Elections in Canada: Justin Trudeau was re-elected but failed to achieve a majority in Parliament | The ruling Liberal Party won 158 of 338 seats in the House of Commons

The Liberal Party of Canada, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, He won a victory in the legislative elections on Monday, but did not achieve a parliamentary majority. With 93 percent of the votes counted and according to projections by Canadian public broadcaster CBC, the Liberals won 158 of 338 seats in the House of Commonscompared to 119 from the Conservative Party and below the threshold of 170 seats required for an absolute majority.

Trudeau’s strategy of calling a snap election using his handling of the coronavirus pandemic as a campaign axis has not worked at all. Now, the re-elected prime minister will have to negotiate with the small parties like the New Democratic Party or the Bloc Québécois adopt its legislative agenda.

“To emerge from this pandemic towards a better future”

Trudeau He continued his tradition after winning the election and drove to a Montreal metro station on Tuesday morning, where he took photos with dozens of travelers. At dawn and in his victory speech, the Prime Minister assured that Canadian voters chose “a progressive plan” and that he is ready to form a government for the third time in a row.

“You send us to work with a clear mandate to get out of this pandemic into a better future.”Trudeau said surrounded by his three children and his wife, former television host Sophie Grégoire. The Canadian Prime Minister seemed to implicitly acknowledge his mistake in calling a snap election just two years after the previous election and in the midst of the fourth wave of the pandemic: “I hear them when they say they just want to get back to the things they love to do, not to worry about this pandemic or an election.”

It is precisely to try to recover the majority lost two years ago that the head of government called these early elections in mid-August. The 49-year-old Canadian leader has not found the approach he adopted in August, believing that the management of the pandemic and especially the invasion of vaccines against covid-19 that it has achieved for its population (in an amount qualified as excessive by international observers), would be enough to deposit it in a new administration with parliamentary majority.

After a fairly favorable start and encouraging polls, Trudeau found himself in a particularly difficult season. The wear and tear of power has been observed and the “Trudeaumania” of its first election in 2015 was far behind. In the ground had to deal with crowds of angry protesters for health measures in the face of the pandemic. One of them even threw stones at him.

“They didn’t give Trudeau the majority he wanted”

On the other side, the leader of the Conservative Party Erin O’Toole He accepted defeat even though he said that voters “did not give Trudeau the majority mandate he wanted” and stressed that the Tories would win at least 119 seats. “In reality, Canadians bring him back to power with a new minority at a cost of $ 600 million and the major divisions of our great country», Assured the moderate leader compared to the high cost of the elections.

O’Toole, 48, was criticized during the campaign for supporting the very early easing of health restrictions in Alberta and two other Conservative-led provinces, where epidemics are now forcing collapsed hospitals to transport patients to d other health centers in the country.

During the campaign, contenders clashed over issues such as climate change, Indigenous reconciliation, access to housing, mandatory covid-19 vaccinations and the passports of those with immunity. In the debates, Trudeau did not shine and received harsh criticism of his opponents who denounced especially his decision to call an election amid a pandemic while Parliament was functioning, but also its inaction on the environment or foreign policy.

Scandals and challenges

The government emerging from these elections will have to fight against the clock to arrive prepared for the UN climate summit to be held in November in Glasgow, UK. There are serious doubts about the country’s ability to meet its greenhouse gas emissions target, a plan that aims to cut emissions by 40% from 2005 and 2030 levels.

As CEO Trudeau legalized cannabis, instituted euthanasia, imposed a tax on charcoal, welcomed tens of thousands of Syrian refugees and signed a modernized version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). But his tenure was punctuated by scandals that tarnished his image.

At the end of 2007, el primer ministro fue acusado por la Comisión de Ética de haber ido dos veces con los gastos pagos del anfitrión a la isla privada en Bahamas del Aga Khan, actual Imán de los muslimes chiitas nizaríes y uno de los hombres más ricos of the world. Besides, an official report accused him of a conflict of interest in 2019 for having pressured his Minister of Justice to intervene in a case against a Quebec company for corruption.

As the elections rolled out on Monday, a color image of the Prime Minister with his face painted black was circulated on Twitter during a “Thousand and One Nights” party in 2001. This practice is considered highly racist by the Afro-descendant community in Canada and is in addition to previous photos from the same evening that prompted an apology from the Prime Minister.