Canadians voted for a sharp change in their government Monday, returning a legendary name for liberals, Trudeau, to the prime minister’s office and resoundingly ending Conservative Stephen Harper’s near-decade in office.
Justin Trudeau, the son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, became Canada’s new prime minister after his Liberal Party won a majority of Parliament’s 338 seats. Trudeau’s Liberals had been favored to win the most seats, but few expected the final margin of victory.
Harper, one of the longest-serving Western leaders, stepped down as the head of Conservatives, the party said in a statement issued as the scope of the loss became apparent.
Tall and trim, Trudeau, 43, channels the star power — if not quite the political heft — of his father, who swept to power in 1968 on a wave of support dubbed “Trudeaumania.”
Pierre Trudeau, who was prime minister until 1984 with a short interruption, remains one of the few Canadian politicians known in America, his charisma often drawing comparisons to John F. Kennedy.
Justin Trudeau, a former school teacher and member of Parliament since 2008, becomes the second youngest prime minister in Canadian history.
Trudeau has re-energized the Liberal Party since its worst electoral defeat four years ago when they won just 34 seats and finished third behind the traditionally weaker New Democrat Party. Trudeau promises to raise taxes on the rich and run deficits for three years to boost government spending. His late father, who took office in 1968 and led Canada for most of the next 16 years, is a storied name in Canadian history, responsible for the country’s version of the bill of rights.
A bachelor when he became prime minister, Pierre Trudeau dated actresses Barbra Streisand and Kim Cattrall and married a 22-year-old while in office.
Canada has shifted to the center-right under Harper, who has lowered sales and corporate taxes, avoided climate change legislation and clashed with the Obama administration over the Keystone XL pipeline.
“The people are never wrong,” Harper said. “The disappointment is my responsibility and mine alone.”
Harper said he called Trudeau to congratulate him.
The Trudeau victory will ease tensions with the U.S. Although Trudeau supports the Keystone pipeline, he argues relations should not hinge on the project. Harper has clashed with the Obama administration over other issues, including the recently reached Iran nuclear deal.
Trudeau’s opponents pilloried him as too inexperienced, but Trudeau embraced his boyish image on Election Day. Sporting jeans and a varsity letter jacket, he posed for a photo standing on the thighs of two his colleagues to make a cheerleading pyramid, his campaign plane in the backdrop with “Trudeau 2015” painted in large red letters.
“A sea of change here. We are used to high tides in Atlantic Canada. This is not what we hoped for,” said Peter MacKay, a former senior Conservative cabinet minister, shortly after polls closed in Atlantic Canada.
The Liberals were elected or were leading in 185 districts, with Trudeau winning his Montreal district. The party needed 170 to gain a majority.
The Conservatives were next with 97, followed by the New Democrats at 28 and Bloc Quebecois with nine.
Harper, 56, visited districts he won in the 2011 election in an attempt to hang onto them. On Saturday, he posed with Toronto’s former crack-smoking mayor, Rob Ford, in a conservative suburb.
Harper had said he would step down if his party didn’t win the most seats. Former colleagues of Harper said he would be personally devastated to lose to a Trudeau, the liberal legacy he entered politics to destroy. Harper’s long-term goal was to kill the widely entrenched notion that the Liberals — the party of Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien — are the natural party of government in Canada, and to redefine what it means to be Canadian.
Hurt when Canada entered a mild recession earlier this year, Harper made a controversy over the Islamic face veil a focus of his campaign, a decision his opponents seized on to depict him as a divisive leader.
“Canadians rejected the politics of fear and division,” New Democratic Party leader Tom Mulcair said of the Harper Conservatives.
Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said Canadians rallied around the Liberals as the anti-Harper vote.
The New Democrats suffered a crushing defeat, falling to third place after winning official opposition status in the last election. “I congratulated Mr. Trudeau on his exceptional achievement,” Mulcair said.
Paula Mcelhinney, 52, from Toronto, voted Liberal to get rid of Harper.
“I want to get him out, it’s about time we have a new leader. It’s time for a change,” she said.
(AP)
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18 Responses
Israel lost a great friend.
Stupidity prevails!!!
Chava ate the forbidden fruit.
Yidden made the aigel.
Americans voted for Obama (twice)
And now this in Canada.
Ribbono Shel Oilom! Please put saichel back into the world. Otherwise, we’re liable to destroy ourselves.
What a bunch of fools
True friend of Israel. What a shame. Last of the moral and prinpled politicians in this world. Dumb Canada. Hope the Jays lose.
Not fools at all. Harper went all-in on making Canada’s economy based on extraction industries; that strategy failed when the price of oil plummeted. He made draconian cuts to government science that could have stimulated a more diverse economy.
And he ran a bigoted xenophobic campaign. In Europe, we have repeatedly been collateral damage from such campaigns, as seen by the successful attempts to ban shechita and the attempts to ban circumcision. In Harper’s case it was religious dress. It was only two years ago that the then-ruling party in the province of Quebec tried to ban the wearing of religious garb including headscarves and yarmulkes in public buildings; fortunately that party was defeated but Harper was making open appeals to the same bigots. His defeat is well earned and should be welcomed.
