Trudeau’s Liberals win Canada election, but miss majority

‘s Liberal Party a victory in Monday’s parliamentary elections, but his gamble to win a majority of seats failed and therefore the result was remarkably almost like the election two years ago.

The Liberals won the foremost seats of any party. The 49-year-old Trudeau channeled the star power of his father, the Liberal icon and late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, when he first won election in 2015 and has led his party to the highest finish in two elections since.

Trudeau’s Liberals were leading or elected in 157 seats — precisely the same number they won in 2019, 13 in need of the 170 needed for a majority within the House of Commons.

The Conservatives were leading or elected in 121 seats, an equivalent number they won in 2019. The lLftist New Democrats were leading or elected in 29, a gain of 5 seats, while the Quebec-based Bloc Québécois was down three at 28 and therefore the Greens remained at two seats.

Trudeau entered the election leading a stable minority government that wasn’t under threat of being toppled.

The opposition was relentless in accusing Trudeau of calling an unnecessary early vote — two years before the deadline — for his own personal ambition.

“Trudeau lost his gamble to urge a majority so i might say this is often a bittersweet victory for him,” said Daniel Béland, a politics professor at McGill University in Montreal.

“Basically we are back to face one, because the new minority parliament will appear as if the previous one. Trudeau and therefore the Liberals saved their skin and can stay in power, but many Canadians who didn’t want this late summer, pandemic election are probably not amused about the entire situation,” he said.

Trudeau bet Canadians didn’t need a Conservative government during an epidemic . Canada is now among the foremost fully vaccinated countries within the world and Trudeau’s government spent many billions of dollars to prop the economy amid lockdowns. Trudeau argued that the Conservatives’ approach, which has been skeptical of lockdowns and vaccine mandates, would be dangerous and says Canadians need a government that follows science.

Conservative leader Erin O’Toole didn’t require his party’s candidates to be vaccinated and wouldn’t say what percentage were unvaccinated. O’Toole described vaccination as a private health decision, but a growing number of vaccinated Canadians are increasingly upset with those that refuse to urge vaccinated.

Vaccine politics
Trudeau supports making vaccines mandatory for Canadians to pass by air or rail, something the Conservatives oppose. And Trudeau has acknowledged that Alberta, travel by a Conservative provincial government, is in crisis.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, an ally of O’Toole, said the province might run out of beds and staff for medical care units within days. Kenney apologized for the dire situation and is now reluctantly introducing a vaccine passport and imposing a compulsory work-from-home order two months after lifting nearly all restrictions.

“Hubris led Trudeau to call the election. He and therefore the Liberals won the election but lost the prize they were seeking. this is often only an excellent night for the Liberals because fortnight ago it appeared they might lose government outright something they might not fathom before they gambled on an election,” said Nelson Wiseman, a politics professor at the University of Toronto.

Wiseman said the Conservatives were hurt by things in Alberta. “The explosion of the pandemic in Alberta within the past 10 days undermined O’Toole’s compliments of the Alberta Conservatives on how that they had handled the pandemic and reinforced Trudeau’s argument for mandatory vaccinations,” he said.

A Conservative win would have represented a rebuke of Trudeau against an official with a fraction of his name recognition. O’Toole, 47, may be a military veteran, former lawyer and a member of Parliament for nine years.

O’Toole advertised himself a year ago as a “true-blue Conservative.” He became Conservative Party leader with a pledge to “take back Canada,” but immediately started working to push the party toward the political center.

O’Toole’s strategy, including disavowing positions cherished by his party’s base on issues like global climate change , guns and balanced budgets, was designed to appeal to a broader cross section of voters during a country that tends to be much more liberal than its southern neighbor.

The son of a long-time politician has faced criticism he will say and do anything to urge elected.

Whether moderate Canadians believed O’Toole is that the progressive conservative he claims to be and whether he alienated traditional Conservatives became central questions of the campaign.

Adrian Archambault, a 53-year-old Vancouver resident, voted Liberal and said he didn’t mind the election was held during an epidemic . He noted provincial elections have also happened during the pandemic.

“Everybody has been so preoccupied with COVID the previous couple of years it wasn’t maybe a nasty thing to kind of do a re-check,” he said.

Trudeau’s legacy includes embracing immigration at a time when the U.S. and other countries closed their doors. He also legalized cannabis nationwide and brought during a carbon tax to fight global climate change . And he preserved trade affect the U.S. and Mexico amid threats by former U.S. President Donald Trump to scrap the agreement.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama and ex-Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton tweeted support for Trudeau. There wasn’t a Trump endorsement of O’Toole. Conservative campaign co-chair Walied Soliman said there’s no alignment whatsoever between O’Toole and Trumpism. Soliman said earlier within the day holding Trudeau to a minority government would be a win for O’Toole.