Canada's Liberals fall short of a majority in Parliament in the wake of
comeback election victory
[April 30, 2025]
By ROB GILLIES
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ’s Liberals fell
short of winning an outright majority in Parliament on Tuesday, a day
after the party scored a stunning comeback victory in a vote widely seen
as a rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The vote-counting agency Elections Canada finished processing nearly all
ballots in an election that could leave the Liberals just three seats
shy of a majority, which means they will have to seek help from another,
smaller party to pass legislation.
The Liberal party seemed likely to find the extra votes necessary, but
it was not clear whether they would come from the progressive party,
which backed the Liberals under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, or
from a separatist party from French-speaking Quebec.
Carney's rival, populist Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, was in
the lead until Trump took aim at Canada with a trade war and threats to
annex the country as the 51st state. Poilievre not only lost his bid for
prime minister Monday but was voted out of the Parliament seat that he
held for 20 years.
That capped a swift decline in fortunes for the firebrand Poilievre, who
a few months ago appeared to be a shoo-in to become Canada’s next prime
minister and shepherd the Conservatives back into power for the first
time in a decade.
Poilievre, a career politician, campaigned with Trump-like bravado,
taking a page from the “America First” president by adopting the slogan
“Canada First.” But his similarities to Trump may have ultimately cost
him and his party.
The Liberals were projected to win 169 seats of Parliament's 343 seats
while the Conservatives were projected to win 144. The separatist Bloc
Québécois party was expected to finish with 22 seats, the progressive
New Democrats with seven and the Greens with one. Recounts were expected
in some districts.
Elections Canada said 68.5% of eligible voters cast ballots in the
federal election — the highest turnout since 1993.
In a victory speech, Carney stressed unity in the face of Washington’s
threats. He said the mutually beneficial relationship Canada and the
U.S. had shared since World War II was gone.
“We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never
forget the lessons,” he said.
“As I’ve been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources,
our water, our country,” Carney added. “These are not idle threats.
President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will
never ... ever happen. But we also must recognize the reality that our
world has fundamentally changed.”
In a statement issued Tuesday, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said
the Canadian election "does not affect President Trump’s plan to make
Canada America’s cherished 51st state.”
Carney spoke with Trump, and the two leaders “agreed on the importance
of Canada and the United States working together — as independent,
sovereign nations — for their mutual betterment,” Carney's office said
in a statement. The men “agreed to meet in person in the near future.”
A defeat for the Conservatives
Poilievre hoped to make the election a referendum on Trudeau, whose
popularity declined toward the end of his decade in power as food and
housing prices rose.
But Trump attacked, Trudeau resigned and Carney, a two-time central
banker, became the Liberal Party’s leader and prime minister.
In a concession speech before the race call on his own seat, Poilievre
vowed to keep fighting for Canadians.
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives on stage at his campaign
headquarters after the Liberal Party won the Canadian election in
Ottawa on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
via AP)
“We are cognizant of the fact that we didn’t get over the finish
line yet,” Poilievre said. “We know that change is needed, but
change is hard to come by. It takes time. It takes work. And that’s
why we have to learn the lessons of tonight.”
McGill University political science professor Daniel Béland said
nothing prevents Poilievre from remaining the Conservative leader
without a seat but, if he decides to stay, he would need to run in
another district — perhaps by asking a Conservative member of
Parliament from a safe Conservative district to resign.
“Still, losing your seat when some people within your own party
think you’re the main reason why it failed to win is a clear issue
for Poilievre,” Béland said.
“Moreover, not having the leader of the official opposition in the
House of Commons when Parliament sits again would obviously be a
problem for the Conservatives.”
Even as Canadians mourned a deadly weekend attack at a Vancouver
street festival, Trump was trolling them on election day, asserting
that he was on their ballot and erroneously claiming that the U.S.
subsidizes Canada. “It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!” he
wrote.
Trump’s truculence has infuriated Canadians, leading many to cancel
U.S. vacations, refuse to buy American goods and possibly even to
vote early. A record 7.3 million Canadians cast ballots before
election day.
Reid Warren, a Toronto resident, said he voted Liberal because
Poilievre “sounds like mini-Trump to me.” He said Trump’s tariffs
are a worry.
“Canadians coming together from, you know, all the shade being
thrown from the States is great, but it’s definitely created some
turmoil, that’s for sure,” he said.
Foreign policy hasn’t dominated a Canadian election this much since
1988, when free trade with the United States was the prevailing
issue.
The Liberal way forward
Carney and the Liberals have daunting challenges ahead.
By failing to win a majority in Parliament, the Liberals will need
to rely on a smaller party. Trudeau’s Liberals relied on the New
Democrats to remain in power for years, but the party fared poorly
on Monday, and its leader, Jagmeet Singh, said he was stepping down
after eight years in charge.
The Bloc Québécois, which looked set to finish third, is a
separatist party from French-speaking Quebec that seeks
independence. Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet said he
would be open to working with the government for a year if it's a
minority.
“The last thing that the Quebec people and Canada people want is
instability in the federal Parliament,” he said.
In addition to the trade war with the U.S. and a frosty relationship
with Trump, Canada is dealing with a cost-of-living crisis. And more
than 75% of its exports go to the U.S., so Trump’s tariffs threat
and his desire to get North American automakers to move Canada’s
production south could severely damage the economy.
Carney has vowed that every dollar the government collects from
counter-tariffs on U.S. goods will go toward Canadian workers who
are adversely affected. He also said he plans to offer a
middle-class tax cut, return immigration to sustainable levels and
increase funding to Canada’s public broadcaster.
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Associated Press journalist Mike Householder in Mississauga,
Ontario, contributed to this report.
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