Image Credit: The Canadian Press

By James Peters

Federal Election

Federal election “a success of all the opposition parties”: TRU political expert

Sep 21, 2021 | 12:29 AM

KAMLOOPS — The Liberals emerged victorious in Monday’s (Sept. 20) election, but a Kamloops political expert says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hardly achieved his goal when he threw the country into the vote.

WATCH: TRU’s Robert Hanlon speaks to CFJC’s James Peters at the close of election night.

As of late Monday, the Liberals were elected or leading in 158 ridings, falling short of the 170 required to form a majority government.

The makeup of parliament is, in fact, very similar to how it stood prior to the election call. Under Erin O’Toole, the Conservative Party of Canada was in position to hold 119 seats, the Bloc Quebecois 34, the NDP 25 and the Green Party two.

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Robert Hanlon is an associate professor of politics at Thompson Rivers University.

He says Trudeau may say that he received a clear message from voters, but that message was not one of confidence.

“I don’t see it as a victory for the Liberals. I think they’re going to spin it like a victory, like this gives them a mandate — and we already saw that in [Trudeau’s] speech where he said, ‘This is a clear mandate for us to continue our work’,” Hanlon told CFJC. “They saw an opportunity to gain a majority government, they went for it and they didn’t succeed. They failed.”

In order to form a stable government, Trudeau’s Liberals will need the cooperation of one opposition party. In the last parliament, that was often the fourth-place NDP. Hanlon believes Jagmeet Singh’s party will once again be in that position of power.

“I see this as, actually, a success of all the opposition parties,” noted Hanlon. “The NDP have cemented themselves as a strong party to work with in parliament. You also see the Conservatives who did well in holding off that majority — even though the polls had said early on that it was going to happen.”

Locally, Hanlon said he was impressed with the collegiality of the candidates and noted the election’s result — with Conservative Frank Caputo winning in his first attempt at running for office — should not be seen as a surprise.

Hanlon says Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo has become a Conservative stronghold, but adds that doesn’t mean stasis, as the Conservative platform is evolving to include more emphasis on issues such as climate change and reconciliation.