Canada elections: Liberal Party projected to retain power again
Ottawa, April 29 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Propelled by a wave of nationalism, the Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to retain power in Canada, according to projections by the nation’s two TV networks.
Both the commercial CTV News and the government-funded Canada Broadcasting Corporation have declared that the Liberal Party will form the government as the results from the 338 constituencies began to come in.
CTV said it projected the Liberal Party’s would be a minority government, while the CBC said it was too soon to say if it would get a majority on its own or fall short but still return to power.
The opposition Conservative Party was running a close second.
The Liberal Party seemed headed for a trouncing at the beginning of the year, according to polls, but US President Donald Trump breathed new life into it by launching a trade war against Canada and threatening to annex it.
In the backlash, many Canadians switched allegiance to the Liberal Party, which they believe is better placed to stand up to Trump than the Conservative Party led by Pierre Poilievre, whose ideology mirrored the US President’s in many ways.
A newcomer to electoral politics, Carney is a technocrat who had been the governor of the central banks of Britain and Canada during trying times for them economically.
He won the Nepean constituency in Ontario with 62.8 per cent of the votes.
As of 11:30 pm local time on Monday, here (9 am Tuesday in India), the Liberal Party had won 97 seats and was leading in 59.
Together, they gave the party 156 seats — 14 short of the 170 needed for a majority — while the counting continued across the country giving it an opportunity to get more seats.
The party had 152 seats in the last House of Commons and depended on the New Democratic Party (NDP) with 24 seats and supported it in parliament without joining the government.
The Conservative Party had won 90 seats and was ahead in 59 seats, for a total of 149.
The NDP had won one and was leading in ten.
Jagmeet Singh was perilously close to losing in the Burnaby Central constituency in British Columbia, with only 27.3 per cent of the votes and the Liberal candidate ahead with 41.3 per cent while counting was still on.
Liberal trailed the Conservatives by 23 per cent on the eve of Trump’s inauguration in January, but his threats changed that dramatically.
—
