A weakened Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday set out to secure the support of smaller parties he will need to form a government after winning Monday’s nail-biter general election, but falling short of a majority.
Trudeau’s Liberal Party took 157 seats in the 338-member Canadian House of Commons, down from a comfortable majority of 177 in the last ballot, official results showed.
Trudeau will now have to seek some kind of accommodation with the Bloc Quebecois or the New Democratic Party (NDP) to consolidate his position.
Photo: Reuters
“From coast to coast to coast, tonight Canadians rejected division and negativity,” Trudeau said in his victory speech. “And they rejected cuts and austerity and voted in favor of a progressive agenda and strong action on climate change.”
Despite his lofty rhetoric, the contrast with Trudeau’s 2015 landslide was stark, especially given the immense political capital he has spent defending progressive policies.
Defeated Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer said that Canada’s oil sector, which is struggling with low prices and a lack of pipeline capacity, is “under attack” from climate activists.
He said it and could suffer further under the environmental policies of the Liberals, who campaigned for tougher climate action.
“He must be willing to change course, to stop his attacks on the energy sector and to recognize when western Canada succeeds all of Canada succeeds,” Scheer said of Trudeau.
Even though he came out weakened, Trudeau did better than expected. The Conservatives won 121 seats, but beat the Liberals in the popular vote, taking 34.4 percent to their 33.1 percent.
However, the nation is deeply divided, with the resurgence of Quebec nationalism and a growing sense in the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan of alienation within the federation.
For now Trudeau faces the tough task of forming a government, for which he will have to take into account the demands of minority parties.
Yves-Francois Blanchet, head of the Bloc Quebecois, a down-and-out party that scored a big comeback on Monday, said that he can work with the new government if the interests of French-speaking Quebec are preserved.
“Our top consideration is Quebec,” said Blanchet, whose party will have 32 seats in the next legislature.
“We will do things on a case-by-case basis. If it helps Quebec, we’ll be in favor. If it doesn’t, we won’t,” he said, signaling that he would push back against federal challenges of a new Quebec secularism law.
“I also don’t like our money being invested in oil because it’s destroying the climate,” he said, knocking Trudeau’s nationalization of the Alberta-to-British Columbia Trans Mountain pipeline last year to increase crude exports.
New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh promised to be constructive.
The leftist former criminal defense lawyer is the first non-white leader of a federal political party in Canada, and is now a kingmaker.
“We’ll approach building the new parliament with open minds and open hearts,” Singh told a news conference on Tuesday, listing priorities such as affordable housing, “help for students” and “real action on climate justice.”
“Everything is on the table,” he told reporters.
Singh said he would press Trudeau to take a second look at election reforms.
Trudeau promised in 2015 to get rid of Canada’s first-past-the-post system in favor of proportional representation, but stepped back from the plan in office.
No single “slam dunk” reason explains why Trudeau’s popularity has ebbed, said Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
Turnout on was lower than in 2015, meaning the “red wave” driven by first time voters flocking to Trudeau failed to materialize for a second time.
“People took a chance on him four years ago and maybe didn’t come back for a second time,” Turnbull said.
Now, all eyes will be on how Trudeau reaches out to parties with a “confidence-and-supply” deal, in which junior partners support the government on individual pieces of legislation, as opposed to joining in a fully fledged coalition.
Additional reporting by the Guardian
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other