Hey! It’s Samantha and Jack, the editors of Well-Versed. We made it past election day – what a journey it’s been – and we hope you enjoyed tackling the topics that mattered in the run-up to voting as much as we did.
But now it’s time to debrief.
If you’re a Globe subscriber, be sure to also sign up for our regular Politics Briefing newsletter, written every weekday by deputy politics editor Chris Hannay. He will be ramping up his election coverage of all the big headlines and campaign trail news to keep you informed.
GLOBE VOICES, COMMUNITY RESPONSES
Adam Radwanski: The vote was Scheer’s to win, but he failed to expand support beyond the Conservative base
Feature writer Adam Radwanski wrote that Andrew Scheer had a “golden opportunity” running against a weakened Trudeau to become the next prime minister, and his failure to capitalize on that opportunity may have his party looking for a new leader.
“This election was there to be won, if the Conservatives were capable of convincing a significant share of voters who had grown disenchanted with Mr. Trudeau that there was decent reason to vote for Mr. Scheer instead. That they were unable to do so, with voters seeming to like Mr. Scheer less the more they saw of him, speaks to fundamental problems with a party that has all but embraced being actively unappealing to a majority of Canadians.”
In discussing Radwanski’s piece, Globe readers recognized the potential for the Conservatives to have wider appeal and the question of whether it will take a leadership change to make that manifest in Ottawa.
“There is plenty of support in the east for a reasonable, thoughtful, well-crafted, evidence-based conservative agenda fronted by a smart and trustworthy leader,” user Rationalthought wrote.
Another user, Gavin Perryman, clearly put the blame on Scheer’s shoulders. “Scheer’s negative comments in his immediate postelection speech clearly mark where he is, and where he is stuck. The Canadian population has largely moved on, and will continue to move on even further. … People may not have moved far enough to really embrace the thinking of the NDP or the Greens, but, unless the Conservatives change, they will become more and more irrelevant as a national party.”
“The question is whether or not Scheer can imagine, lead, and achieve such change.”
Globe readers were split on whether this means Scheer should resign. User WhistlingInTheDark suggested so, writing that the “Harper Redux holds no appeal to anyone outside of the CPC base, and if they are serious about wanting to capitalize on the weaknesses of the current leader of the LPC, they need a new vision.”
Other readers suggested that the election result wasn’t entirely Scheer’s fault – especially in battleground Ontario, where Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford is polarizing. “Doug Ford is the main reason Andrew Sheer lost in Ontario,” wrote user Very Proud Canadian. “Doug Ford’s inept handling of many issues spoke to the fears of moderate voters on what the federal Conservatives might be like if given power.”
Mustafa Farooq: Goodbye, Maxime Bernier. Canadians have rejected your politics of fear
Farooq, a lawyer and the executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, writes of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) Leader’s “Trump-style politics of fear and division,” “The reality is that Mr. Bernier and his party engaged in a campaign of misinformation, racism and dog-whistle politics aimed at Islamophobes.”
Readers were overwhelmingly pleased when Bernier lost his race in Beauce, the Quebec riding he’d held since 2006, and our coverage of it blew up on The Globe’s social-media channels.
“I’m so proud of Canadians for this result!” commented Mary Roka.
“Thank you, Canada. I’m very glad we haven’t fallen to the same depths as the USA just yet,” wrote Dante Elijah Puschiasis.
“The most ironic thing about the PPC is that they were ultimately one of the major reasons the Liberals were returned to power,” observed John T. “… As others have pointed out, this election was Andrew Scheer’s to win, and an even slightly moderate platform would have probably done just that. Instead, Scheer, like Bernier, concentrated on nothing except further consolidating votes that they already had, while at the same time causing moderate Canadians, especially in Ontario, to vote Liberal.”
“Looks like a goodbye kiss to me,” wrote Derrick B. Cameron of Bernier.
But user Goober disagreed that Bernier’s loss spells an end for the party as a whole. “Just a few months after they started organizing, the PPC had 40,000 members, and put candidates in place in every riding. They got 270,000 votes. It took the Green Party eight elections to get that many votes. The PPC is far from done,” Goober predicted.
Kelly Cryderman: A Liberal minority is what the energy industry feared most
Cryderman, an Alberta reporter, wrote in an opinion piece that the lack of certainty in the new government’s commitment to the oil and gas sector so dear to Alberta’s economy is the energy sector’s worst-case scenario.
“It might take days or weeks to know what shape a Liberal minority government in Ottawa will take. But the fact the Liberals will be beholden to the NDP or even the Bloc Québécois to pass laws or survive confidence votes is a worst-case scenario for the oil and gas sector. No matter which of those parties they turn to, the Liberals will need to at least occasionally work with a party that doesn’t want the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to go ahead – or any other oil pipeline, for that matter. It’s not likely to make the Liberals more receptive to oil-industry concerns. In Alberta, questions about whether pipeline projects to U.S. and global markets ever get built have been a drag on the economy and attracting investment.”
