Live updates: Canadians heading to the polls on election day

EDMONTON—Carnage at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver cast a pall over the final day of the federal election campaign, as party leaders expressed shock and sadness for those killed when a man drove a vehicle into a crowd on Saturday night.

Suddenly reeling, campaign organizers scrambled Sunday to rearrange schedules and offer condolences amidst national grieving. Some parties cancelled and delayed events, and tried to strike the right balance between showing sympathy and continuing the campaign, with leaders racing around the country to cover ground and rally support in the last hours before the last votes are cast Monday.

Vancouver police have reported that 11 people were killed — their ages ranging from five to 65 years old — and dozens more injured after a man drove into the crowd at the Lapu Lapu Day festival on Saturday night, in what interim police chief Steve Rai called “the darkest day in Vancouver’s history.”

Read the full story here

OTTAWA—Election 2025 is the campaign that fun forgot. Where the winner might just be the most boring. Where the music has been forgettable. Where no snappy leaders’ debate exchange and no political ad truly captured the zeitgeist.

It’s a campaign that saw Liberals and Conservatives flip their hope and fear scripts, that ends with New Democrats and the separatist Bloc Québécois fighting for relevance, and reveals a Canadian electorate sharply divided, but seemingly less polarized than during the 2021 pandemic campaign. That vote saw rock-throwing and visceral anti-establishment eruptions against candidates.

In this campaign, there is unity of purpose vis-à-vis the threat of U.S. President Donald Trump. The collective goal is to survive the next four years.

Where Canadians sharply differ is on exactly how to become a stronger, and more independent country, and who has the best strategy to ensure that.

Read the full story from Ottawa Bureau Chief Tonda MacCharles

Well, that was illuminating.

I spent three weeks following (in the virtual sense) the campaign speeches of Canada’s national political leaders.

For the uninitiated, those leaders are the Liberal’s Mark Carney, the Conservative’s Pierre Poilievre and the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh. As we said at the outset, which seems so long ago, “Just the facts, men.” And yet in rallies and responses to questions from journalists, some gave a whole lot more.

So did the campaign workers tasked with responding to the Star’s emails when their leaders strayed beyond the confines of factuality or purposely engaged in verbal theatrics.

Here’s more from Moira Welsh

Whoever wins the federal election on Monday, their task — beyond resetting the relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, navigating Canada out of an impending economic crisis, addressing affordability and safety concerns — must be to reach out to those Canadians who did not vote for them.

Although the main party leaders portray themselves as figures who can heal a divided nation, they spent the campaign’s last few days striking a decidedly more partisan tone.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney described Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in his stump speech as someone not typically onside with the other leaders. He said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was someone who “draws his inspiration from Donald Trump” and “whose first instinct when our nation was attacked was to call Canada stupid.” Poilievre did call Canadians “stupid,” but it was in early January well before Trump’s threats.

While Carney’s attacks against Poilievre are personal: “He has a reflex to cut, destroy, and divide.” Poilievre attacks the wider group. “A Liberal is a Liberal is a Liberal,” he often repeats.

Read the full column from the Star’s Althia Raj

Canadians are hitting the polls on April 28 to determine who will become the next prime minister of the country.

From voting early to knowing what to take with you on election day, here’s everything you need to know about casting your ballot in the federal election.