Who will the Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or the Conservative Andrew Scheer be the Prime Minister of Canada after the parliamentary elections? Voters are called to decide, Monday, October 21, who will form the next government in a vote at the unpredictable end.

The first polls must open in Newfoundland and Labrador (east) at 8:30 am local time (11 am GMT). In a country that spans six time zones, the last voters will vote in British Columbia (West) until 2 pm GMT, but the first results are expected Monday from 11 pm GMT.

Some 27.4 million Canadians must elect their 338 MPs after a tense election campaign. If the polls say true, they should end the absolute majority available to the outgoing Prime Minister since his surprise victory in 2015.

For the campaign ended as it began some 40 days earlier: on a near perfect equality in voting intentions between the two major parties that alternate to power since 1867. Never seen in decades according to commentators.

The latest polls put Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party at 31-34% and Conservatives at 32-33%. According to projections, these figures would not allow any of these two parties to cross the threshold of 170 seats, which guarantees an absolute majority.

The support of small parties needed to hope for a majority

On Sunday, the voice hoarse by dozens of public meetings, Justin Trudeau launched a final plea for a second term. "We need a strong progressive government that will unite Canadians and fight climate change, not progressive opposition," he said at a meeting in the Vancouver area.

In the case of a minority government, the future Prime Minister, Liberal or Conservative, will have to count on the support of the smaller parties to obtain a majority in the House of Commons.

The New Democratic Party (NDP, left), Jagmeet Singh, one of the revelations of these elections, credited with nearly 20% of voting intentions, could be one of these key players.

The same goes for the Bloc Québécois, an independentist group led by the other revelation of the campaign, Yves-François Blanchet, who put Quebec's major issues at the heart of the federal debate. This party presents candidates only in the "Belle province", but it alone accounts for nearly a quarter of elected (78) in Ottawa.

The last big party in the running, the Greens of Elizabeth May have struggled to convey their message of climate urgency, even if the environment was one of the dominant themes of the debates.

A campaign with a lot of controversy

At 47, Justin Trudeau no longer has the advantage of youth - Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh are 40 years old - and the novelty that had helped bring him to power, to everyone's surprise, in 2015, against the conservative Stephen Harper.

The leader ends his mandate weakened by several scandals. His popularity dropped after a case of political interference in court proceedings, and the publication of photos of him in Black bruised his image.

Throughout the campaign, Justin Trudeau defended his record: solid economy, legalized cannabis, carbon tax, hosting tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, free trade agreements signed with Europe or the United States and Mexico ...

Opposite, Andrew Scheer promises a return to balanced budgets, tax cuts, with a simple goal: "Put money in the pockets of Canadians." The young conservative, father of five children, with Catholic values ​​assumed, tried to compensate for a somewhat dull image by attacks against Justin Trudeau.

But he has not escaped his share of polemics: personal hostility to abortion, late revelation of his dual Canadian and American nationality or suspicion of having sponsored a smear campaign of his rival Maxime Bernier.

A few hours before the results of the legislative, the suspense remains total. Especially since the Canadian electoral system provides that an outgoing Prime Minister can remain in office even if his party does not obtain a majority of seats, as long as it meets a majority in confidence votes in the House of Commons.

With AFP