Does triumph follow victory?
The liberal party of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (49) has won the early parliamentary election in Canada according to initial results. According to forecasts by the public broadcaster CBC, the ruling party won more seats than the Conservatives in the vote on Monday.
Whether Trudeau could win an absolute majority of 170 mandates in the world’s second largest country in terms of area, initially remained unclear. Several constituencies were still contested on Tuesday night.
Trudeau had called the early vote a few weeks ago with the hope of an absolute majority, among other things due to the relatively successful Corona policy of his government. The polls had recently been tighter than the Liberals would have liked.
The top candidates of the other parties and many Canadians had accused them of reaching for an absolute majority despite a fourth wave of the pandemic and a relatively stable minority government – and thus wasting time in the fight against Covid-19 and potentially endangering the health of voters.
In general, the electoral system in Canada tends to benefit Trudeau’s Liberals. The mandates in the 338 electoral districts are distributed according to the principle of absolute majority. Only a few dozen contested districts are decisive, especially in the suburbs of the cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver – somewhat comparable to the “swing states” in the USA.
Trudeau has ruled the North American country with almost 38 million residents since 2015 – from 2019 he led the country with only a minority of the seats in parliament in the capital Ottawa.
Traditionally there are no coalitions in Canada, but either absolute majorities or minority governments with an average half-life of two years. The last federal vote in autumn 2019 brought the Liberals 157 seats and the Conservatives 121.
Historically speaking, the Liberals have been the most frequent form of government in politically moderate Canada. In addition to the climate crisis, domestic political issues such as the rising cost of living and health care dominated this election campaign.