Dan Lytwyn
BBC News, Toronto, Ontario

Affordability has been a key election issue, especially for those voters looking to buy into Canada’s hot housing market.

I spoke with a prospective homebuyer in Toronto who commented on the realities his generation is facing.

“I’ve had friends who made 20 offers before they got their success,” said Ryan Birks, aged 36. “They had to take breaks, it was so emotionally exhausting.”

Two Canadian cities are among the top five least affordable cities in the world, according to a 2021 report by the Urban Reform Institute and Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Vancouver was second behind Hong Kong in the study of 92 major markets around the globe. Toronto was ranked fifth behind Sydney and Auckland.

Image source, Reuters

The Liberal Fisheries and Oceans minister has lost her seat after a feud over lobster fishing rights that had been simmering for decades boiled over.

Bernadette Jordan has been defeated in the Nova Scotia riding of South Shore—St. Margarets by Conservative candidate Rick Perkins. Many Nova Scotians were angry with how the federal government handled indigenous claims to lobster fishing in the region.

The Sipekne'katik First Nation launched its own fishery in September last year, during the off-season for non-indigenous commercial fishermen.

The non-indigenous commercial fishermen said the fishery was against the rules and should be shut down, while the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled decades prior that indigenous fishermen have the right to earn a "moderate livelihood", even in the off-season. The fight escalated, and led to accusations of sabotage, mob violence and racism.

But there's one thing both sides could agree on: the federal government had failed at its job.

Read more about the fight at the epicentre of Canada's billion-dollar lobster industry.

Holly Honderich
BBC News, Oshawa, Ontario

Image source, Getty Images

Early reporting from the Toronto Centre riding is showing Annamie Paul - the leader of Canada's Green Party - in fourth place, behind the Liberals, Conservative's and the New Democratic Party.

It's a tough result after an already tough tenure as leader.

In June, she lost one of her three Green MPs, Jenica Atwin, who left in protest after Paul’s comments on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Paul later faced internal challenges to her leadership.

Paul, 48, said last week that she had considered stepping down as leader, but decided to stick it out when Trudeau called the snap election.

"Going into this election leaderless would have been a terrible disservice," she said.

These disappointing returns tonight might now signal the end of the road for Paul.

Image source, Getty Images

Canada’s Conservative Party will face an “internal struggle” if its centrist approach to the election doesn’t result in a victory, Canadian author and political theorist David Moscrop told the BBC ahead of tonight's result.

Moscrop said that to a certain extent, the party has already seen a power struggle between centrist and right-wing elements within the party.

“Tacking right didn’t work. Tacking to the centre might or might not work,” he said. “The fact is, they need more than a one-election strategy. That struggle will play out.”

Moscrop said that it’s possible that the Conservative Party will opt to have Erin O’Toole as their candidate again in future elections, despite losing to the Liberals.

“If they were clever about it, they would have a leader run and give that leader more than just one election,” he said. “That would mean designing a strategy that builds on what they’ve learned and exploit this and the next election when the liberals will be vulnerable.”

“It’s not common for a Liberal government to last 10 years and be popular,” he added. “A big part of the classic Tory strategy is to wait for people to get sick of the Liberals. It’s been like that pretty much since the 1870s.”

Image source, Getty Images

Conservative leader Erin O'Toole has hung on to his parliamentary seat in Durham, Ontario.

It's not a surprise: O'Toole has held the seat since 2012 and the riding is a Conservative stronghold.

Here at the Conservative party headquarters, the news was met with some cowbells and slightly lacklustre cheers.

Jessica Murphy
BBC News, Montreal, Québec

Image source, Getty Images

Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez says that even if Justin Trudeau doesn't secure his sought-after majority win tonight the MP still has "100% confidence" in him as party leader.

"And all the members of the party do as well," he told journalists at Liberal Party headquarters in Montreal.

Trudeau is expected to face questions over whether his early election call was worth it if he fails to win the seats needed - at least 170 - to form a majority.

"In the current context it's getting harder and harder to form a majority," said Rodriguez, who helped run the Quebec campaign for the Liberals.

