Gigi Devlin ’24
Canada held a federal election this past Monday, September 20. For most people who don’t follow Canadian politics, this election was quite confusing. Why was it called so quickly? Didn’t Canada just have a federal election? Why would Trudeau call the election if he won the last?
Like America, Canada has election dates set to occur every four years, but unlike in the US, Canadian leaders have the ability to call an election at an earlier than scheduled date; this practice is known as a snap election.
But why would a prime minister like Trudeau want to call an election early? The answer is that Justin Trudeau did not have a majority government, and he believed that, with the ongoing pandemic, the conditions might be right for his party to gain the majority he seeks. Since Canada works under a multiple party system, a majority of seats isn’t needed to win, only the largest number (plurality). This leads to the occurence of two types of governments, majority and minority. With only 157 out of 338 seats, Trudeau’s government was clearly a minority.
So, Trudeau, by asking the governor general to dissolve parliament, called a snap election.
In order to understand this election, it is crucial to understand the varying points of view of each party on the most important issues to this election.
Obviously, the most current area of concern is the Covid-19 pandemic. Trudeau’s Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party want to make vaccines mandatory for federal public servants. The conservatives, on the other hand, do not believe in making vaccines mandatory for anyone.
Another topic that is very important in Canada has to do with reconciliation for the treatment of indigenous people. The liberals have made many promises in this regard, but there is doubt as to whether they will be able to pass them because, during their 6 years in office, they have kept few of their many past promises to indigenous people.
Climate change is another contentious challenge that has drawn attention in this election. The liberals continue to push their own net-zero policy with the support of the NDP and the Green Party.
Asking a friend back in Canada about their opinions on the election, 16 year old Delia Markus said, “Personally, I believe that Trudeau’s rushed election call is nothing more than an attempt to gather as much power as he can out of a bad situation. It’s frankly selfish for the liberal party to be focused on getting a majority government instead of trying to get the pandemic under control. For that reason, I give the NDP my full support in hopes of giving the more progressive party more seats in another liberal minority government.”
The end result of the election is, once again, a liberal minority party – basically right where we were before. Many Canadian voters, myself included, are disappointed and annoyed that the Canadian government conducted such a costly and stressful election without seemingly much purpose.