Poilievre's riding tops early voting numbers

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s riding of Carleton saw the highest early voting turnout in Canada, as 43,394 residents flocked to advance polls over Easter long weekend, according to preliminary data from Elections Canada . This total, making up 45 per cent of registered voters in the Ottawa-area riding, was 5,926 votes higher than the second-highest turnout, in Green party Elizabeth May’s riding of Saanich—Gulf Islands. The eye-catching early-voting tally comes amidst speculation that Poilievre, who has held the riding for two decades, may be in a tight race to be re-elected on Monday. Bruce Fanjoy, Poilievre’s Liberal challenger, told National Post he sees the Carleton race as a referendum on the Conservative leader’s combative style of politics. “Carleton, because of circumstance, has a remarkable opportunity to make a statement on the type of politics and direction that we want Canada to go in,” said Fanjoy. “Although it’s technically just one of 343 ridings in the election, this one carries extra significance.” Fanjoy said more than 500 volunteers signed up to help him in the first week of the campaign, coming from as far away as New York City. The Conservative war room has also reportedly been sending additional manpower into Carleton in anticipation of a close result. Poll aggregator 338Canada listed Carleton as “CPC Likely” as of Friday, with Poilievre 10 points ahead of Fanjoy in the projected vote. Poilievre will be closing out the campaign with a final rally in his home riding on Monday evening. Three-quarters of eligible voter turned out to vote in Carleton in the last federal election in 2021, with Poilievre winning easily. Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s riding of Nepean was also in the top five nationally for early voting, with 32,689 residents turning out to the advance polls. Six of the top 10 ridings for turnout were in Southern and Eastern Ontario, which saw balmy weather over the holiday weekend. On the other end of the climatic spectrum were the bottom three ridings of Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, all places where residents were still braving sub-zero temperatures. Just 1,152 trudged through Nunavut’s tundra long enough to cast an early ballot, putting it dead last among the 343 federal ridings. Across Canada, 7,280,975 early ballots were cast, up a quarter from the then-record 5,852,391 that were cast in the last federal election in 2021. National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

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