2019年10月22日星期二

Canada Letter: Justin Trudeau returns. Let the deal-making begin.

October 22, 2019

Justin Trudeau Returns. Let the Deal-Making Begin.

Justin Trudeau with an Inuit elder during a campaign stop in Iqaluit, Nunavut.Ian Austen/The New York Times

During the official English language debate, the party leaders often spoke over each other to the annoyance of viewers. And when the campaign came to its close on Monday night, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh of the New Democrats all addressed supporters simultaneously to the distress of television producers.

Few likely hope that style of communications will carry over to the Parliament that Mr. Trudeau will now lead as head of a minority government. His return to power is not one for the record books. About two thirds of the country voted against the Liberals.

And how Mr. Trudeau's diminished political status will shape the new Parliament wasn't immediately clear from any of the leaders' speeches, which instead were largely warmed-over stump speeches.

While Mr. Scheer gamely tried to cast his second-place result as a prelude to future victory, there were only two unqualified winners last night: The Bloc Québécois, a party that was such a mess in January that its leader, Yves-François Blanchet, got the job by being the only applicant, now sits in third place in the House of Commons. And Jody Wilson-Raybould, Mr. Trudeau's former justice minister who was at the center of the SNC-Lavalin affair, achieved the difficult feat of being re-elected as an independent.

Here's our report on the vote result: Justin Trudeau Headed to Second Term as Canada's Prime Minister.

A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for the past 16 years. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten.