Justin Trudeau's party wins Canada vote but fails to get majority

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal Party secured victory in parliamentary elections but failed to get the majority he wanted in a vote that focused on the coronavirus pandemic but that many Canadians saw as unnecessaryTrudeau entered Mondays election leading a stable minority government that wasnt under threat of being toppled but he was hoping Canadians would reward him with a majority for navigating the pandemic better than many other leadersStill Trudeau struggled to justify why he called the election early given the virus and the opposition was relentless in accusing him of holding the vote two years before the deadline for his own personal ambitionIn the end the gamble did not pay off and the results nearly mirrored those of two years ago The Liberal Party was leading or elected in 156 seats iquest one less than they won 2019 and 14 short of the 170 needed for a majority in the House of CommonsThe Conservatives were leading or elected in 121 seats the same number they won in 2019 The leftist New Democrats were leading or elected in 27 a gain of three seats while the Bloc Queacutebeacutecois remained unchanged with 32 seats and the Greens were down to twoYou are sending us back to work with a clear mandate to get Canada through this pandemic Trudeau said I hear you when you say you just want to get back to the things you love and not worry about this pandemic or an election But experts noted that it was not the victory Trudeau had hoped forAlso read Report over 600 bodies found at Indigenous school in CanadaTrudeau lost his gamble to get a majority so I would say this is a bittersweet victory for him said Daniel Beacuteland a political science professor at McGill University in MontrealBasically we are back to square one as the new minority parliament will look like the previous one Trudeau and the Liberals saved their skin and will stay in power but many Canadians who didnt want this late summer pandemic election are probably not amused about the whole situation he saidTrudeau bet Canadians didnt want a Conservative government during a pandemic playing up his own partys successes Canada has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and Trudeaus government spent hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up the economy amid lockdowns Trudeau argued that the Conservatives approach which has been skeptical of lockdowns and vaccine mandates would be dangerousTrudeau supports making vaccines mandatory for Canadians to travel by air or rail something the Conservatives opposeAnd he has pointed out that Alberta run by a Conservative provincial government is in crisis Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the province might run out of beds and staff for intensive care units within days Kenney apologized for the dire situation and is now reluctantly introducing a vaccine passport and imposing a mandatory workfromhome order two months after lifting nearly all restrictionsConservative leader Erin OToole meanwhile didnt require his partys candidates to be vaccinated and would not say how many were not OToole described vaccination as a personal health decision but a growing number of vaccinated Canadians are increasingly upset with those who refuse to get the shotThe debate on vaccination and Trudeau taking on the antivaccination crowd helped the Liberals to salvage a campaign that didnt start well for the partyiquest Beacuteland saidNelson Wiseman a political science professor at the University of Toronto said the Conservatives were hurt by the situation in AlbertaThe explosion of the pandemic in Alberta in the past 10 days undermined OTooles compliments of the Alberta Conservatives on how they had handled the pandemic and reinforced Trudeaus argument for mandatory vaccinationsiquest he saidThe 49yearold Trudeau channeled the star power of his father the Liberal icon and late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau when he first won election in 2015 and has led his party to the top finish in two elections sinceA Conservative win would have represented a rebuke of Trudeau by a politician with a fraction of his name recognition OToole 47 is a military veteran former lawyer and a member of Parliament for nine yearsCanadians did not give Mr Trudeau the majority mandate he wanted OToole said Conservative campaign cochair Walied Soliman earlier said holding Trudeau to a minority government would be a winOToole said he was more determined than ever to continue but his party might dump him as it did the previous leader who failed to beat Trudeau in 2019OToole advertised himself a year ago as a trueblue Conservative He became Conservative Party leader with a pledge to take back Canada but immediately started working to push the party toward the political centerOTooles strategy which included disavowing positions held dear by his partys base on issues such as climate change guns and balanced budgets was designed to appeal to a broader cross section of voters in a country that tends to be far more liberal than its southern neighborWhether moderate Canadians believed OToole is the progressive conservative he claims to be and whether he alienated traditional Conservatives became central questions of the campaignRegina Adshade a 28yearold Vancouver software developer said she was bothered that an election was called early during a pandemic and with wildfires burning in British Columbia But it didnt stop her from voting Liberal because the party represents her valuesI dont love there was an election right now but it wasnt going to change my vote she saidTrudeaus legacy includes embracing immigration at a time when the US and other countries closed their doors He also legalized cannabis nationwide and brought in a carbon tax to fight climate change And he preserved free trade deal with the US and Mexico amid threats by former US President Donald Trump to scrap the agreementThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever