Today is the day.

After an almost six-week campaign, Cochrane residents along with all Canadians will cast their ballots and we'll soon know who will be the Prime Minister for the next few years. 

While Canadian figures show advance polls attracted 4.7 million voters over the Thanksgiving weekend, an increase of 29 per cent from the 2015 federal election, figures for the Banff-Airdrie riding showed a much larger spike in advance voters than in the last election.

According to Leanne Nyirfa with Elections Canada, the number of voters heading to the advance polls for all of Alberta was quite high.

"In the Province of Alberta the total number of people eligible to vote is 2,981,591 people and we know that across Alberta 578,219 people voted at the advance polls.  So, in Alberta, the voter turnout for the advance polls was just over 19 per cent."

Nyirfa says for the Banff-Airdrie riding 25,437 people voted and that was out of an eligible 107,281 people. The percentage of people who came out to vote at the advance polls in the electoral district of Banff-Airdrie was about 23.7 percent.

Nyirfa says in 2015, 15,324 people cast ballots in advance polls for Banff-Airdrie, meaning an additional 10,113 people turned out at this year's advance polls.  

In 2015, 66,817 votes were registered in Banff-Airdrie.

The candidates for the Banff-Airdrie riding are Austin Mullins for the Green Party, Blake Richards for the Conservatives, Nadine Wellwood for the People's Party of Canada, Anne Wilson for the NDP and Gwyneth Midgley for the Liberals. 

In order to cast your ballot today you need to prove your identity and address. You can do that by bringing government issued ID along with your voter card. If you don't have those items you will need someone to declare your identity and address by having them vouch for your at your assigned polling station. 

Nyirfa says polling stations across Canada will be open from 7:30 am to 7:30 p.m.