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SAME RESULT, SAME TIE, SAME WORDS, SAME OLD, SAME OLD

IN 2019, THE PRIME MINISTER VOWED TO ‘WORK FOR YOU EVERY DAY.’ IN 2021 HE SAYS HE’LL ‘WORK EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR YOU.’

Jesse snyder

After winning close to exactly the same number of seats in the House of Commons this election compared with 2019, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau offered an acceptance speech early Tuesday morning that was fittingly duplicated.

“Thank you for putting trust in our team,” Trudeau said to voters who supported him, matching word-for-word what he said in his acceptance speech exactly 23 months earlier.

To those who didn’t support him, Trudeau said his government would “work for you every day.” In 2019, the message was that he would “work every single day for you.”

The sameness of the two speeches points to the repeated outcome of the 2021 election, where no more than about 10 seats appeared to have changed possession as the final votes were being counted on Tuesday. But the outcome has nonetheless shifted the dynamics of the next parliamentary session.

Among three Liberal staffers who spoke to the National Post, all declined to call the Liberal minority an outright win for the party, given its aspirations heading into the election to form a stable majority.

Still, they saw the result as a mandate to continue forward with Trudeau’s platform, namely a post-pandemic economic recovery fuelled by tens of billions in debt-financed spending.

Crucially, many say the Liberals’ minority has weakened the footing of the Conservatives and NDP in Parliament, giving them less room to oppose Liberal legislation or threaten votes of non-confidence.

“I don’t necessarily call it a victory,” said one Liberal insider. “We held what we had, which was great. But the one thing that I view as positive is maybe we can use this to squeeze the opposition, by saying, ‘Clearly (Canadians) want us to work together.’ ”

Their elevated stature could become evident in the next parliamentary session, experts said, particularly at the committee level.

The Conservatives and NDP had used their leverage in House committees to press the Liberals on several fronts, objecting to spending measures, investigating the WE Charity scandal, and calling for unredacted documents related to the firing of two scientists from a high-security infectious disease laboratory, among other things. Those powers, while they will still exist next session, could be blunted so soon after the election result.

“I disagree with the analysis that this election result is status quo, and that it’s just confirmation,” said Kathy Brock, professor at Queen’s University’s School of Policy Studies. “The big winner in this election is Justin Trudeau, and that’s because this is an example of change that is changeless. It appears that nothing has changed, but everything has changed. The seats are the same but the dynamics are entirely different.”

The election result could in turn force parties into an uneasy alliance of sorts, even if rhetoric from party leaders continues to run hot.

“We’re stuck with each other for a while,” one Liberal said.

All Liberal members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Trudeau would remain in place for the foreseeable future, having avoided a sizable loss of seats. Other potential leaders within the party don’t yet have the pull to mount a credible attack on the Liberal leader, who has been at the helm of the party since 2013, they said.

“I don’t think Trudeau is going anywhere,” one person said. “It’s very hard for a party to push out a sitting prime minister.”

Some regretted the decision to enter into an election in the first place, even if the results loosely provided credit to Trudeau’s leadership during the pandemic.

“It’s one of the most expensive photocopies we’ve ever had,” one said. “This is basically a photocopy of the last Parliament.”

All sources suggested the government would continue to trim back spending in coming years as the need for pandemic subsidy programs subside.

While economic recovery was purportedly the reason for heading to the polls, much of the campaign instead focused on a range of other issues like gun control, housing costs and vaccine passports.

Having secured a minority, the government can now pivot back toward carrying forward its economic policy.

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2021-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://nationalpost.pressreader.com/article/281642488314305

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