Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 21, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 A 2 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2021 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM VOL 150 NO 314 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2021 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 Publisher / BOB COX Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor News / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an in- dependent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please send them to: editorialconcerns@freepress.mb.ca. 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READER SERVICE ● GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada MINORITY ● FROM A1 LETT ● FROM A1 O TTAWA — The final results of the federal election may not be known until Wednesday, elec- tion officials have warned, because of almost one million mail-in ballots that will not be opened until today. A clutch of close-run ridings, where mail-in ballots could prove crucial to the result, may have to wait days for a winner to be declared. Elections Canada expects “the vast majority” of mail-in ballots to be count- ed by Wednesday. But in some remote ridings, and those with thousands of mail ballots, the result may not be known until Friday. A record number of people have voted by mail in this election, some because of fears of voting in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local elections agents will begin opening postal ballots this morning. Before they are counted, ballots will be verified by local voting of- ficials. They check to ensure voters have not sent in multiple ballots or have voted in person in a polling sta- tion. Officials also verify voters’ sig- natures. British Columbia has the greatest number of mail-in ballots, many of them on Vancouver Island. In the Vic- toria riding, more than 12,600 people applied to vote by mail — the most in Canada — followed by Saanich—Gulf Islands, where more than 10,700 people applied for postal votes. The Courtenay—Alberni riding, which includes parts of Nanaimo, B.C., had 9,870 voting kits issued. More than 9,500 voters in the nearby B.C. riding of North Island—Powell River applied for postal ballots. In Nanaimo—Ladysmith, more than 8,800 voters registered to vote by mail, while in Esquimalt— Saanich—Sooke, more than 8,700 vot- ers applied for mail-in ballots. Postal votes could dictate which party wins in a series of ridings facing a photo finish. The closest race is in the B.C. riding of Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, where the Liberals fought off a Conservative challenge by only 153 votes in the 2019 federal election. More than 4,000 voters have voted by mail in the riding. Melanee Thomas, associate profes- sor in the department of political sci- ence at University of Calgary, said that although mail ballots could influence results in close seats, they would un- likely determine the overall election result. “Folks need to be patient. We are not going to have a clear result in some places until these mail ballots are counted,” she said. “I don’t think this is going to influ- ence the overall result or make a dif- ference to whether there is a Liberal minority government.” In Québec — an electoral district in Quebec City — Jean-Yves Duclos, a cab- inet minister in Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s government, is facing a close challenge from the Bloc Québécois and more than 1,400 voters have sent in bal- lots by mail. One of the closest electoral battles is in the Yukon, which has a single MP. At the last election, the Liberals fought off the Tories by only 153 votes. More than 1,800 voters have cast their vote by mail in the riding. Postal voters could also decide the outcome in the Montreal riding of Ho- chelaga, where the Liberals won by only 328 votes in 2019. At Elections Canada’s distribution centre in Ottawa Monday evening, workers were busy counting around 200,000 special ballots that had been sent to Ottawa. The votes from expatri- ates, people voting outside their ridings, Canadian Forces, as well as inmates in prisons throughout the country were al- ready being tallied by election workers before polls closed. Election officials began counting the ballots sent to Ottawa — which unlike most mail-in ballots are not counted in local ridings — 10 days ago. By 8.40 p.m. Monday, they had counted 120,000 bal- lots at the vast warehouse where, once the election is over, every ballot cast in the country will be stored for 10 years. — The Canadian Press Million mail-in ballots delay result for days MARIE WOOLF By early summer, it was clear the federal government’s vaccine procure- ment program was going to be a suc- cess. Notwithstanding early concerns about supply, by summer, Canada had caught up to and surpassed most other countries — particularly the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel — in both supply and numbers of citizens being vaccinated. Trudeau also announced pan- demic economic supports would be extended, a decision that seemed to galvanize the idea the Liberals were the right party to govern in a public health crisis. By late July and into early August, the country’s pandemic honeymoon with the Grits was in full bloom. The Liberals were intoxicated by their double-digit lead in most opinion polls, and that would turn out to be the siren call that drew Trudeau to the idea he should have an early election. But Trudeau clearly misjudged one important difference that distin- guished this election, and this period in the country’s history. The pandemic, and the Liberal government’s response to it, may have helped build support for Trudeau, but it also left the country mentally and physically exhausted. When push came to shove, Canadians didn’t want this election because they had too many other, more important things to worry about. They were gen- erally OK with the government and its pandemic strategy; putting all that in jeopardy with an unnecessary election was too much for too many Canadians to bear. Or, to put it more precisely, it was the straw that broke the Liberals’ majority hopes. In some ways, this may be remem- bered as the election the Conservatives and leader Erin O’Toole lost. And as clever as their campaign was early on, the Tories proved they are — thanks to policies that run directly against the majority of public opinion in Canada — the Liberals’ secret weapon. Perhaps Trudeau knew O’Toole was going to stumble through mini contro- versies on abortion, banning assault- style firearms or his ineptitude on the issue of vaccine mandates. If the snap election call ended Tru- deau’s dream of a majority, O’Toole’s campaign helped sustain the Liberal minority. That’s a harsh judgment for a party that has actually received more votes that the Liberals in each of the last two elections. But it’s also a true and fair assessment. Liberals may have gone to sleep after the results rolled in thinking they got away with one. And in many ways, they did. Sort of. Trudeau may have won the election, but he absolutely lost the trust and faith of millions of Canadians. And one way or the other, there will be a day of reckoning for that. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca The NDP, which had hoped to ride on Singh’s status as the most popular fed- eral leader, did not make the number of gains it had hoped for, either. It lost its lone Atlantic seat and was down one to just five in Ontario. It did pick up one seat in Quebec, where it now holds just two of 78 seats, and gained one in Alberta. As before, Trudeau will need the support of at least one opposition party to pass any legislation and survive crucial confidence votes. Both Singh and Blanchet indicated they will push their priorities in ex- change for supporting the Liberal government. For Singh, that includes making the “super wealthy’’ pay their fair share of taxes. Blanchet said the Bloc Quebecois will support the minority government on issues and legislation that it deems to be in Quebec’s best interests but oppose it if Quebec’s interests are not served. For her part, Paul admitted she was disappointed to lose her bid for a seat but celebrated the re-election of for- mer Green leader Elizabeth May and a gain by Green candidate Mike Morrice in Kitchener Centre, where the Liberal incumbent, Raj Saini, was dumped by his party mid-campaign over sexual harassment allegations. She did not say whether she’ll try to carry on as leader. — The Canadian Press MARK BLINCH / REUTERS Tory Leader Erin O’Toole, speaking in Oshawa, Ont., says the Liberals’ power grab cost taxpayers $600 million. He says his party will take stock of which of its promises appealed to voters. JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his wife, Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu, watch results on TV at a hotel in downtown Vancouver. A_02_Sep-21-21_FP_01.indd A2 2021-09-21 1:01 AM ;