NEW: The @CPC_HQ leadership election organizing committee has *disqualified* @patrickbrownont from the race, citing “serious allegations of wrongdoing.” #cdnpoli “We regret having to take these steps but we have an obligation to ensure that both our Party’s Rules and federal law are respected by all candidates and campaign teams,” LEOC chair Ian Brodie says in a statement. conservative.ca/statement-by-i…

Good evening from Laval, Que.! We're 15 minutes away from the CPC French-language debate.

All six candidates will be on stage. Three of them can't speak the language.

The seating capacity for this room is about 1,000 — still some empty chairs as people trickle in from the bar. The seats are all full and it's standing-room only at this Laval banquet hall.

Valerie Assouline, the vice-president of the party, tell us that this is the first time the French-language debate has been held in the Montreal area.

Just off the phone with a Conservative caucus member who's hopping mad about Denise Batters getting the boot. "For Erin, this is the beginning of the end," this Conservative told me. "It's a position of weakness. A real leader would say, 'Let's have a vote,' and trigger a caucus vote to see just how much support he really has."

NEW: Senior Conservatives say MPs who back anti-O'Toole petition could face expulsion vote. cbc.ca/news/politics/… #cdnpoli UPDATE: O'Toole kicks senator who questioned his leadership out of the Conservative caucus. cbc.ca/news/politics/…

Just off the phone with a Conservative caucus member who spoke very frankly about Monday's election.

They're not happy with O'Toole. Biggest issue? Campaigning as a "true blue" in the leadership and then abandoning many promises in the general. Carbon tax. Guns. Fiscal prudence. "He campaigned as a Liberal. He wasn't even Liberal lite — he campaigned as a Liberal in this campaign with no input from caucus or the party or anybody else," the caucus member said.

The CBC Decision Desk has not made projections in 15 ridings.

They will likely need to wait until all the ballots are counted in some of them.

Trois-Rivières
Sault Ste. Marie
Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley
Edmonton Centre
Brome-Missisquoi
Kitchener-Conestoga Vancouver Granville
Davenport
Fredericton
Coast of Bays-Central-Notre Dame
Hamilton Mountain
Richmond Centre
Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Parkdale-High Park
Spadina-Fort York

With the proviso that there are still votes to count, the Conservatives are on track to perform **worse** in the GTA than they did in 2019. #cdnpoli Despite the CPC shift toward the centre, Conservative incumbents lost in Markham-Unionville and Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill. The Liberal margins were also much larger in many area ridings.

And so it begins! The polls have closed in Newfoundland and Labrador. I'll be writing a rolling story tonight on the results as they come in from across the country. Follow along — cbc.ca/1.6182364 #cdnpoli Early results from Nfld. and Labrador and the Maritimes could signal how Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and his team will fare elsewhere tonight.

With fewer than 10,000 ballots counted so far, the Liberals have 48 per cent of ballots cast and the CPC have about 40 per cent.

"What we're saying — and what we've been saying all along — is that mRNA vaccines are the preferred vaccines," says Dr. Shelley Deeks, the vice-chair of NACI. Deeks says there's a shift in recommendations. NACI now estimates the frequency of the vaccine-induced rare blood clots (VITT) is closer to 1 in 100,000. People who can work from home - or those in areas with lower rates of transmission - may just want to wait for an mRNA shot.

I've done a bit of number crunching.

Based on current delivery estimates — and those could change! — there should be enough Pfizer and Moderna shots coming in May to vaccinate every Ontarian over the age of 30 with at least one shot by the first week of June. As of today, 5,248,345 shots have been distributed to Ontario minus 351,354 second shots = 4,896,991 people who have already received, or soon will receive, at least one shot.

Maj.-Gen. Fortin confirms *no new doses* of the Serum Institute-produced AstraZeneca shots will arrive this month. One million doses had been expected by month's end — that's not happening now. 300,000 Johnson & Johnson doses will arrive next week, they will be distributed to the provinces and territories during the first week of May.

