Canada Election 2021: Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau Wins Third Term But Fails To Retain Majority

Though it was an uphill battle for Trudeau to convince Canadians to stick with Liberals after falling short of high expectations set in his 2015 landslide win.

New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned to power on Monday, but failed to gain majority seats. Trudeau was contesting against a rookie conservative leader. 

Against any other party, the Liberal Party gained most seats but the results were similar to the election two years ago.

You (Canadians) are sending us back to work with a clear mandate to get through this pandemic into brighter days ahead," Trudeau said while standing with his wife Sophie Gregoire and their children on stage at a victory gala reported AFP.

"That's exactly what we are ready to do," he said.

Trudeau's Liberals were leading or elected in 157 seats exactly the same number they won in 2019, 13 short of the 170 needed for a majority in the House of Commons according to AP.

The Conservatives were leading or elected in 121 seats, the same number they won in 2019. The leftist New Democrats were leading or elected in 29, a gain of five seats, while the Quebec-based Bloc Qu b cois was down three at 28 and the Greens remained at two seats.

However, after staying in power for about six years, his administration is showing signs of fatigue. It was an uphill battle for him to convince Canadians to stick Liberals after falling short of high expectations set in his 2015 landslide win.

Trudeau's opponent was Conservative leader Erin O'Toole didn't require his party's candidates to be vaccinated and would not say how many were unvaccinated. It is likely that the Canadians didn't want a Conservative government during a pandemic.

According to the AP report, Canada is now among the most fully vaccinated countries in the world after Trudeau's government spent billions of dollars to keep up the economy during the lockdown.

Trudeau argued that the Conservatives' approach towards the pandemic would be dangerous as they were skeptical of lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He added that Canadians need a government that follows science. The Conservative leader O'Toole described vaccination as a personal health decision, but a growing number of vaccinated Canadians are increasingly upset with those who refuse to get vaccinated.

Aside from this, Trudeau was popular for embracing immigration at a time when the U.S. and other countries closed their doors. He also legalized cannabis nationwide and brought in a carbon tax to fight climate change. He also preserved free trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico amid threats by former U.S. President Donald Trump to scrap the agreement.

Whereas O'Toole, 47, is a military veteran, former lawyer and a member of Parliament for nine years advertised himself a year ago as a true-blue Conservative. O'Toole's strategy, which included disavowing positions that were held close by his party's base on issues such as climate change, guns, and balanced budgets, was designed to appeal to a broader cross-section of voters in a country that tends to be far more liberal than its southern neighbour.

Max Cameron, a politics professor at the University of British Columbia told AFP, "this hasn't been a polarizing election. There's actually a lot of clustering around the middle."