“Our old relationship with the United States... is over,” says Carney in victory speech
BY BRIAN ZINCHUK
WEYBURN – In the basement of the Weyburn Legion Hall, Steven Bonk thanked supporters as he was elected in Souris-Moose Mountain with the highest plurality in the country at 83.9 per cent. But the former MLA, first-time Conservative MP also would be joining a caucus sitting in opposition, not government.
“I’m very pleased and thankful for the results here in Souris-Moose Mountain, but I admit that I’m a little bit disappointed with the results nationally. I was hoping that the Conservatives would have a strong majority, and hopefully we can hold the Liberals to minority government, but we’ll see how that goes by the end of the day,” Bonk said.
Asked if a pipeline might be built under the Liberals, he responded, “I struggle to believe too many things that the Liberals say they’ll do. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, and the Liberals have shown have a strong track record of trying to keep our resources in the ground and stopping any major projects from happening. So I don’t have a I don’t have a lot of faith in them, but hopefully the Conservatives can push them to to realize that there’s utility and some potential in Canada, if only they let us just do what we do best.”
As election results came in, it became clear that the Mark Carney-led Liberals would be returned to power yet again, once more in a minority government. While the Conservatives notably increased their seat count, it was not enough to dethrone the Liberals. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s own seat was still very much in question late into the night, with Poilievre trailing his rookie opponent throughout the evening.
A defiant Poilievre implied he would stay on as leader, saying, “Every single day, our Conservative caucus and I will be holding the government to account on behalf of the millions of Canadians who believed in the message of change.”
The NDP were largely obliterated across the country, with just seven seats at midnight, well below official party status. Leader Jagmeet Singh resigned, having lost his own seat well back in third place with only 18.1 per cent of the vote in Burnaby Central. The Greens again elected its co-leader, Elizabeth May.
The Bloc Quebecois were reduced in seat count, but could hold the balance of power in the new parliament. As of midnight the Liberals’ 167 seats was still five short of a 172 majority. The NDP plus the Liberals would be 174, but when you take out one seat for the speaker you get 173, just about the skinniest majority possible. Without the Bloc’s assistance, there is a very real possibility that the Liberals could lose their first confidence vote on the Throne Speech in just a few weeks time. And without either the Block or NDP, they will surely lose.
That leaves open the possibility of a Conservative-Bloc coalition. At least it did before midnight. For a while it looked like the Conservatives and Bloc might have enough for a coalition, but with 145 seats for the Conservatives and 23 for the Bloc, the 168 total was even less promising than a Liberal-NDP coalition.
UPDATE: By 6 a.m. the Liberals had picked up one more seat in the unofficial count, according to CTV. With 168 for the Liberals and seven for the NDP, the combined 175 would provide a working majority, should the now-leaderless NDP throw their support behind the Liberals. At this point, the loss of one seat for the Conservatives was inconsequential, if these numbers hold.