As expected, the Liberals have won in Canada’s general elections, winning 168 ridings, just short of the 172 needed to get an absolute majorities. Hence they will need the support of smaller parties to govern. Those parties got 31 seats.
The Conservatives won just 144 seats, more than they had in the outgoing parliament but still a huge disappointment since in January of this year they were expected to win big. But that was before Trump decided to make inflammatory and demeaning statements about Canada. Not only did they lose, their leader Paul Poilievre lost the own seat, one that he had held since 2004. The New Democratic Party faired very poorly and their leader Jagmeet Singh also lost his seat.
Until the end of 2024, internal discussions within the Liberal party were grim: under their most optimistic scenarios, they could only hope of holding the Conservatives to a minority government. Outright victory was nowhere on the party’s radar.
…Trump’s threats to annex the country to make it the 51st state, his belittling of Trudeau as “governor” and threats of economic coercion have all contributed to a sharp feeling of anger and betrayal towards Canada’s southern neighbour.
“The shift in polls was absolutely without precedent,” said David Coletto, the head of the polling firm Abacus. “But to see the honeymoon that followed – and the way that support held, is also unprecedented. I can’t think of other jurisdictions around the world where we’ve seen this complete reset. And this turns on two factors: how unpopular Justin Trudeau was, and how much of a threat and gamechanger Donald Trump has meant to Canada.”
Carney’s come-from-behind win was fueled by by his strong stance against Trump’s arrogant and condescending attitude towards Canada. The UK’s Keir Starmer and other world leaders should take note.
Carney should send Trump a thank you card.
The count isn’t quite finished yet. A trend we saw last night was that the last polls counted (from early voting, and mail-in ballots) could flip the outcome. And for whatever reason, a lot of those flips favoured the Liberals.
There are still enough seats in doubt that the Liberals could end up with a very slim majority.
An interesting aspect of the Canadian political discourse is that Canadian law does not permit a nominal news TV program to deliberately lie, stopping the ambition of Murdoch and Fox News to expand into Canada.
So if the Useless Party (D) want to get a long-term edge over the Corrupt Party (R) they need to introduce similar legislation and finally hamstring the reactionary propaganda apparatus (Fox, Sinclair).
Obviously, to achieve this they have to go the route suggested by Abraham Lincoln and add seats to the supreme court.
Biden could have at least tried, but he chickened out.
Note to bona fide oppositional politicians: SCOTUS needs at least 4 new seats. Remember, the Republicans have never hesitated to cry “Vae victis!”. When you win, win. And ‘primary’ the Dems who do not understand this is an existential struggle.
@birger: Trump is pushing through a law that ends use of misleading images in news. In Trump style, of course.
https://boingboing.net/2025/04/29/congress-passes-non-consensual-image-ban-trump-says-hell-use-to-censor-critics.html
Surely that would infringe on their First Amendment rights, wouldn’t it?
The New Democratic Party may have lost their leader and a lot of seats, but they still hold the balance of power in the new legislature. Last term, also a minority Liberal government, the price of their support was bringing in national dental care and pharmacare programs.
This outcome is the optimal one in my view: Prime Minister Mark Carney with his economic skills to reorient Canada’s economy away from the US, and the NDP to provide guard rails to keep him from going too deep into neoliberalism.
And best of all, keeping Pierre Pollievre and his maple MAGA from power and leading us down the road to fascism.
I’m done following the results, but it looks like the Liberals have, tentatively, 169 seats. I say tentatively because two of those results were close enough to require recounts.
This was never going to be a victory for progressives, but then again, this is the age of “it could have been worse” being the best result. It certainly could have been worse.
I’ve heard that supporters of the NDP voted for the Liberals to keep out the Conservatives, hence the large number of NDP losses. I happen to be in the Great White North right now, and saw a mall store with the front window dedicated to anti-51st state sentiment.
Are the NDP similar to what we would call progressives in the U.S.? Something like Bernie Sanders and AOC?
Yes. The NDP is a left wing social democratic party. Although they have never formed a national government, we have them to thank for most major social programs in Canada from the times when they have held the balance of power during minority governments, including the Canada Pension Plan and universal healthcare, both introduced in the early 1960s by original NDP leader Tommy Douglas (Keifer Sutherland’s grandfather BTW.)
The NDP has formed provincial governments from time to time, currently in BC and Manitoba.
Stephen Colbert:
YES, WE CANADA
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=IR3GbzoH8oQ
Rated “F” For Failure | Canadians Elect An Anti-Trump | Eagles At The W.H
It really, really pains me to say this, but thank you, Donald Trump.
Australia also rejects fascism!
Results of the Australian federal election are clear -- the conservatives resoundingly rejected.
(Confusingly for Americans, the Liberal party are conservatives (think libertarian), Labor are the left)
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cevdw14r1mgt
I’m so happy. I was genuinely worried we would get swept up in the neo fascist movement, but no.
Resounding rejection of Trumpism. Very proud of my country today. 🙂