Trudeau wins election, but Liberals fall short of majority

Ottawa – Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has narrowly won Canada’s election, but it failed to secure a majority of seats.

This is Trudeau’s third federal election win, but his critics say the poll was a waste of time.

The Liberals are projected to win 158 seats, short of the 170 seats needed for the majority Trudeau was seeking with his early election call.

The Conservatives have held onto their main opposition status and are expected to win about 122 seats.

“There are still votes to be counted but what we’ve seen tonight is millions of Canadians have chosen a progressive plan,” Trudeau told supporters in Montreal in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“You elected a government that will fight for you and deliver for you,” he said.

A failed gamble for Trudeau

The election, which took place during a fourth pandemic wave in Canada, was the most expensive in the country’s history, costing some C$600m (US$470m; £344m).

The projected results suggest a parliament strikingly similar to the one elected just two years ago in 2019.

The snap election call, sending Canadians to the polls for the second time in two years, was widely seen as a bid by Trudeau to secure a majority government and he struggled to explain why a campaign was necessary. Conservative leader Erin O’Toole called it a waste of time and money.

“Canadians sent him back with another minority at a cost of $600m and deeper divisions in our great country”, he told reporters.

Trudeau maintained that the election gave the incoming government a clear mandate in moving forward.

But controversy over three instances of him wearing blackface and brownface – widely accepted as racist caricatures – resurfaced in the election campaign.

Separately he was also heckled by anti-vaccine protesters on the campaign trail, with some shouting they would refuse the coronavirus (COVID-19) jab. (BBC)