Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sworn in at Rideau Hall, November, 2015. Demotix/ Jaclyn McRae-Sadik. All rights reserved.To most Canadians, the unexpected Liberal majority in last month's election didn't come as a surprise so much as deliverance. You could almost hear it, several million people exhaling with relief at the news the Conservatives had lost. Not a single Conservative MP left in the Atlantic region or the North, only twelve in Quebec, two in Vancouver, and one in greater Toronto where Finance Minister, Joe Oliver, and Citizenship and Immigration minister Chris Alexander both lost their jobs. Add to this the Liberal two-seat breakthrough in Calgary where none have been elected since the sixties, and the largest national turnout in twenty-two years (just shy of 70 percent) with significant increases among youth and Indigenous voters. The final tally: Liberals 184, Tories 99, New Democrats 44.
Decisive though these numbers seem, no one was taking the outcome of this election for granted. On one side there was an incumbent prime minister seeking a fourth term, a long shot at the best of times. With a backlog of scandals (the fraud trial of one Conservative senator began during the campaign) and a depleted front bench (as talent like Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird departed early), Stephen Harper had little going for him beyond a stalwart base. His loyal thirty percent. Facing him were four opposition parties vying for the rest of the vote.
The main contenders were the Liberals and the NDP. However, the real menace was the spirited pack of free-floating undecided voters, united in their distrust for Harper. No one had any clue where they would descend. "I'm a lifelong Conservative," an old friend phoned to tell me, someone with Alberta cattle credentials and deep connections to the Party. "And for the first time I'm an undecided voter, " she moaned, though there was no prevarication about what she was voting against.
