Kate HARRISON

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The message from voters? They don’t like change all that much and they want Justin Trudeau to get back to work.

There’s more losers out of this election than there are winners. Trudeau wanted a majority and came up short with the one of the weakest mandates in Canadian history.

Erin O’toole handily won the popular vote and narrowed margins in target seats, but failed to break through in must-win ridings.

Jagmeet Singh was uncompetitive with the Liberals in urban centres and has only one new seat to show for being the most popular leader in Canada.

The Greens are adrift and the Bloc is on the ropes.

The real losers, sadly, are Canadians. Money that could have been spent on pandemic relief was wasted on a failed power grab. Attention that could have been paid to forest fires, the situation in Afghanistan and curbing COVID was squandered. We come back to Parliament just about as divided as we always were.

Perhaps that’s the silver lining for politicos: We will have lots to discuss between now and the next election, which seems likely sooner rather than later.

Kate Harrison is vice-chair of Summa Strategies Canada. She has been an active member and volunteer of federal and provincial conservative parties for 15 years.