With Justin Trudeau reduced to a minority government, shut out from two Western provinces, and the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois winning almost half of the seats in his home province, the prime minister needs to adapt to the new realities of the election result, and rise to the occasion to meet the daunting challenges of his new mandate, say political insiders.
“This is going to require Justin Trudeau to be much more flexible, he’s going to need to make sure that he reaches out to the regions,” said Nik Nanos, chief data scientist for Nanos Research, in an interview with The Hill Times. “When it comes to the federation, the reality is he won’t be able to impose his will. If version 1.0 was Sunny Trudeau, version 2.0, to be successful, will have to be a Pragmatic Prime Minister.”
In last Monday’s election, the Trudeau Liberals were reduced to a minority government with only 157 of the 338 seats, compared to 2015 when he won a majority government with 184 seats. He needed 170 seats to maintain majority status. The Conservative Party won 121 seats, the Bloc 32, the NDP 24, the Green Party three seats, and one Independent MP, Jody Wilson-Raybould (Vancouver-Granville, B.C.), was elected. The Conservatives came in second place but won about 240,000 more votes than the Liberals. The Conservatives won 6,155,662 or 34.4 per cent of the popular vote, the Liberals 5,915,950 or 33.1 per cent of the votes, the NDP 2,849214 or 15.9 per cent, the Bloc 1,376,135 or 7.7 per cent, and the Greens 1,162,362 or 6.5 per cent of the votes.
The Trudeau Liberals have been shut out of Alberta and Saskatchewan, home to 34 seats and 14 seats, respectively. In Alberta, the Conservatives won 33, and the NDP one seat. In Saskatchewan, the Conservatives won all 14 seats.
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See Also:
(1) Divided in some ways, but not others
(2) Let Brexit be a warning to western separatists
