Canada's Liberals narrowly miss out on parliamentary majority

Prime Minister Mark Carney led the party to its fourth successive election victory.

Canada’s Liberals have narrowly failed to win a parliamentary majority in an election victory that nevertheless marked a remarkable political comeback. The party was on track to win 169 of parliament’s 343 seats after Monday’s vote, just three short of a majority and 25 more than the second-placed Conservatives, according to the vote-counting agency Elections Canada. They will therefore need the support of at least one other party to pass legislation. The progressive New Democrats, who until last year propped up a Liberal minority government, won 7 seats, making them a potential partner. Despite not gaining an outright majority, the Liberals’ election win — its fourth in a row — was a stunning reversal from the situation they found themselves in earlier this year, when they languished far behind their Conservative rivals in the polls. The resignation of the party’s leader Justin Trudeau, who was unpopular by the end of his tenure, as well as US President Donald Trump’s hostile rhetoric against Canada helped spark the party’s revival. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Mark Carney, a renowned economist who recently entered politics, the Liberal party successfully made the election a referendum on Trump, arguing that it was best placed to counter his threats against Canada. Since assuming office on 20 January, Trump has repeatedly said the US’ northerly neighbour should be turned into his country’s 51st state. He has also hit Canada with 25% tariffs on goods including aluminium and steel. In his victory speech, Carney stressed that Canadian-US relations had drastically changed. “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,” the prime minister 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 recognize the reality that our world has fundamentally changed.”Carney spoke with Trump on Tuesday, with the pair agreeing to meet in person in the near future. While Carney benefited politically from Trump’s actions against Canada, the Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who had adopted the slogan “Canada First”, appeared to suffer as a result of them.Not only did Poilievre’s party fail to win Monday’s election, but he also lost the parliamentary seat he had held for 20 years. Amid Canadians’ anger at Trump’s policies, the turnout for this week’s election was the highest since 1993, with 68.5% of eligible voters casting ballots.