Conservative leader Mr Stephen Harper warned Canadians yesterday that if they voted for Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin tomorrow they would not be getting the often-conservative leader they knew.
Polls showed that for the first time in a quarter century, no party would win a majority of seats in Parliament.
Mr Harper said that Mr Martin, as finance minister, delivered tax cuts and supported traditional marriage, but as prime minister was promising major new spending and pushing for gay marriage.
"Here was the Liberal leader who was expected to (lead) and who had promised the most conservative positions in the Liberal Party's history and who now has run possibly the most leftist campaign of any Liberal leader in history," said Mr Harper. "We're dealing with a chameleon."
In the Atlantic province of New Brunswick, Mr Martin was cautioning against a vote for the more liberal New Democratic Party (NDP).
"In a race that's as close as this one, with the stakes as high as they are ... that could very well make Stephen Harper prime minister," he said.
Two new polls published yesterday, two days before the election, put Mr Martin one point or less ahead of Mr Harper. Both were expected to come up short of a 155-seat majority in Parliament.
Mr Martin, who replaced rival Mr Jean Chretien as Liberal leader and prime minister late last year, did not have to call an election until late 2005.
Yesterday morning, he announced he would make a cross-country dash from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back today to shore up support in the western province of British Columbia.
"This is a very tight election, and I'm not taking anything for granted here. I could not live with myself if I did not go flat out until the very last minute to essentially earn every vote we can get," he said.