Justin Trudeau will be Canada's next prime minister after leading the Liberal Party to a majority government win, dashing the hopes of Stephen Harper, who had been seeking his fourth consecutive mandate, CBC News has projected.
This will be the second time Canada will be led by a Trudeau, as the Liberal leader follows in the footsteps of his father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The Tories will form the Official Opposition, moving Tom Mulcair's NDP to third-party status.
It's a stunning turnaround for the Liberals, who held only 36 seats at the time of Parliament's dissolution. The Conservatives held 159 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons and the NDP had 95, with another 18 seats either vacant, held by Independents or shared between the Green Party (two seats) and the Bloc Québécois and a splinter group.
Because of population growth, 30 new seats have been added this election, including 15 in Ontario, six each for Alberta and British Columbia and three more for Quebec.
Polls have closed across the country. Eyes will now turn to the results in Quebec and Ontario to see what inroads the Liberals have made in the two provinces.
If the NDP can't hold Quebec, it could be difficult for the party to make big gains anywhere else. The Tories were also hoping to double their seat count to 10.
