OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau's Liberals will form the next government of Canada after steamrolling out of Atlantic Canada and turfing Stephen Harper's Conservatives from office almost before the polls had closed in British Columbia.

And they'll do it with a new leader heading the Opposition after Harper announced he is resigning as leader of the party. He will continue to sit as an MP

The stunning victory makes Trudeau, 43, Canada's first dynastic prime minister, following in the footsteps of his father Pierre Elliott Trudeau who served as prime minister for almost 16 years before retiring in 1984.

The Liberal party becomes the first ever to vault directly from third party status to government.

The campaign, which began on a sweltering August long weekend with the country firmly Conservative blue, ended under a threat of October frost and a Liberal red tide.

The shocking Liberal onslaught opened on the East Coast, where Liberals were on track for a remarkable sweep of all 32 Atlantic Canada seats, before rolling into Quebec and Ontario and Manitoba.

With the polls simultaneously closing from the Quebec-New Brunswick border all the way to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the scale of the Liberal charge became clear as the ballot counting commenced: With more than 3.5 million ballots counted, the Liberals had garnered more than 45 per cent of the popular vote and were on track for a healthy majority in the newly expanded 338-seat House of Commons.

Trudeau romped to victory in his gritty Montreal riding of Papineau as the Liberals restored their Quebec fortunes to help anchor the surprising victory.

High-profile Tories and New Democrats went down to defeat, including Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt and NDP deputy leader Megan Leslie.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver was in trouble in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, as well, while Olivia Chow — her late husband, Jack Layton, led the NDP's so-called "orange wave" in 2011 — succumbed to Liberal juggernaut Adam Vaughan in Trinity-Spadina.

Harper retained his Calgary seat. The Canadian Press reported he was poised to step down as Conservative party leader, but will stay on as an MP for Calgary Heritage.

Party president John Walsh is expected to say that Harper has asked him to reach out to the new parliamentary caucus and request that they choose an interim leader.

Harper's departure will signal the beginning of a tumultuous time in the party — he has been the only leader of the organization formed in 2003 between the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties.

Harper called the extraordinarily long, 78-day election on Aug. 2 hoping to become the first prime minister since Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1908 to win four consecutive mandates. However with all opposition parties vowing not to work with him after Monday's election, it was apparent that only a very strong Conservative minority or a Tory majority would keep Harper on as prime minister.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair aspired to lead Canada's first NDP federal government, but instead lost the party's hard-won 2011 grip on official Opposition status. Mulcair was also in danger of losing his own Montreal seat, barely leading the Liberal challenger.

For the 2015 election, there was no longer a blackout on transmitting voting results while polls were still open in other parts of the country — a ban that had become impossible to enforce in the age of the Internet.

Liberals held just 36 seats across the entire country when the election was called.

The Conservatives held 159 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons and the NDP had 95 with another 18 seats either vacant, held by Independents or shared between the Green party (two seats) and the Bloc Québécois and a splinter group.

Due to population growth, 30 new seats have been added this election, including 15 in Ontario, six each for Alberta and British Columbia and three more for Quebec.

The Liberals were expected to do well in Atlantic Canada but their remarkable sweep presaged a huge night for the party.

Some 3.6 million Canadians cast ballots during the four-day advance polling period on the Thanksgiving long weekend — an increase of 71 per cent over the 2011 election, when only three days of advance polls were held.

That increased turnout carried into the main event, with long lines at polling stations in many parts of the country. Just 61.4 per cent of eligible electors cast a ballot in 2011, up marginally from the 58.8 per cent in 2008 — the lowest ever in a federal election.

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There were reports of voters with face coverings — including skeleton masks and even a pumpkin — at polling stations, an apparent reaction to the controversy over whether women should be permitted to wear a niqab at citizenship ceremonies.

A face covering is permitted at the polls if the voter swears an oath attesting to their status as an elector and shows the required identification, said Babin Dufresne.

Assembly of First Nations national chief Perry Bellegarde — who initially said he wouldn't vote in order to maintain his neutrality, then changed his mind — tweeted about his trip to the polls.

The Bloc's Gilles Duceppe cast his ballot and said he was happy with the reaction he received from voters who welcomed him back after a hiatus from the party leadership. "There's always a phrase that stands out in a campaign and this time it was, 'Thank you for coming back' from beginning to end."

Elizabeth May strolled through Green party election headquarters Monday holding hands with her daughter, Cate May-Burton.

The polls had just closed on the West Coast and the Green party leader was beaming, as her forecast of a Harper Conservative defeat just hours before appeared to be coming true.

- Niagara West: 2015 federal election results

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- Hamilton Centre: 2015 federal election results

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- Hamilton Mountain: 2015 federal election results

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- Flamborough-Glanbrook: 2015 federal election results

- Burlington: 2015 federal election results