EDMONTON, Canada — Justin Trudeau will serve a second term as Canada’s Prime Minister after the Liberal Party won the 43rd federal election on Oct. 21. His party, however, will be returning to the House of Commons with fewer lawmakers for their second term after a tumultuous and unpredictable 40-day campaign.
Even though the Liberals lost some 30 seats, they still won a sizeable minority government. The Liberals are leading in 157 ridings, down from the 184 seats they took in 2015’s landslide victory and well shy of the 170 seats required to form a majority in a 338-seat parliament. It means that the Liberals will require the co-operation of other parties to pass laws or survive confidence votes. The Conservative Party, statistically tied with the Liberals in polls leading up to election day, project to take 121 seats and will form Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. Co-operation is more likely to be found with either the third-place Bloc Québécois or fourth-place New Democratic Party (NDP). Each of these parties now hold enough seats to help a Liberal minority government form a coalition, and there is considerable speculation as to whether the weakened Trudeau government will seek out such an alliance, and what compromises that could entail.
The NDP, who also lost seats in this election, are a left-of-center party with a strong focus on environmental responsibility and nationalized social institutions. They campaigned hard on the twin platform of universal pharma-care and halting the expansion of Canada’s pipelines – both polarizing issues they may insist on before agreeing to cooperate with the Liberals.
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Along with fringe parties and independents, three other parties made up the majority of the voting options for Canadians and walked away with varying degrees of success. The Bloc Quebecois, a separatist-minded party that campaigns only within the province of Quebec, saw a significant resurgence after years of near irrelevance. The Peoples Party of Canada, a newly-formed anti-immigration party widely seen as much further to the right than traditional Canadian politics, saw their leader lose his seat (which he had won as a member of the Conservatives and was the only seat held by the PPC). The Green Party meanwhile, tripled their presence on Parliament Hill, electing their first two candidates ever outside the province of British Columbia where party leader Elizabeth May retained her seat.
Roughly 66 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Oct. 21 election, which translates to 17.9 million Canadians, according to Elections Canada’s count with more than 98 per cent of polls reporting. This is slightly less than the 2015 result when more than 17.7 million Canadians (68.3 per cent of eligible voters) took part in the election.
Trudeau was triumphant on election night as he spoke to his supporters in Montreal and thanked all for “the trust in our team.”
“And to those… who did not vote for us, know that we will work every single day for you. We will govern for everyone. Regardless of how you cast your ballot, ours is a team that will fight for all Canadians,” Trudeau said in his victory speech. He also acknowledged Canada’s western provinces, namely Alberta and Saskatchewan, where experts fear that Liberal re-election will hurt investment, employment and hope for new pipelines: “And to Canadians in Alberta and Saskatchewan, know that you are an essential part of our great country. I’ve heard your frustration and I want to be there to support you. Let us all work hard to bring our country together.”