Rodriguez added that he'd been elected member of parliament five times - the first time in 2004 - and most of those times were in minority governments.

He said no matter the mandate voters give the Liberals, the responsibilities of leading the country remain the same.

Unsurprisingly, Justin Trudeau has won his riding of Papineau, Quebec, according to CBC.

Earlier today, he went back to his home district to vote, telling reporters he had cast his ballot for the “outstanding MP for Papineau”.

The prime minister also tweeted some photos praising the poll workers.

Holly Honderich
BBC News, Oshawa, Ontario

News of Justin Trudeau's projected win is hard to miss at the Conservative’s election night party - the estimated seat counts and images of gleeful Liberals are being projected across the 40ft screen on display in the arena.

It's a muted atmosphere in Oshawa. Conservative party members have started to trickle in, some wearing blue or white baseball hats.

Val Davis, 56, a teacher who lives in leader Erin O'Toole's riding, says she's "shocked" by the results.

O'Toole "was going to help middle income families", she said, holding a Conservative party sign.

But there are still moments of levity brought to us by dedicated party members, such as the enthusiastic cowbells ringing out whenever a Conservative candidate is projected to win a new seat.

Vita grew up an open-minded progressive in Europe and does not feel aligned with either of the major parties.

Who are you voting for and why?

My vote will go to the Liberals. There is a lot I’m not happy with and mine isn’t an enthusiastic vote. But unlike several people I know who are voting Conservative for the first time in their lives out of sheer exasperation, I am still hopeful that the issues I care about will advance.

What is your "ballot box" issue and why?

Climate change. I don’t think the Liberal platform goes far enough. As someone I read recently put it, any credible climate plan today should have oil and gas execs swinging from the rafters “hooting like howler monkeys”; instead there has been very little pushback (divestment from fossil fuels is key to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, as everyone knows) and of course there is the grizzly issue of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. But at least their climate promises are clear and set out how they will get there.

Whether they are able to achieve the targets is the big question because to date they have not. I still feel it’s the best chance we have right now. And I certainly couldn’t vote for a party that in 2021 doesn’t believe climate change is real.

Jessica Murphy
BBC News, Montreal, Québec

At Liberal headquarters things are still quiet, despite a projected win for Trudeau, but supporters are beginning to trickle in.

Covid rules mean that instead of a room packed with Liberal party faithfuls, the crowd in this downtown hotel ballroom will be limited to some campaign volunteers and family.

We've just learned that Justin Trudeau is due to speak to his supporters at 00:30EST (05:30GMT).

Holly Honderich
BBC News, Oshawa, Ontario

Image source, Getty Images

Out on the trail, all of Canada's national party leaders would tell you that they're running to be prime minister. But as the votes are counted and projections are made, the Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats are all crafting their own versions of success.

For the Liberals, a true win will be a majority mandate. When Liberal leader Justin Trudeau called the snap election last month, he already held a minority government. Taking Canadians through the most expensive election in history - an estimated C$610m ($476m; £348m) for the 36-day campaign - in the middle of the pandemic, just to get the same result will not look good on Trudeau's political CV. But staying in power will still be claimed as a victory.

For the Conservatives, it's the opposite: denying the Liberals a majority would be a success. Speaking to reporters on Monday night, strategist Jason Lietaer stressed leader Erin O'Toole's certified underdog status heading into the election. Trudeau expected a "cakewalk", Lietaer said, and O'Toole has delivered a challenge. Making sure Trudeau does not have full control of parliament may count as a win for this new leader.

For the NDP, it's simple: add a single seat to the 24 won last time around. The NDP has not improved its seat count since 2011, the so-called Orange Crush of 2011, when the NDP won a stunning 103 seats and became the official opposition.

Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party is projected to win enough seats in the election for him to stay on as prime minister, according to Canadian media.

Both CTV and CBC have projected a Liberal government. It remains to be seen whether his party will hold a majority or minority.

Alice Cuddy
BBC News

A summer of deadly heatwaves and wildfires has put climate change high on the agenda at Canada's snap federal election.

