Canada Votes: LIVE UPDATES for Windsor area election campaigns

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Welcome to the Windsor Star’s live blog for the federal election. The polls close in Ontario at 9:30 p.m. The last polls in Canada close in B.C. at 10 p.m. ET. Windsor Staff will be filing updates as information comes in for what many see as a historic election.

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7:35 p.m.

For a mix of both Election Night cheers and Election Night tears (there will always be winners and losers, that’s why they call it democracy), why not visit the Election Night gatherings of all three main party candidates in Windsor West?

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Brian Masse (NDP) and his team gather at the Hellenic Cultural Centre, 3052 Walker Rd.; while Richard Pollock (Liberal) will be at Cramdon’s Tap & Eatery, 2950 Dougall Ave.; and Harb Gill (Conservative) is just a few blocks down the road at Babylon Banquet Hall, 2503 Dougall Ave.

7:20 p.m.

Reports coming in from polling stations across Windsor and Essex County — so many eligible voters seeing a ballot box for the very first time.

To the holdouts — grab some ID and get yourself to the nearest polling station to find out what all the excitement is about. Polls in Ontario are open until 9:30 p.m. To find out more, just visit the very easy to navigate Elections Canada website.

7:16 p.m.

This wasn’t just an early election (originally scheduled for next October) but also a short election. Newly minted Prime Minister Mark Carney got things going on March 23.

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“Obviously, it was important that we had an election, but I would have preferred a longer campaign, where you find out more,” voter Justin Woods said outside a Windsor West polling station.

“I think we had to do more research on our own because there wasn’t as much time as usual,” he said.

7:05 p.m.

At Elections Canada polling station at Libro Credit Union Centre in Amherstburg (where the current wait time is only about five minutes), the average first-time voter who found their way in (“there have been many”) is not your fresh-faced high-schooler-turned-adult but approximately 30 years old.

Meaning, this is the first Canadian or Ontario election that has grabbed their attention, caught their interest. Thanks, Donald Trump.

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6:59 p.m.

The sports betting world is in on the Canadian election action. FanDuel Sports, for example, has the Liberals winning another election. (For the technical crowd: L: -480; C: +350; and ‘Any Other Party’: +7500)

6:30 p.m.

Downtown Essex might be election party central tonight for the federal riding of Essex, with three main parties hosting gatherings. But don’t expect any of the candidates to show up before they’ve chased every last voter to the polls (which close at 9:30 p.m.)

Conservative Chris Lewis and his supporters are at Michigan Diner, 27 Victoria Ave. Liberal Chris Sutton hosts a gathering at Chuck’s Roadhouse, 346 Talbot. St. N., and you can find Lori Wightman and her NDP party followers at nearby Tailgaters Sports Bar, 58 Talbot St. N.

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BTW, unless you’re from Essex, you should know that ‘Essex’ the federal riding is different from ‘Essex’ the municipality, and ‘Essex’ Centre is the urban centre of the Town of Essex. Essex the urban centre and Essex the town, of course, are at the geographic centre of ‘Essex County.’

6 p.m.

Gotta love democracy. Wonderful sight/sound at Harrow’s Portuguese Hall at about 3:30 p.m. today, according to the Star’s Brian MacLeod: when word spread inside the polling station (in Essex riding) that someone had just cast a ballot in their first election, the place broke out in applause and cheers.

Gotta love this country — #ElbowsUp indeed!

5:55 p.m.

Voting among Windsor Star staffers is at its usual historic high. Reporter Taylor Campbell said it took her “less than a minute” to cast her Windsor West ballot in lovely historic Mackenzie Hall (built by a former Canadian prime minister back in the days when Canadian leaders had to work for a living). The polling station, there, our city hall beat reporter reports, “is running like a well-oiled machine.”

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Meanwhile, Star photographer Dan Janisse had to change his voting plans for the day. His polling station at the WFCU Centre was forced to shut down Monday morning due to a roof fire. Elections Canada, however, is staffed by cool pros — in short order, they had set up shop a little over a mile away at St. Joseph’s High School.

