The result many prognosticators feared and predicted has come true.
The Liberal Party now has a ready-made theme song after Monday night’s federal election: Right Back Where We Started From by Maxine Nightingale.
You can analyze what happened among the parties backwards and forwards but the bottom line is very little changed in a costly election that served absolutely no purpose. Oh, there were a few personnel changes, but that’s about it.
Justin Trudeau has a lot to answer for, but he will evade the questions, as he has always done, about why he did this in the midst of a pandemic. There was no indication he would attain a majority if that was his intention.
The only mystery was whether Trudeau would regain a minority or the Conservatives might slip back into power with a minority. The latter quickly eroded when the vote from Liberal strongholds in the east started to come in.
If this was any other country but Canada, a new leader would surely have been elected. Trudeau has continually dodged around the scandals of buying a pipeline, the SNC-Lavalin affair, the We Charity when his mother received a gross amount of money for a speaking engagement and so much more.
Canadians are known for their willingness to politely forgive almost anyone for their transgressions, no matter what the circumstances, and that seems to transfer into the political arena as well.
Trudeau’s had six years to do many of the things he has promised again in his election campaign so what’s going to be different?
The problem seems to be Canadians are settling on the status quo because no other party leader – particularly with the Conservatives – has captured their imagination. Andrew Scheer couldn’t do it and it seems Erin O’Toole hasn’t generated any magic, either.
So we’re left with the flamboyant Trudeau, who acts more like a rock star or an actorthan a prime minister, to run the country. That’ll remain the case until someone emerges from the Conservatives who proves irresistible because the NDP will never hold power nationally.
We’ll see what happens next time which is surely going to be far sooner rather than later again.