1.5 million cast ballots in early voting

Elections Canada has the figures here. According to the CBC, that is a 25% upturn for the national total over the 2004 election. In the U.S., heavy early voting means good news for conservative candidates, but I don't know if it has the same correllation here in Canada.

(Interesting bit under the election turnout story suggesting that drop in voter turnout may be related to lack of civics classes. My husband's told me before that most Canadian schools have dropped civics, but it's still hard to believe. What do they take instead? A second semester of sex ed? Video game theory 101??)