‘Sent back with another minority mandate’: Elections lost, Erin O'Toole takes parting shot at Justin Trudeau
Though Trudeau's Liberal Party is leading in Canadian elections, it is set to finish below the majority mark of 170 in the House of Commons.
Erin O’Toole, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party who conceded defeat to prime minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party in the elections held on Monday, took a jibe at Trudeau, saying that despite latter’s appeal for a majority, Canadians sent him back with yet another minority mandate.
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“Five weeks ago, Mr. Trudeau asked for a majority. He said that the minority parliament was unworkable. But tonight, Canadians did not give him the majority mandate that he wanted. In fact, people sent him back with another minority at the cost of 600 million dollars and deeper divisions in our great country,” O’Toole said in an address to the nation after conceding defeat.
The Conservative leader then remarked that the prime minister had been hoping for a quick “power grab.” He added, “Just days back, Mr Trudeau said that he would hold yet another election in 18 months if he didn’t get his way, and now he has thrust us into what he has promised will be 18 months of perpetual campaigning,” the 48-year-old, who spoke simultaneously in French, said.
Urging people to heal the divide, O’Toole further said that Trudeau, who has won a third straight term, wanted 18 more months of divisive campaigning to try and get an election result of latter’s choice, adding that the need of the hour was to heal the divide instead of using it for selfish gains.
In 2015, Trudeau’s Liberals won by majority, with him being prime minister for the first time. That majority, however, was lost in 2019. In August this year, he called for snap polls in a bid to regain it. At last count, the Liberals had won or were leading in 156 seats, with the Conservatives at 123. In the 338-member House of Commons, a party should have at least 170 seats to form a majority government.
In 2019, the the secured 157 and 121 seats respectively.