Cryderman’s piece drove extensive debate among Globe readers online, who mostly laid the blame on Albertan voters for their own fortunes.
One of the most popular comments was from user gmorris86, who wrote that “Albertans need to tone down the hysteria” because the Liberals, who support the Trans Mountain pipeline, did in fact win the election. “They own it, they support it, it is not subject to a vote any more. The Liberal government is on your side and them saving the project came at great political cost in BC and Quebec, without a lick of gratitude in Alberta. What would the NDP have to gain by bringing down the government on this?”
Other users suggested that Alberta, in which every riding but one went Conservative, should have strategically voted Liberal in order to float a majority government that supports the TMX. “Alberta did everything it could to undermine the election of a Liberal majority. It is obvious that this is an example of dysfunctional Alberta politics,” user Ric_hard wrote. “The threat to Alberta’s economy will come from a failure to adapt to a global effort to reduce GHG emissions. The Alberta political elite is in denial.”
User Randomcomputeruser agreed. “They should have voted Liberal … at least they would have gotten something, namely influence in a majority government and a pipeline built. Now, Albertans have nothing but recrimination.”
Chief Political Writer Campbell Clark observes that Justin Trudeau needs to find some political allies to advance his agenda in a minority government. The NDP is an obvious partner, but a stronger Bloc is going to wield influence as well.
Gary Mason: The new government’s first priority? Look West
Mason, the Globe’s national affairs columnist based in Vancouver, similarly writes about how “the anger and bitterness once so palpable in the West is again bubbling to the surface.”
“Of all the complex and challenging issues facing a freshly re-elected Liberal government, this is the most vexing. How do you address the visceral sense in Saskatchewan and most acutely in Alberta that something has gone awry? That the political and economic arrangements inside Canada aren’t working any more?” Mason writes. He recommends a national summit on Canada’s energy and environmental future to answer these questions and more.
“One need only look at the winning pluralities for Conservative candidates in rural Saskatchewan and Alberta, where there are not a lot of fans of the oil industry, to realize that the disaffection in the West goes way beyond the pipeline issue,” L. Douglas Rae commented.
Like quite a few readers, user BDP Library made the argument for separation, writing, “A self-determined Alberta could make its own choices on climate change. … Perhaps [producing] oil in the most environmentally conscious way is enough!”
Use grantp wrote, “It seems paradoxical that at the same time as the world is struggling to understand what to do to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, Alberta is feeling slighted that the rest of Canada, other than Saskatchewan, which has been staunchly Conservative forever, voted for a Liberal government. Liberal voters didn’t vote as such to punish Alberta.”
Others felt that the dissatisfaction of some provinces with the election result is getting too noisy, and that we should return the discussion to why many Canadians are against the pipeline in the first place.
“Dear Premiers Kenney and Moe: nearly two-thirds of Canadian voters yesterday supported parties committed to significant action on the climate emergency, and over 6 in ten MPs are in these parties,” Rick Williams wrote. “Unless you are really serious about breaking up the country, it’s time now for you to lead with realism, honesty and intelligence instead of scapegoating the rest of Canada.”
James Phieffer took the middle ground.
“The Trudeau government needs to get serious about a long-term plan, which should address environmental concerns through technology, while ensuring the wealth of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Canada as a whole, are preserved,” he wrote.
Want to read more commentary from Canadians? Readers wrote The Globe some letters to the editor about the election results.
HEADLINERS
- In his first public comments since the election, Trudeau said he had no plans to establish a formal coalition, will unveil a gender-balanced cabinet on Nov. 20, and will be forging ahead with the Trans Mountain pipeline project.
- That promise on Trans Mountain might help ease tense federal-provincial relations. Voters in Alberta and Saskatchewan have been afraid that the new minority government will need to lean on anti-pipeline parties to bolster its, putting the energy industry at risk.
- Jenica Atwin might soon become a household name. Positioning herself as a community-first activist who cares about homelessness, addiction and poverty, Atwin hopes to take her party, which she describes as too West Coast focused, and expand its horizons. Read more about the first Green Party MP elected outside British Columbia.
- The leader of the Assembly of First Nations says that the Liberal minority government might actually present an opportunity for progress on Indigenous issues. “[The Liberals and the NDP are] mirrored on a lot of issues and policy priority areas,” National Chief Perry Bellegarde said. “There are synergies, so that’s a good signal.”
And hey, good news: We didn’t want to leave you high and dry after the election, so this Sunday, we’ll be breaking down what a Liberal minority means, why the country seems to be so divided at the moment and what you can expect over the next few weeks.
Samantha McCabe
Jack Denton