OTTAWA鈥擬ark Carney, the archetypal banker who styled himself crisis-manager-in chief, was on track to win a minority Parliament as voters east to west on Monday delivered the Liberals a rare fourth term in power.
Naming a new cabinet, presenting a federal budget and leading trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump starting almost immediately will be among Carney’s first tasks.聽
When he took the stage at 1:22 a.m. Carney grinned broadly, congratulated his political rivals, and saluted NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh who announced he’d soon step down. He quipped he was “looking forward to working with” the Liberal candidate who was on track to defeat Pierre Poilievre in his own riding. “We’re going to have fun tonight,” Carney said.
Carney acknowledged that while聽“many have chosen to place your trust in me, trust in the Liberal party, millions of our fellow citizens preferred a different outcome. And my message to every Canadian is this, no matter where you live, no matter what language you speak, no matter how you voted, I will always do my best to represent everyone who calls Canada home.”
Thanking Quebecers for putting trust in more Liberals, and in a nod to regional divisions, he appealed for national unity.聽“Whether you’re a worker in Fort Mac, or an accountant from 海角社区官网or a worker from Quebec, my government will work for all of you as we come here after this most consequential election. Let’s put an end to the division and anger of the past.”
The prime minister invoked many of his campaign themes and promises as he previewed challenges ahead when it comes to deal with threats “from a sometimes hostile neighbour.”
“The coming days and months will be challenging, and they will call for some sacrifices, but we will share those sacrifices by supporting our workers and our businesses,” said Carney.
With ballots still being counted as of 1:45 a.m., the Liberals needed 172 seats for a majority in a newly expanded 343-seat Parliament. At publication time, with 94 per cent of polls reporting, the Liberals had won or were leading in 165 seats, due to the collapse of NDP and Bloc Qu茅b茅cois support, with 43.1 per cent of the popular vote.聽
The Conservatives under their firebrand leader Pierre Poilievre grew their seat total from 120 when the election was called, and were on track to snag 147 ridings with 41.7 per cent of votes cast, the party’s largest share of the popular vote since 1988.聽
To navigate their third minority in a row, the Liberals must negotiate with political rivals who excoriated Carney in the campaign as a liar, a plagiarist, and a friend of rich investors not ordinary Canadians.聽
The separatist Bloc Qu茅b茅cois could hold the balance of power, but based on unofficial results, the Liberals could also turn to the NDP for support, reaching the 172-seat mark to pass legislation.
The BQ had 23 seats, and the NDP were holding just seven of their 24 seats, well below the 12 required for official party status, and had just six per cent of the popular vote.
The NDP leader, Singh, losing his third federal campaign, was far behind in his B.C. riding, and before official results were in, he emotionally announced he would step down once an interim leader is appointed.
Singh congratulated Carney on his victory. “He has an important job to do, to represent all Canadians and to protect our country and its sovereignty from the threats of Donald Trump,” said Singh. “All of us here were on Team Canada.”
Poilievre emerged shortly afterward, close to 1 a.m., before Carney spoke to congratulate him on winning “a razor thin” minority government, and boasted Conservatives had denied the Liberals and NDP the chance to form a “coalition government.”
He declared he was not stepping aside even as he was losing his own Carleton seat with 85 per cent of polls reporting in a tight race that drew a blitz of Conservative volunteers in a bid to secure victory.
“It will be an honour to continue to fight for you and to be a champion of your cause as we go forward,” Poilievre told cheering supporters. “Change takes time. Most of all it requires that we never give up.”
Carney, the rookie politician who pitched himself as an agent of change from the Trudeau era, was elected handily in the suburban Ottawa riding of Nepean, on a day when Trump doubled down on his economic and annexation threats.
Poilievre failed to persuade a broader base of Canadians to give his party the keys to government although he led the Conservatives to their highest ever fundraising and membership numbers, launched a massive advertising effort to paint Carney as unethical and untrustworthy, and on election night saw the party tracking to best Stephen Harper’s 39.6 per cent of the popular vote which delivered the Conservatives’ 2011 majority.聽
In a race where the NDP and Bloc Qu茅b茅cois vote collapsed, producing a tighter two-way national contest than Canada has seen in decades, it wasn’t enough.