U.S. President Joe Biden has just suggested he may send more shots to Canada.

"We have talked to our neighbours. As a matter of fact, a fellow who is working really hard to take care of his country and deal with this, I was on the phone with him for half an hour today," he says. "The prime minister of Canada — we helped a little bit there. We're going to try to help some more, but there's other countries as well that I'm confident we can help, including in Central America," Biden says.

Some incredibly encouraging vaccine news from @CDCDirector today: "So far, out of more than 84 million people who are fully vaccinated, we have only received reports of less than 6,000 breakthrough cases." While likely an underestimation, the number (very, very) low. @CDCDirector "Of the nearly 6,000 cases, approximately 30 percent had no symptoms at all. It demonstrates that... they also help you prevent getting seriously ill," @CDCDirector said.

Some important vaccine updates — Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin says the 590,000 Moderna doses that were delayed last week (slow quality assurance process) are leaving Europe today, and will land in Canada tomorrow morning. Provinces will have them by Saturday, the general says. The AstraZeneca shots from the U.S. (the 1.5 million that arrived Tues.) have now received the necessary Health Canada authorizations. Deliveries to the provinces have started and will finish Sat. (This is likely why Ont. has announced an expansion of AZ in pharmacies that day.)

New — Ontario is expanding vaccine eligibility starting Saturday — people 55+ can start booking appointments for the AstraZeneca shot at participating pharmacies. 350 more pharmacies will be administering that shot as of April 3 (for a total of 700 locations across the province.) The province expects the number of pharmacies administering the shot will grow to 1,500 by month's end. (There are 4,500 community pharmacies in the province, according to the Canadian Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities.)

A major development on the vaccine front — PMJT and @AnitaOakville have just announced that Pfizer is moving up 5 million doses from Q3 to Q2. That means 17.8 million Pfizer shots alone will be delivered between April-June. @AnitaOakville Combined with the 12.3 million more Moderna doses expected in this Q2 period — we will have 30.1 million mRNA vaccines delivered over the next three months. (7 million mRNA will be delivered by the end of this week, for a total of 37.1 million in Jan.-June period.)

U.S. plans to send 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada, says official: Reuters. cbc.ca/news/politics/… If this (potential) allotment is doled out on the same per-capita basis as the other shots then Ontario would see about 585,000 of those doses.

Vaccine update — based on what we know so far — at least 26.4 million more doses will arrive between April and June. 23 million from Moderna and Pfizer combined, 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses from the Serum Institute and 1.9 million AstraZeneca doses from COVAX. With the Serum announcement today, Canada will have enough supply to fully vaccinate 3.25 million people by the end of March. (6 million Pfizer and Moderna doses combined, 500,000 Serum-made AstraZeneca.)

Breaking — Health Canada approves use of AstraZeneca vaccine. cbc.ca/news/politics/… #cdnpoli Health Canada found the efficacy of the vaccine to be an estimated 62.1%. The regulator said the clinical trial results "were too limited to allow a reliable estimate of vaccine efficacy in individuals 65 years of age and older."

A vaccine update — Pfizer and Moderna told Congress this week they will deliver (a combined) 140 million more doses to the U.S. market over the next five weeks.

If approved this weekend, J&J has said it will distribute at least 20 million single-dose shots by the end of March. In total, with these three shots, the U.S. will have enough supply to fully vaccinate 90 million more people by April 1. 21.6 million people have already received both doses of either Pfizer or Moderna. At least 111.6 million with antibody protection by the end of the 1st quarter

New — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced plan to produce millions of COVID-19 shots at a plant in Montreal starting this summer, securing a domestic supply of vaccines as the global market contends with delivery delays and protectionist measures. The National Research Council-owned Royalmount facility will churn out tens of millions of doses of the product developed by Maryland-based Novavax, Trudeau said. That company submitted its vaccine to Health Canada for regulatory approval last Friday.