The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, held on to his post after leading his party, the Liberal Party, to victory in the 2021 Canada Elections.
Falling 12 seats short of a majority win, Trudeau claimed that the Canadian people have sent him and his party workers “back to work with a clear mandate to get Canada through this pandemic and to the brighter days ahead”, Reuters reported.
A hundred-and-seventy out of 338 seats are required to form a majority government in the House of Commons in Canada. The Liberal Party managed to win only 158 seats.
While the Conservative Party led by Erin O’Toole, despite winning the largest vote share in the elections, won 119 seats, Jagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party won 25 seats.
Trudeau addressed his supporters after O’Toole, who is also the current leader of the Official Opposition, conceded defeat.
The former promised to cooperate with coalition and opposition parties to do good for all Canadians and get them through the rest of the COVID-19 pandemic.
O’Toole on the other hand warned his party members about the prospects of another snap election, saying that “the Conservative Party will be ready”, CBC reported.
He also acknowledged more work needed to be done to “earn the trust of Canadians.”
Jagmeet Singh, the Indo-Canadian leader of the NDP, wrote a spirited tweet in which he thanked everyone who supported his movement and for challenging the status quo by voting for his party.
Trudeau had called this snap election with the hope of creating a majority government that would not require the support of other parties to govern and pass legislations.
A minority government would again make Trudeau and his party dependent on the NDP to govern Canada.
(With input from Reuters and CBC)
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