For weeks Carney argued he, and not Poilievre, had the economic know-how and chops to confront the U.S. president.聽For most of the campaign, Carney held a lead, but that narrowed sharply in the past week as Poilievre pressed the case for change.
The results failed to meet Liberal strategists鈥 privately optimistic expectations of a 180 seats or more for a strong majority, after a campaign that saw Carney, 60, surf a wave of Canadian anxiety about the future.聽
Candidates Carney recruited to run, like former Quebec finance minister Carlos Leit茫o, gun control advocate Nathalie Provost, Ontario’s Hydro One chair Tim Hodgson, and former broadcaster Evan Solomon gained seats in Parliament.
BQ leader Yves-Fran莽ois Blanchet, who dropped 10 seats, from 33 to 23 in Quebec, said his priority will be to protect Quebec’s interests in a minority Parliament.
The Greens fared badly. Co-leader Elizabeth May hung on, but her co-leader Jonathan Pedneault failed to earn a seat, and Mike Morrice lost his Kitchener Center riding.
In Quebec, Liberals gained ground at the expense of the Bloc Qu茅b茅cois, picking up BQ seats in francophone ridings, critical to the win.
As polls opened Monday morning, Donald Trump聽鈥 who鈥檇 receded to the backdrop of the campaign after dominating the first two weeks聽鈥 thrust himself back into the electoral calculus, urging Canadians to 鈥渆lect the man who has the strength and wisdom鈥 to essentially do what the president wants, as he repeated what he says are the benefits of Canada becoming 鈥渢he cherished 51st state of the United States of America.鈥
Just a few short months ago Poilievre had seemed certain to cruise to a majority victory in a campaign he long framed as a referendum on Justin Trudeau. But he could not make the 鈥渓ost Liberal decade鈥 label stick to Carney. On the eve of the vote, Poilievre seemed to sense victory would elude him, tearily telling supporters in his riding, “I want you to know that it won’t matter what happens tomorrow, I will be there to fight for you.鈥
Poilievre may now face challenges from within a frustrated party caucus, and externally, after Ontario and Nova Scotia progressive conservatives steered a wide berth of him and his campaign manager Jenni Byrne, with Premier Doug Ford’s campaign manager Kory Teneycke slamming Poilievre’s campaign Monday night for having “made a major strategic error” in failing to pivot聽the federal campaign to confront the Trump threat head-on.
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney said in an interview Poilievre was the most effective Opposition leader “of our lifetime” and has “broad and enthusiastic grassroots support in the base of the Conservative party.”
“Perhaps he could have transitioned a little earlier into auditioning more clearly for the role of prime minister,” said Kenney, but he said Poilievre had run “a very strong campaign.”
“Has it been flawless? No. But I think the key is that he has demonstrated an ability to learn and to change his tone and modify his message. So I think his willingness and ability to course-correct and learn is a strength that would be well received by members even if they’re disappointed.”聽
Carney, on the other hand, pulled off a victory thought impossible four months ago by touting his record of managing major economic turmoil in two G7 countries as a former central banker in England during Britain’s messy exit from the European Union, and in Canada when the country avoided recession amid the global financial crisis in 2008.
Carney downsized cabinet, ditched unpopular policies like the consumer carbon price and capital gains tax hikes, recruited new faces to run, and kept Trudeau-era ministers largely offstage in the campaign. Conservatives and NDP failed to make hay of Carney’s post-bank career as head of investment giant Brookfield Asset Management.
Meanwhile Poilievre’s voting base relied more heavily on young male voters, while women and older voters slipped into the Liberal column. The Tory leader vowed never to legislate against abortion and proposed measures to crack down on urban and suburban crime and domestic violence. Yet polls showed female voters were turned off by his hard edges, and older voters sought economic stability.
At the dissolution of Parliament on March 23, the Liberals held 152 seats, the Tories 120, the Bloc 33, the NDP 24 and the Greens two. There were three Independents and four vacancies in the 338-seat Commons, which is expanding by five ridings due to population growth.
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