NDP Leader Jack Layton and his wife Olivia Chow vote in Toronto on Monday June 28. (Andrew Vaughan/CP)
Canadians vote Monday in an election now seen as too close to call with a minority government a likely outcome tonight.
The two frontrunners, leaders of the Liberals and Conservatives, honed their message to supporters on Sunday before heading to their home ridings.
By the end of the night, there is possibility that the nation could see none of the major parties grab the 155 seats needed for a majority in the 308-seat Parliament.
The last time Canada elected a minority government was in 1979, when Joe Clark saw his Conservative administration fall six months after its formation.
NDP Leader Jack Layton was the first party leader to cast a ballot Monday morning — although he couldn't vote for himself.
The NDP leader is running in the riding of Toronto Danforth, but he lives in Trinity-Spadina, where his wife Olivia Chow is carrying the party banner.
A minor fracas broke out between the media and polling officers who wouldn't let cameras into the room to record the vote, leaving Mr. Layton and Ms. Chow cooling their heels outside for a few minutes.
In the end, photographers and TV crews had to be content with pictures shot from the doorway as the two finally marked their ballots.
Photograpers were also denied entry when Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe cast his ballot in Montreal.
A confident Stephen Harper cast his ballot in the gymnasium of an elementary school here Monday, but kept his choice to himself. "It's a secret," the Conservative leader said with a playful grin as he popped his head over the ballot-box shield and posed for a wall of flashing cameras.
On Sunday, Liberal Leader Paul Martin campaigned late into the Vancouver night Sunday in a coast-to-coast, last-ditch pitch, selling himself as the only option for "progressives" — including New Democrats and Greens — and aiming an all-out declaration of his integrity at Quebeckers.
Travelling to rallies in four Nova Scotia towns, then hitting campaign stops in Gatineau, Que., and Winnipeg before ending with a night rally in Vancouver, Mr. Martin sought to turn the campaign into a stop-Harper referendum by appealing for "all progressives to come together."
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In Alberta, Mr. Harper promised to give Westerners real power as he wound down his campaign in the province, and region, that gave rise to his political career and to a movement he says will change Canada for the better.
The Conservative Leader ended the 35-day campaign with two large Alberta rallies and a six-bus convoy designed to demonstrate that he is the candidate with the wind in his sails. He also pledged the most Western-influenced government Canada has seen.
"We're going to change the system, we're going to make things better, we're going to clean up the mess," he told a rally of about 900 people in Edmonton.
"And we're going to bring this part of the country into power in Ottawa."
The previous day in Surrey, B.C., he told a cheering crowd: "I urge you on Monday to say loudly and clearly that old battle cry: 'We want change and we want in.' "
The West Wants In was a slogan of the old Reform Party, under which Mr. Harper was once an MP and for which he acted as policy chief.
The final rallies also came as his deputy leader, Peter MacKay, talked of how his party would co-operate with regional representatives — including the Bloc Québécois — to shift some federal powers to the provinces and cities.
Mr. Martin denied there was desperation in the marathon finish (which was to be followed by an overnight flight to arrive in Montreal at 7 a.m. today, to vote in his Lasalle-Émard riding) but acknowledged the race is so tight that a few votes in a few ridings could see his government pushed out of office.
The campaign of the once seemingly unbeatable Liberals that was to be centred on Mr. Martin's promise to fix Canadian health care ended with a warning that Conservative Leader Stephen Harper would threaten the Charter of Rights, hurt the environment and have Canada join in U.S. military adventures.
"From Nova Scotia to Vancouver, back to Montreal, it's a non-stop, cross-country blitz with a clear message to those who are thinking of voting NDP, to progressive people everywhere, to vote for the one party, the only party that can stop Stephen Harper from becoming prime minister," an energetic Mr. Martin told a rally in Windsor, N.S.
The last three days of his campaign were based on an anti-Harper appeal.
By Saturday, Liberals were distributing "Stop Harper" buttons.
"We really think this is the time for all progressives to come together," Mr. Martin told reporters yesterday in Wolfville, N.S.
Mr. Layton invoked revered socialist icon Tommy Douglas Sunday as he urged left-leaning voters to follow their hearts and back New Democrats at the ballot box instead of defecting to the Liberals to block a potential Conservative
Meanwhile, Mr. Duceppe focused the last three days of his campaign on winning over ridings that were deemed out-of-reach five weeks ago, and on getting ballot-box support from cultural communities he has been cultivating for years. As he bemoaned the high unemployment rates among Quebec's blacks and Arabs, Mr. Duceppe said over the weekend that he is simply trying to help all Quebeckers deal with problems, regardless of their origins.
With files from Globe reporters Campbell Clark, Brian Laghi, Steven Chase and Daniel Leblanc
