Justin Trudeau’s Liberals Win Canada Election in Photo Finish, Say Early Projections But Will He Get Majority?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have won in the Canada election, according to early TV projections. Canadians cast ballots across six time zones from the Atlantic island province of Newfoundland to British Columbia in the west. Due to a larger number of mail-in ballots, the final result may not be known until Tuesday morning, officials said.
With polling stations likely to still be reporting results into the morning, it was not yet clear if the Liberals had gained enough seats to form a majority in parliament that would allow Trudeau to pass his agenda without opposition support.
Trudeau called the snap election last month, hoping to parlay a smooth Covid-19 vaccine rollout — among the best in the world — into a new mandate to steer the nation’s pandemic exit, without having to rely on opposition party support to pass his agenda.
But the contest, after a bumpy five weeks of campaigning, appears set for a repeat of the close 2019 general election that resulted in the one-time golden boy of Canadian politics clinging to power after losing his majority in parliament.
A sudden surge in Covid-19 cases led by the Delta variant late in the campaign — after the lifting of most public health measures this summer — has also muddied the waters.
Trudeau said he felt “serene” after casting a ballot in Montreal.
“We worked very hard during this campaign, and Canadians are making an important choice,” he told AFP, flanked by his wife Sophie Gregoire and their children.
O’Toole, meanwhile, tweeted: “Proud to cast our ballots today, make sure you do the same! #SecureTheFuture.”
At 49, Trudeau has faced tougher political bouts and still come out unscathed.
But after six years in power, his administration is showing signs of fatigue, and it’s been an uphill battle for him to convince Canadians to stick with his Liberals after falling short of high expectations set in his 2015 landslide win.
Douglas O’Hara, 73, casting a vote in Trudeau’s Montreal electoral district of Papineau, said he was “very disappointed” with the prime minister.
Although he believes Trudeau “did a half-decent job” managing the pandemic, he recalled that the leader had pledged not to go to the polls until the outbreak had subsided.
“Then as soon as he gets a chance (when) he thinks he’s going to get a majority, he calls an election,” O’Hara said. “I really believe he lied to us.”
In Ottawa, Kai Anderson, 25, said Canada’s pandemic response was her “number one” issue. “I think the prime minister did a good job managing the pandemic,” she said.
Entering the final stretch of the contest, the two main political parties that have ruled Canada since its 1867 confederation were virtually tied, with about 31 percent support each in public opinion polls, and four smaller factions nipping at their heels.
To keep his job, Trudeau’s Liberals must win a plurality of seats in Parliament and take at least 170 for a majority.
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