ANALYSIS: Voters surge to advance polls for a most consequential election – National [Video]

In 2015, as a Liberal wave swept Justin Trudeau to a majority government, the Conservative candidate in the riding of Carleton barely managed to avoid being swamped on election day.

That candidate, Pierre Poilievre, won by just 705 votes over his Liberal rival whose support, like many Liberals across the country, was surging in the final week. The totals in Carleton: 42,428 votes cast with 46 per cent going to Poilievre. His Liberal rival, Chris Rogers, was less than three points back at 44.3 per cent.

But close as election day was, it was not so close in the advance polls. Among the 15,407 ballots cast in Carleton’s advance polls, like the ones across the country this weekend, Poilievre scored 49.6 per cent of the vote, well ahead of the Liberal at 41.5 per cent.

That trend is typical for many elections, both federal and provincial, in which small-c conservative …