One candidate had to drop out after video footage emerged showing him peeing in a cup, another hid in bushes in camouflage to catch vandals defacing his signs, while a third slew a dragon in his campaign video.

It may have been one of the longest federal election campaigns in Canadian history but it certainly has not been the dullest. For those who delight in the embarrassing revelation, the unexpected intervention, and the truly bizarre, it has been a campaign to savor.

Canada has not lacked for political farce in recent years: the drunken and often clumsy antics of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who admitted to smoking crack cocaine, gave comedians in North America plenty of material when he was in office in 2010-2014. Indeed, one of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's last campaign appearances before Monday's election was alongside Rob and his brother Doug Ford at a rally in Toronto.