Landslide Election in Canada
Tuesday, October 20th, 2015October 20, 2015
Canadians went to the polls yesterday in the highest voter turnout in a federal election in more than 20 years, and by early evening surprising election results were in—after nearly a decade of rule by the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party won by a landslide. Pollsters had stated the election was too close to call, but when the results came in the Liberal Party had captured 184 seats in Parliament, the Conservative Party won 99, the New Democratic Party of Canada won 44 seats, Bloc Québécois won 10 seats, and the Green Party captured 1 seat. In Canada’s electoral system, people vote for a candidate for a parliamentary seat; if one party achieves a majority in parliament, the leader of that party becomes prime minister.
Thus, Stephen Harper, head of the Conservative Party and Canada’s prime minister since 2006, will be replaced with the head of the Liberal Party, Justin Trudeau. The 43-year-old Trudeau is from a famous political family of Canada. His father, the Liberal politician Pierre Trudeau (1919-2000), served as prime minister of Canada from 1968-1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Justin Trudeau was a high school teacher who avoided politics until after his father’s death. Justin Trudeau first became a member of Parliament in 2008.
The vote for the Liberal Party was especially strong in the east of Canada, especially in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, the Liberal Party swept, taking every available seat. Only in Alberta did the Conservative Party win a majority of the seats.
Some of Trudeau’s campaign promises include attempting to strengthen ties with the United States and with the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, welcoming a larger number of refugees from Syria, and taking action on climate change.
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