Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 21, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba oC MHK PAGE A1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2021 M M MB FOUNDED IN 1872 ■Winnipeg Free Press' ► CONNECT WITH CANADA'S HIGHEST READERSHIP RATE LIBERAL WEATHER: MAINLY SUNNY. HIGH 19 — LOW 9 BLOC157 122 31 26 — elected and leading as of 1:00 a.m. today Status quo: few changes on Canadian, Manitoban political landscapeLIBERAL MINORITY PAUL CHIASSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadians have 'given this government clear direction' during his victory speech in Montreal earlier this morning. JOAN BRYDEN OTTAWA — Canadians have chosen another minority Liberal government — almost identical to the one it replaced — to finish the fight against COVID-19 and rebuild the shattered economy. Precisely how stable a minority remains to be seen, as results were still trickling in and there were tight contests in dozens of ridings as the clock started running out on Monday night. There are also almost 800,000 mail-in ballots to be counted, starting today, which could yet change the preliminary results in many of those tightly contested seats. Late Monday, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were leading or elected in 156 seats — one less than they won in 2019 and 14 short of the 170 needed for a majority in the House of Commons. Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives were leading or elected in 121 seats, the same as in 2019 even though they won slightly more of the popular vote than the Liberals, as they did last time. Jagmeet Singh’s NDP were leading or elected in 27, a gain of three seats, while Yves-Francois Blanchet’s Bloc Quebecois remained unchanged with 32 seats.V0 CANADA The Greens, which elected three MPs in 2019, were down to two. Leader Annamie Paul, who had faced an internal insurrection last spring, was projected to come in fourth place in Toronto Centre in her third try to wrest that seat from the Liberals. Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party, which ran on an anti-public health restrictions platform, didn’t come close to winning a seat anywhere but pulled enough votes from the Conservatives to rob them of victory in a number of close races, particularly in Ontario. The upshot raises questions about the judgment and strategy of both Trudeau and O’Toole. Trudeau pulled the plug on his minority Liberal government on Aug. 15, a little less than two years after Canadians first reduced the Liberals to a minority. He argued that Canada was at a pivotal moment in history and Canadians deserved a chance to decide how they wanted to proceed through the rest of the pandemic and beyond. The timing of his election call, coming as a fourth wave of the novel coro-navirus was beginning to sweep the country, quickly sapped the goodwill Trudeau had built among Canadians for his government’s handling of the pandemic over the previous 18 months. And it gave rival leaders an opening to attack Trudeau’s character, describing him as a selfish egoist who can’t be trusted to put the interests of Canadians ahead of his personal ambition to secure a majority. The 36-day campaign also exacerbated divisions in the country over the approach to mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports, sparking ugly protests by profanity spewing opponents of public health restrictions, including one incident in which gravel was thrown at Trudeau and his entourage. O’Toole won his party’s leadership last year by courting social conservatives but then ditched his “true blue’’ image in a bid to broaden his party’s appeal outside its Western Canada base. He presented himself to voters as a moderate with pricey centrist policies, including a plan to put a price on carbon, which his party had previously pilloried as a job-killing tax on everything. But the move did not produce the hoped-for breakthrough for the Conservatives in Ontario or Quebec, where the Liberals once again won the lion’s share of the seats, and helped push some right-wing voters into the arms of the People’s Party. In a speech to supporters after the outcome O’Toole doubled down on his centrist approach and, in an apparent bid to head off any move to oust him as leader, signalled that he’s not going anywhere. Predicting that Trudeau will plunge the country into another election in 18 months in yet another bid to secure a majority, O’Toole said he’s “resolutely committed to continuing this journey for Canada.’’ He said he’d congratulated Trudeau on the election victory but also told him, “If he thinks he can threaten Canadians with another election in 18 months, the Conservative party will be ready and, whenever that day comes, I will be ready to lead Canada’s Conservatives to victory.’’ • MINORITY, CONTINUED ON A2 • MORE ELECTION COVERAGE ON A2, A6, B1-5 Trudeau pays for the election no one wanted DAN LETTOPINION WHEN he called a snap election in mid-August, the entire country knew Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was putting his government on the line because he badly wanted a majority. After 36 of the angriest days of campaigning the country has ever seen, what he got instead was a neardeath electoral experience. It was a win, but one that felt so much more like a loss. The harsh reality is the new Liberal minority government is going to be led by a man who has confounded millions of Canadians with his rampant political ambition. Trudeau won his third federal election in six years but in the process, he has galvanized himself as both a political asset and an enormous political liability. While he wasn’t punished for calling an early election, he was denied his majority. That suggests voters, as much as they did not see a need to put an end to his political career, are saving some of their contempt for a future election. Not to borrow too heavily from a Conservative campaign talking point, but it certainly does seem to have been a colossally bad idea to waste $650 million on an election during a pandemic that produced a Parliament nearly identical to the one Trudeau dissolved last month. On that basis alone, Trudeau has some explaining to do — not just to Canadians, but also to his own party — about what it was exactly he and his advisers saw in the political tea leaves that convinced him to call such an improbable election. Some of the Liberal strategy is the conventional wisdom about snap election calls. If we’re honest with each other, we should acknowledge that governing parties with minority mandates are always looking for a reason to call an election and improve their position. Even though there have been some backfires, in most instances snap elections do tend to work out for the governing party. That is largely due to the fact most voters, even if they disagree with the timing of the election, get over their apprehension by voting day. Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper called two snap elections — one in 2008 and another in 2011 — and was soundly criticized in both instances for proroguing Parliament for purely political reasons. And he was re-elected in both instances, the second time with a majority. So, even though it had been only 23 months since the last election, there were signs it was time to leap at a chance to win a majority. • LETT, CONTINUED ON A2 INSIDE I HOT SHOT COVID-19 vaccination works on children ages 5-11, Pfizer announces / A4 LAMPOON BOON Province's pandemic response provided Chris Chuckry with fodder for political cartoons / Cl JUST DUCKY The 30th annual Duckworth Challenge gets underway this week / D5 A_01_Sep-21-21_FP_01.indd A1 2021-09-21 1:12 AM ;