Trudeau’s Liberals win Canada election, but miss majority – KIRO 7 News Seattle

TORONTO – (AP) – Canadians gave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party a victory in Monday’s general election, but its venture to win a majority of the seats failed, almost mirroring the outcome two years ago.

The Liberals won the most seats in any party. Trudeau, 49, channeled the star power of his father, liberal icon and late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau when he first won elections in 2015 and has led his party to the top in two elections since.

Trudeau’s Liberals led or were elected to 156 seats – one fewer than they won in 2019 and 14 fewer than the 170 required for a majority in the House of Commons.

The Conservatives led or were elected with 121 seats, the same number as in 2019. The left New Democrats led or were elected with 27 seats, a gain of three seats, while the Quebec-based Bloc Québécois with 32 seats and the Greens unchanged remained had dropped to two.

“They’re sending us back to work with a clear mission to get Canada through this pandemic,” Trudeau said.

“I hear you say you just want to get back to the things you love and not worry about this pandemic or a choice.”

Trudeau headed a stable minority government that was not threatened with overthrow.

The opposition relentlessly accused Trudeau of calling an unnecessarily early vote – two years before the deadline – for his own personal ambition.

“Trudeau lost his gamble for the majority, so I would say this is a bittersweet victory for him,” said Daniel Béland, professor of political science at McGill University in Montreal.

“Basically we are back in first place because the new minority parliament will look like the previous one. Trudeau and the Liberals have saved their skins and will stay in power, but many Canadians who didn’t want these late summer pandemic elections are probably not amused by the whole situation, “he said.

Trudeau bet that Canadians didn’t want a conservative government during a pandemic. Canada is now among the best vaccinated countries in the world, and Trudeau’s government spent hundreds of billions of dollars propping up the economy amid lockdowns. Trudeau argued that the conservative approach of being skeptical of bans and vaccine mandates would be dangerous, saying Canadians need a government that follows science.

Conservative leader Erin O’Toole did not request vaccination of his party’s candidates and did not want to say how many were unvaccinated. O’Toole described vaccination as a personal health choice, but growing numbers of vaccinated Canadians are increasingly angry with those who refuse to get vaccinated.

“The vaccination debate and Trudeau opposing vaccinations helped liberals save a campaign that didn’t start well for the party,” Beland said.

Trudeau supports the introduction of vaccines for Canadians who have to travel by plane or train, something the Conservatives oppose. And Trudeau has pointed out that Alberta, run by a conservative provincial government, is in crisis.

Alberta’s Prime Minister Jason Kenney, an O’Toole ally, said the province could run out of beds and intensive care staff in a matter of days. Kenney apologized for the dire situation and is now reluctantly introducing a vaccination record and imposing a mandatory homework order two months after almost all restrictions were lifted.

“Hubris led Trudeau to call the elections. He and the Liberals won the election, but lost the coveted prize. This is just a great night for the Liberals because two weeks ago it looked like they were going to lose the government outright, something they couldn’t imagine before jeopardizing an election, ”said Nelson Wiseman, professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto.

Wiseman said the Conservatives were hurt by the situation in Alberta. “The Alberta pandemic explosion over the past 10 days has undermined O’Toole’s compliments to the Alberta Conservatives on their handling of the pandemic and reinforced Trudeau’s case for compulsory vaccinations,” he said.

A Conservative victory would have been a reprimand by Trudeau against a politician with a fraction of his notoriety. O’Toole, 47, is a military veteran, former attorney, and a member of Parliament for nine years.

“The Canadians did not give Mr. Trudeau the majority mandate they wanted,” said O’Toole.

O’Toole said he was more determined than ever to move on, but his party could fire him after sacking the previous leader who failed to defeat Trudeau in 2019.

O’Toole applied as a “real blue conservative” a year ago. He became leader of the Conservative Party with a promise to “take Canada back,” but immediately began to push the party into the political center.

O’Toole’s strategy, which has been to deny positions that his party base cares about on issues such as climate change, weapons and budgetary balance, was intended to appeal to a broader cross-section of voters in a country that tends to be far more liberal than its southern neighbors.

The son of a longtime politician has been criticized, he will say and do anything to get elected.

Whether moderate Canadians viewed O’Toole as the progressive conservative he claims to be and whether he alienated the traditional conservatives became central questions in the campaign.

Regina Adshade, a 28-year-old software developer from Vancouver, said it was a thorn in her side that an election was scheduled ahead of schedule during a pandemic and wildfires in British Columbia. But that didn’t stop them from voting for liberals because the party upholds its values.

“I don’t like that there was an election right now, but that wouldn’t change my voice,” she said.

Part of Trudeau’s legacy is accepting immigration at a time when the US and other countries were closing their doors. He also legalized cannabis nationwide and introduced a carbon tax to combat climate change. And he upheld the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico while former US President Donald Trump threatened to dissolve the deal.

Former US President Barack Obama and former Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted their support for Trudeau. There was no Trump endorsement from O’Toole. Conservative campaign co-chair Walied Soliman said there was no match between O’Toole and Trumpism. Earlier in the day, Soliman said keeping Trudeau in a minority government would be a win for O’Toole.

In the 20th century, Canada was ruled by liberals for 69 years. Pierre Trudeau called for a “just society” and ruled the country with a verve never seen before by any Canadian leader. He is responsible for the Canadian version of the Bill of Rights and is credited with opening the door wide to immigration.

Trudeau’s liberals dominated Toronto, Canada’s largest city and one of the most multicultural cities in the world.

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Associated Press Writer Jim Morris of Vancouver, British Columbia contributed to this report.

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