Harper did support Israel. But it was at little cost. Canada has not made major military contributions in recent years to stopping terrorists, and it doesn’t participate much in the UN agencies where its votes might help Israel. (Obama has had the US cast far more UN votes in support of Israel than has Harper.)
Charlie Hall get your facts straight. The Parti Quebecois never attempted to ban headscarves and yarmulke in public buildings. It attempted to place a ban on public servants wearing them while they serviced the public.
Harper has been a lone same voice in international affairs. Canada may not carry much weight internationally but his unwavering, unconditional and steadfast support for Israel’s right to defend itself will be sorely missed. His opposition to the Iran nuclear deal placed him as the lone world leader willing to see Iran for What it truly is.
I don’t know much about Canadian politics. Is the Canadian Liberal/Conservative relationship similar to the USA?
Charlie Hall get your facts straight. Harper’s stewardship of the economy allowed Canada to escape the 2008 financial crisis without a housing bust or bank bailout. He has broadened Canada’s economy beyond fossil fuels. He international trade agreements for Canada while the former liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin signed none. His government just passed and he signed the TPP agreement which will undoubtly benefit Canadian trade.
How predictable that Charlie Hall has yet again turned up like a bad penny! Back again with his usual blather about how Liberals are such good friends of the Jews and of Israel, while Conservatives aren’t, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Charlie, I read your posts and wonder what sort of sickness could drive a person to defend those who hate us so much while constantly criticizing fellow Jews who disagree with your nonsense. I guess it’s the same moral corruption that caused some Jews to become Kapos during the Holocaust and prey on their brethren for an extra crust of bread or hour of life.
Charlie, there was a song that was banned several hundred years ago, known as “Mah Yaffis”. It has been lost to time but I’m betting it’s a favorite of yours. Please, let us know how it goes.
Charlie Hall: Harper’s stewardship of the economy allowed Canada to escape the 2008 financial crisis without a housing bust or bank bailout. He has broadened Canada’s economy beyond fossil fuels. He signed international trade agreements for Canada while the former liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin signed none. His government just passed and he signed the TPP agreement which will undoubtedly benefit Canadian trade. –
DikDukDuck: Pretty similar, especially with Harper leading the Conservatives. Harper has often been labeled a Canadian Republican. Canada also has a major third party, the extreme left NDP and some smaller parties such as the Greens and Bloc Quebecois.
Charlie Hall: Justin Trudeau told the CBC that his government would stop bombing ISIS and would restore diplomatic relations with Iran. I assume that you find that to be a good thing that “should be welcomed”.
It is sad to see that Jews in America take lightly the fact that Jews in Quebec were facing the choice of giving up their yarmulkes or their jobs and supporting politicians who tried to fan the flames of that bigotry.
We’re doomed…
Canada did not have a banking crisis because of banking regulations that Harper opposed and in fact wanted to eliminate
Fortunately for Canada he only had a minority government at that time and could not manage to do it.
Charlie,
More blather from you about how Conservatives worldwide are bigots who are trying to shmad us?
Here’s what you wrote on another site about a true enemy of the Jews, Jimmy Carter:
“May he have a miraculous recovery and in gratitude for that miracle retract all the awful things he has said about Israel.”
After all the irreparable damage he has done to Israel, that’s your comment? I suppose you also get on your knees nightly and pray to your hero FDR, yemach shemo, who let six million Jews burn to ashes.
Only a sad little man and a twisted Mah Yafis would post such drivel!
Charlie Hall: Please stop confusing and conflating issues.
You claimed that the Parti Quebcois attempted to ban Yarmulkas and head coverings in public buildings. I pointed out that your claim is simply untrue.
You claim that “Jews in America take lightly the fact that Jews in Quebec were facing the choice of giving up their yarmulkes or their jobs” No Jew in America would ever take that lightly, but you are insinuating that PM Harper and the Conservatives would be in favor of such a law. That is unfounded and totally untrue. The Conservatives have ran a Lubavitcher Chasid and Indian Hindus as candidates and their head coverings featured prominently in their campaign ads. All Harper ever proposed was a ban on Niqabs while accepting Canadian citizenship in front of judge. You are making a mountain out of a molehill to support your preconceived biases.
Furthermore what is most shocking is that you ignore the strong support Harper has given to Israel over the past 9 years. have you no sense of Hakaros Hatov?
Furthermore how can you celebrate the removal of combat troops from fighting ISIS? Do the cries of Yazidi women and many innocent men women and children mean nothing in your liberal worldview?
How do you celebrate the restoration of diplomatic ties with Iran without requestining any quid pro quo from the Iranians regarding human rights and threats to regional neighbors?
As an Orthodox Jew how do you celebrate the legalization of Marijuana and the soon to be stoned teens and youth. Is that the Tzelem Elokim of humanity?
crazykanoiy,
Why are you even bothering to have a logical debate with Charlie and appealing to him as an Orthodox Jew? His religion is liberalism, his god is FDR and his messiah is Obama. To Charlie, any argument to the contrary is bigotry and shmad.