Read our ‘Breaking News’ story online (with Dan’s photos).

5:48 p.m.

The federal riding of Windsor West has a (well-earned?) reputation for poor voter turnout.

This election might be the perfect time to prove them wrong and show your interest in democracy — the latest from polling tracker 338Canada, which looks at the professional polls and mashes all the data together with electoral history and other information, has the NDP and Liberal candidates in a virtual tie, with a vote projection of 35 per cent each (Conservatives 25% and People’s Party 3%).

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Windsor West, which saw all three main-party leaders visit at least once during this short campaign, is one of the ridings being closely watched tonight.

5:35 p.m.

The beauty and simplicity of voting in a Canadian federal election is being illustrated by electors seen entering polling stations on a magnificent blue-sky day clad in shorts, sandals and sunglasses.

The sun is beating down at 23 Celsius. For more nocturnal lovers, sunset in Windsor is 8:28 p.m., giving you another dusky hour of voting time.

5:22 p.m.

Perhaps proof that voters in border areas like Windsor-Essex are particularly sensitive on the issue of sovereignty in this election: the federal riding of Essex saw nearly 35,000 voters (!) cast ballots in advance polls over the Easter long weekend.

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That’s about HALF OF THE TOTAL Essex ballots cast in the last federal election in 2021. Think about it: Essex was No. 3 out of all 343 federal ridings across Canada in total number of electors voting in advance polls, according to Elections Canada.

5:17 p.m.

Still more than FOUR HOURS left to get out and vote (in Ontario).

As one poll supervisor told the Star: “Everybody feels like this is an election that really matters, so they are making the effort to get out.

“It’s good to see so many people caring about Canadian politics.”

#ElbowsUp!

5 p.m.

“We are seeing first-time voters of every age,” said Molly Ferdinand, central poll supervisor at Windsor West polling station at St. Angela Merici Church.

On a day when U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media, encouraging Canadian voters to elect a leader who would lead the country to “become the cherished 51st. State,” Ferdinand told the Star: “What stands out the most are people who have never voted feel a call to action in some way.”

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4:30 p.m.

A final Abacus Data federal election poll shows a tight race between the two front-running parties.

From Thursday through Sunday, Abacus Data conducted polling of 2,500 Canadians.

The public-opinion agency’s final likely-voter model, which only polls people who’ve already voted or who say they are very likely to vote, suggests the Liberal party will claim 41 per cent of the popular vote, while the Conservatives will collect 39 per cent. The NDP and Bloc Québécois are likely to pick up 10 and six per cent, respectively, according to the poll.

4 p.m.

From Postmedia’s federal election live updates blog:

Millions of Canadians will cast their ballots in the federal election today. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Liberal Leader Mark Carney have been campaigning across Canada for the past 35 days, in the hopes of becoming the next prime minister. There are 343 seats up for grabs and the winner will need at least 172 seats to form a majority government.

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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is at risk of losing his seat in Surrey, B.C., and support for his party has collapsed. Amid what’s shaping up to be a two-way race between the Conservatives and Liberals in most ridings, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is also at risk of losing her seat. Meanwhile, Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet could end up holding the balance of power in a minority government.

3:30 p.m.

NDP candidate for Windsor West Brian Masse issued a press release on Election Day, saying it was special that his entire immediate family voted together for the first time.

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Masse’s partner Terry Chow, and their two children, Alex and Wade Masse, visited a voting together

“This was a special moment for my family to be able to vote together for the first time, especially during such a crucial election,” Masse said in the release. “It means a lot.”

11 a.m.

Fiery start to Election Day in Windsor, and Elections Canada workers at the WFCU Centre had a busier morning than anticipated.

A fire started in a few solar panels on the roof of the building, so the entire facility was evacuated for the day.

Star photographer Dan Janisse was there. Read our full story online.

Voters scheduled to vote at the WFCU had to wait temporarily, as Elections Canada quickly set up an alternate polling station at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, at 2425 Clover Ave.

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