Voter turnout in the federal election hit a high not seen in Canada in more than 30 years.
According to preliminary estimates from Elections Canada, 19,583,016 Canadians cast a ballot in Monday's election. That works out to a voter turnout rate of more than 68 per cent.
This is the highest voter turnout in the country since the 1993 federal election, when 69.6 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot. However, it was not enough to break the record voter turnout of 79.4 per cent which was set in March 1958.
More than 11 million people voted at their polling station or in their long-term care facility on Monday, Elections Canada said. Another 7,280,975 voted at advance polls held over four days during the Easter long weekend, while 1.2 million voted by special ballot.
Elections Canada, which is an independent, non-partisan agency, added that it will finalize the numbers and publish the official voting results, along with other official reports related to the election in the coming months.
Thousands of people were hired by Elections Canada to staff 492 offices and work 7,200 advance and 65,000 election day voting desks in 343 electoral districts.
“I want to thank the some 230,000 people who helped deliver the election," Chief Electoral Officer of Canada Stéphane Perrault said in a statement. "Whether electors voted on election day or earlier at advance polls or by special ballot, election workers were there to serve them and to ensure that the integrity and secrecy of the vote was upheld.”
Voters gave the Liberal party, under the new leadership of Mark Carney, a fourth term.
The Liberals won 169 seats, just three shy of a majority government. The Conservatives claimed 144 seats, the Bloc Quebecois won 22 seats, the NDP took just seven seats, while the Green Party won one seat.