The Canadian Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, won in Monday’s legislative elections Although it did not reach the parliamentary majority. With 93 percent of the votes counted and according to a forecast by Canadian public radio CBC, The Liberals won 158 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons, compared to 119 for the Conservative Party and Below the threshold of 170 seats required for an absolute majority.
Trudeau’s strategy to call an early election using his administration of the coronavirus pandemic as a campaign focus has not been entirely successful. currently, The re-elected prime minister will have to negotiate with smaller parties Like the New Democratic Party or the Bloc of Quebec to pass its legislative agenda.
“Get out of this epidemic towards a better future”
Trudeau He carried on his tradition after winning the election and visited a Montreal subway station on Tuesday morning, where he posed for photos with dozens of commuters. The Prime Minister confirmed this at dawn and in his victory speech Canadian voters chose a ‘progressive plan’ And he is ready to form a government for the third time in a row.
“You are sending us to work with a clear mandate to get out of this pandemic toward a better future.”Surrounded by his three children and his wife, former TV presenter Sophie Gregoire, Trudeau said. The Canadian Prime Minister appears to have tacitly admitted his mistake in calling for early elections. Only two years after the previous elections And in the middle 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, and don’t worry about this pandemic or the election.”
The attempt to regain the majority that it lost two years ago, the Prime Minister called for early elections in mid-August. The 49-year-old Canadian leader did not find the step he took in August, believing that the management of the epidemic and especially the conquest of vaccines against Covid-19. achieved for its residents (in an amount that international observers have described as excessive), It will be enough to deposit it in a new administration with a parliamentary majority.
After a somewhat positive start and encouraging polls, Trudeau faced a particularly difficult campaign. The strength erosion is observed and Trudiomania’s first election in 2015 was far behind. in Earth He had to face crowds of angry protesters health measures in the face of the epidemic. Someone even threw stones at him.
They didn’t give Trudeau the majority he wanted.
On the other hand, the leader of the Conservative Party Erin O’Toole Before defeat even though he said so Voters ‘did not give Mr Trudeau the mandate of the majority he wanted’ He stressed that the Conservatives would win at least 119 seats. “fact, Canadians brought him back to power with a new minority at a cost of $600 million And the great divisions in our great country”, reassured the moderate leader regarding the exorbitant cost of the elections.
O’Toole, 48, was criticized during the campaign for supporting too early easing of health restrictions in Alberta and two other governor-run counties, where outbreaks are now forcing collapsed hospitals to move patients to other health centers in the country.
During the campaign, competitors clashed over issues such as climate change, indigenous reconciliation, access to housing, mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, and passports for vaccinated people. Trudeau did not shine in discussions and received harsh criticism of his opponents who denounced Especially his decision to call elections in the midst of the pandemic while Parliament was working, but also its inaction on environmental matters or foreign policy.
Scandals and challenges
The government that emerges from this election will have to fight the clock to get ready 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 seeks to reduce emissions by 40 percent from 2005 levels and by 2030.
As CEO Trudeau has legalized cannabis, he has imposed euthanasia, taxed charcoal, and taken in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. A recent version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed. But his tenure was punctuated by scandals that damaged his image.
At the end of 2007, the Prime Minister’s Ethics Committee accused the Prime Minister of having twice gone over the expenses paid by the host of the private island in the Bahamas of the Aga Khan, the current imam of the Nizari Shi’a Muslims and one of the world’s richest men. What is more, An official report accused him of a conflict of interest in 2019 for pressuring the justice minister to intervene in a corruption case against a Quebec company..
While the elections were taking place on Monday, A color photo of the Prime Minister drawn on his face in black circulated on Twitter during the “One Thousand and One Nights” party in 2001.. This practice is considered highly racist by the Afro-descendant community in Canada and Adds to previous photos of the same evening that prompted the Prime Minister to apologize.