It was the end of June, and the tiny community of Lytton in British Columbia had been making headlines worldwide for recording Canada's highest-ever temperature of 49.6C (121.3F).

Just 250 people lived in the village, while its surrounding indigenous reserves were home to over 1,000.

Residents describe it as being a close-knit community that was steeped in indigenous history. It was a place, one said, where "everybody pretty much knows everybody".

But it took only minutes for Lytton to go up in flame.

"As I stepped outside I saw a blizzard of hot ashes," recalls 76-year-old lifelong resident N'kixw'stn James.

"I put it into gear and drove away from my house. A few metres away I heard an explosion. My propane tank blew up."

While an investigation into the exact cause is ongoing, Lytton has become, to many, a symbol of the risks of climate change.

"The cost of inaction [on climate] is the entire town of Lytton being wiped out by a forest fire," warned Jagmeet Singh, leader of the NDP, during national election debate.

Read more:

Lytton fire puts village at centre of debate

Image source, Facebook/Café Chat l'heureux

Residents of Montreal’s Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood were given a special treat this election, after the local Café Chat L'Heureux put up a bunch of fake campaign posters that swiftly (and predictably) went viral online.

"This project is just something fun to interest people [in the] election, and to give smiles to people on the street," the owners told BBC News about the photoshopped posters.

The cafe's owners say the cat names bear no relationship to the actual human candidates or their party platforms.

"We put up more than 80 posters (same number for each political party) everywhere in the plateau and 90% were stolen in 5 days," says owner Clément Marty, adding that the cat campaign was just for fun - not politics.

The unusual posters actually led to a visit from a real (human) candidate.

Marie-Lyne Michel of the Bloc Québécois Party stopped by to visit the cat, Mousse, who the cafe had chosen to represent that regional party.

The cafe says they used the rare opportunity to lobby Michel on animal welfare issues, and other issues as well.

Image source, Facebook/Café Chat l'heureux

Image source, Facebook/Café Chat l'heureux

Polls have now closed in British Columbia, meaning that in-person voting is now over in Canada. However, it could still be hours before we know the results.

As we await the results, we're looking at the issues that matter most to Canadian voters.

Canada's prairie provinces - the country's agricultural heartlands - have been hit hard by drought.

In the face of climate change, ranchers like Ryan Boyd are experimenting with new ways to work with nature and its extremes.

Samira Hussain
Business Correspondent, Montreal, Quebec

Justin Trudeau made a political gamble when he called an early election. But will that gamble pay off?

My Montreal taxi driver didn’t think it would. In his view, the Conservative Party would be better at steering the country as it recovers from the economic fallout from the pandemic.

He noted that every time there is a Conservative government in power, the Canadian dollar is strong.

Despite usually voting Liberal, my cab driver thought it was time for change.

Holly Honderich
BBC News, Oshawa, Ontario

We're still a long way from knowing final results, but Conservative strategist Jason Lietaer is already hedging expectations here at Conservative headquarters.

He said the election has been a "win" for leader Erin O'Toole, no matter the results.

"He's gone from unknown to contender in just a few weeks," Lietaer said from the Conservative's election night headquarters in Oshawa.

"O'Toole was a huge underdog," he said. "To be within a few points is something we're all proud of."

The latest polls have O'Toole less than a point behind Trudeau's Liberals.

Lietaer said that O'Toole will be kept on as party leader, even if he does not deliver a win tonight.

Looking at O'Toole, "people see a prime minister in waiting", he said.

Image source, CBC

It's the moment we've been waiting for - the polls have just closed in Ontario and Quebec.

Together, the two central Canadian provinces, which include the cities of Toronto and Montreal, make up about half of the Canadian population.

Voters in Quebec have helped swing the last three federal elections. That province contains over 8 million residents, while Ontario has over 14 million.

There are 121 seats up for grabs in Ontario and 78 in Québec.

The results in the two provinces could signal which way this election is going for Justin Trudeau's Liberals.

The populous provinces of Quebec and Ontario have just shut their polls to in-person voting. Vote counting there will now begin.