more than the 660,000 that did so in 2021. Latest polling suggests Liberals have a 5-point lead over the main opposition Conservative party, as campaigning enters its last stretch. Liberal leader Mark Carney held events in Prince Edward Island and Quebec, while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had a rally in Vaughan, a suburb of Toronto, on Tuesday evening. Carney, the former central banker of Canada and the UK, has touted his party as the best option to deal with Trump and his tariffs. "Pierre Poilievre has no plan to stand up to President Trump," Carney told supporters on Tuesday. The US president has implemented blanket 25% tariffs on goods from Canada, with an exemption on products covered by the USMCA — a North American free trade deal. Canada is also hit with global US tariffs on steel and aluminium, and cars. The northern country does a majority of its trade with the US, and the tariffs have already resulted in thousands of temporary layoffs in Canada's auto sector. A win for the Liberals would mark a dramatic reversal of fortune for the party, which had been polling at just 20% when former Liberal leader and prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation in late January. Their main rivals, the Conservatives, have focused their campaigning on Canadians' desire for change following nine years of leadership under Trudeau. At rallies and events across the country, Poilievre has honed in on issues like housing, crime and the high cost of living, while criticizing the Liberals for government overspending. "It's time for the government to start pinching pennies," Poilievre said on Tuesday as he unveiled his party's platform, before adding: "We can choose change. We can choose hope. We can choose our future." Polls suggest the Bloc Quebecois, a party advocating for Quebec separatism that only runs candidates in the French-speaking province, is in third place, with the left-leaning New Democratic Party trailing behind in fourth. — BBC
