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Canadian PM Trudeau set for another minority government

This article is more than 12 months old

MONTREAL : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday acknowledged he would need to work with other parties after he fell short of winning a majority in parliamentary elections, leaving him once more dependent on opposition legislators to govern.

Mr Trudeau, 49, the leader of the Liberals, was re-elected to a third term on Monday after calling a vote two years early, hoping for approval of his free-spending response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since 2019, he has been working with a minority, forced to make deals with other parties to push through legislation.

But provisional results showed virtually no change from the 2019 election, delivering up another minority and begging the question of why Mr Trudeau had called a vote that the official opposition Conservative Party portrayed as a cynical power grab.

Mr Trudeau, in power since 2015, said he had a clear mandate to continue the path to recovery while conceding Canadians did not want to be thinking about politics or elections.

"You just want to know that your Members of Parliament of all stripes will have your back through this crisis and beyond," he told supporters in Montreal. "You have given this Parliament and this government clear directions."

The result suggests there will be little change in approach from the Liberals, who racked up record levels of debt and massive budget deficits fighting Covid-19.

Mr Trudeau, who promised tens of billions of dollars in new investments, will once again rely on the support of the smaller left-leaning New Democrats, who want even more social spending. Provisional results showed the Liberals ahead in 155 constituencies, short of the 170 Mr Trudeau needed to control the 338-seat House of Commons. The Conservatives were on 122 with the New Democrats on 26.

"The message Canadians are sending loud and clear is they like the direction the government is taking the country in, but they're not quite sure they want to give anybody carte blanche," former close Trudeau adviser Gerry Butts told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. - REUTERS

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