Canadian prime minister’s Liberals fall short of a majority in Parliament
Recounts are expected in some districts.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals celebrated election victory in a stunning turn of fortune but fell short on Tuesday of winning an outright majority in Parliament, and the party will have to seek help from other another, smaller party.
The vote-counting agency Elections Canada finished processing nearly all ballots in what turned out to be a razor-close election that will leave the Liberals three seats short of a majority. Recounts are expected in some districts.
The Liberal party seemed likely to find the extra votes necessary to pass legislation, but it was not clear whether they would come from the progressive party, which backed the Liberals under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, or from a separatist party from French-speaking Quebec.
Mr Carney’s rival, populist Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, was in the lead until US President Donald Trump took aim at Canada with a trade war and threats to annex the country as the 51st state.
Mr Poilievre not only lost his bid for prime minister on Monday but was voted out of the Parliament seat that he held for 20 years.
That capped a swift decline in fortunes for the firebrand Mr Poilievre, who a few months ago appeared to be a shoo-in to become Canada’s next prime minister and shepherd the Conservatives back into power for the first time in a decade.
Mr Poilievre, a career politician, campaigned with Trump-like bravado, taking a page from the “America First” president by adopting the slogan “Canada First”. But his similarities to Mr Trump may have ultimately cost him and his party.
The Liberals were projected to win 169 seats of Parliament’s 343 seats while the Conservatives were projected to win 144. The separatist Bloc Quebecois party was expected to finish with 22 seats, the progressive New Democrats with seven and the Greens with one.
Elections Canada said 68.5% of eligible voters cast ballots in the federal election — the highest turnout since 1993.
In a victory speech, Mr Carney stressed unity in the face of Washington’s threats. He said the mutually beneficial relationship Canada and the US had shared since the Second World War was gone.
“We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” he said.
“As I’ve been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,” Mr Carney added.
“These are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never … ever happen. But we also must recognise the reality that our world has fundamentally changed.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the Canadian election “does not affect President Trump’s plan to make Canada America’s cherished 51st state”.
Mr Carney spoke to Mr Trump, and the two leaders “agreed on the importance of Canada and the United States working together — as independent, sovereign nations — for their mutual betterment”, Mr Carney’s office said in a statement.
The men “agreed to meet in person in the near future”.
