Page 53 - 15NOV2019E

Among the elected Sikh international
MPs in Canada,
13 are from the Liberal
Party, four from the
eral Party held onto power in a nail-biter Conservative Party shots during the campaign. I think we’re
of a Canadian general election on Octo- and one is from New better than that,” said Andree Legault in
ber 21, but as a weakened minority gov- Montreal.
ernment. “From coast to coast to coast, Democratic Party. In his concession speech, Scheer said,
tonight Canadians rejected division “Canadians have passed judgement on
and negativity,” Trudeau said. “And they India has 13 MPs in the (Trudeau’s) Liberal government,” noting
rejected cuts and austerity and voted Lower House of the that the Liberals shed more than 20 seats
in favour of a progressive agenda and as well as “support in every region of the
strong action on climate change.” Parliament country.”
He reassured Quebec that his Liberal “Canada is a country that is further
government, despite an electoral setback giant SNC-Lavalin. His popularity took a divided,” he said, warning that its oil sec-
in the French-speaking province, “will further hit with the emergence during tor, the fourth largest in the world but
be there for you.” He also spoke directly the campaign of old photographs of him struggling with low prices and a lack of
to a growing sense of Western Canada’s in blackface makeup. pipeline capacity, is “under attack.”
alienation within the federation, telling At one rally, the prime minister was “We have put him on notice, his lead-
those in Saskatchewan and Alberta prov- forced to wear a bulletproof vest due to ership is damaged and his government
inces: “I’ve heard your frustration.” a security threat. “Trudeau has really lost will end soon and when that time comes,
The 47-year-old former school teach- his halo. It’s pretty tarnished,” comment- the Conservatives will be ready and we
er dominated Canadian politics over ed Lois Welsh, 77, in Regina, disappointed will win!” Some 27.4 million Canadians
the four years of his first term, but faced over the Liberal win. were eligible to vote in the election, and
a grilling during the 40-day election Outside polling stations, Canadi - the turnout was reported to have been
campaign, which he described as one of ans was quoted as saying that they had large, at almost 65 per cent.
the “dirtiest and nastiest” in Canadian wished for a more positive campaign A record 97 women were elected
history. focused on issues. “I deplored the cheap to parliament, including Canada’s
Trudeau and Scheer exchanged barbs first indigenous at -
as attack ads and misinformation mul- torney general, Jody
tiplied. Trudeau evoked the bogeymen Wilson-Raybould, who ran
of past and current Tory parties foster- as an independent candidate
ing “politics of fear and division” while after Trudeau kicked her out
Scheer called the prime minister a “com- of his caucus.
pulsive liar,” “a phony and a fraud.” The night also saw Con-
Going into the election Trudeau’s servative deputy leader
golden boy image had already been dam- Lisa Raitt turfed and Lib-
aged by ethics lapses in the handling of eral Public Safety Minister
the bribery prosecution of engineering Ralph Goodale lose the seat
he held for 26 years. Scheer,
only two years after win -
ning the leadership of his
party, struggled to win over
Canadians with his bland
minivan-driving dad persona and a
throwback to the thrifty policies of past
Tory administrations.
Social democrats and resuscitated
Quebec separatists also chipped away
at Liberal support. The Bloc Quebecois
came back from a ruinous 2015 election
result, tapping into lingering Quebec na-
tionalism to take 32 seats. Michel Mercer
in Montreal said he voted for the Liberals,
but only to keep the Tories at bay. “I would
have voted NDP but I didn’t want to see
the Conservatives in power,” he said.
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