Needless election changed nothing for better

Well, that was a waste of time, effort and $610 million.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a snap election in an effort to win a majority government and wound up almost exactly where he was when he started.

He never successfully explained why — after promising that he would not call an election in the middle of a fourth wave of a pandemic — he broke his promise.

Well, voters refused to give Trudeau what he hoped — a majority that would have allowed him to shut down committees looking into his personal and government corruption — as happened with his family's lavish, free holidays to the Aga Khan's private island when the

Aga Khan was lobbying his government for grant money. During his minority government the Snc-lavalin scandal and the WE Charity scandal, where he intended to give $500 million to WE which had paid his mother, brother and wife $500,000, were examined publicly.

Duane Bratt, political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, says the fallout from Monday's election could be serious for Trudeau and Conservative Party Leader Erin O'toole.

“We could have a very interesting scenario where no matter who wins, the two major parties are changing leaders by the next election,” says Bratt.

Trudeau's popularity, after all, was polling below his party's. O'toole appears to have won the same number of seats that Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer won in 2019.

It will be surprising if the Conservatives give O'toole another chance, as this is a party that tends to eat its own.

As Bratt says, O'toole pretended to be “true blue” to win his party's leadership and then swung left in an attempt to win over disaffected Liberal voters. Early on in the campaign, it looked like his strategy might have been effective — as he shrunk a 12 point Liberal lead in the polls to as much as a five point lead with the momentum being on his side. But scrutiny over an ambiguous promise in the Conservative platform on guns caused him to lose his momentum and his growing support faltered.

Bratt says by calling an election less than two years into his minority mandate, many Liberal MPS first elected in 2015 did not get the needed six-year stint in parliament to be eligible for the platinum, defined-benefit MP pension. Bratt says it's unlikely Trudeau will stick around for an entire mandate and he will likely decide to go before he's pushed out.

Ultimately, it appears no one wanted this election except for Trudeau and no one really got what they wanted. Trudeau didn't get his majority, O'toole didn't win a minority or move the needle much in terms of Conservative support, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul lost her seat in Toronto-centre despite her strong showings in the French and English leaders' debates and PPC Leader Maxime Bernier — who cost Conservatives several seats by bleeding away support — also did not win his Quebec seat. Here's hoping he gives up leading this fringe party, which only won about three per cent of the vote in rural ridings in Alberta, where he focused a lot of his attention.

Just like in 2019, the Conservatives won the popular vote but because the Liberal support lies mainly in voteand seat-rich metro areas of Toronto and Montreal, the Liberals won the election.

In his concession speech, O'toole sounded like he was making a case to party faithful to keep him on as leader. Time will tell if his party will let him do that.

During his victory speech, Trudeau called his win “a clear mandate.” It is not. It is the lowest popular vote of any government in Canadian history. Instead of sounding chastened and humble he was once again full of hubris.

“If you're calling an election to defeat someone else you don't need to call that election because you're still prime minister,” Bratt says.

Canada is not well fiscally and it's more divided than ever on so many issues.

This needless democratic exercise did not make our country stronger. Some things did change, but not for the better.