Tight race as votes begin to roll in

Counting ballots longer process than usual due to record-breaking 84 candidates vying for post

- TONDA MACCHARLES

Election signs sit in the Toronto-St.Paul's area Monday.Liberal candidate Leslie Church had a slightly growing lead over Conservative Don Stewart, early results indicated. For the latest results, visit thestar.​com.

A tight race was on in a key federal byelection in Toronto—St. Paul’s, billed as a harbinger of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political future, as early results began to pour in.

By print deadline, The Liberal candidate Leslie Church had a slightly growing lead over Conservative Don Stewart late Monday night.

Liberals gathered at a St. Clair West bar while Conservatives gathered further to the west of the riding on Spadina, with all eyes first on the Stanley Cup final game, before turning to a frustratingly slow Elections Canada livestream of ballot counts, poll-by-poll.

At publication time, Church had 3,540 votes, while Stewart, her toughest and nearest competitor on a historically long ballot of 84 candidates, garnered 3,046 votes. The NDP’s Amrit Parhar had 1,051, while the Greens’ Christian Cullis had 258. That was with just 65 of 192 polling stations counted.

The call of who wins, traditionally announced by broadcasters, had not yet been made by 11:32 p.m. with Elections Canada admitting counting was going slowly due to the long ballot.