While the final shape of the thing remains to be seen, the Liberal Party of Canada will form the next federal government.
According to the preliminary results coming in from closed polls to Elections Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada has secured enough ridings in the country to form the next federal government, though with some ridings remaining to be officially called, it’s too early to say whether they will have a majority or minority government.
As of time of writing on Tuesday morning following a shakeup election, the Liberals are leading in 168 ridings, with the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leading in 144, the Bloc Québecois leading in 23, the federal NDP party leading in seven and the Green Party of Canada leading in one.
A federal party in Canada needs to secure 172 ridings to form a majority government, so the Liberals will need to see an additional four ridings shake out in their favour to secure that coveted status.
Locally, and with 208 of 210 (99.05 percent) polls reporting at time of writing, the Liberal party retained its seat in the Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding. Incumbent MP Marcus Powlowski took the riding with a narrow victory, seeing 18,853 (47.4 percent) votes to CPC candidate Brendan Hyatt’s 17,501 (44 percent). The riding’s remaining candidates fared less well, with the NDP’s Yuk-Sem Won securing 2,690 votes (6.8 percent), the People’s Party of Canada candidate Sabrina Ree receiving 404 votes (1 percent) and Green candidate Eric Arner collecting 304 votes (0.8 percent).
The Liberals also held onto neighbouring Thunder Bay-Superior North, with Patty Hadju securing 55.2 percent of the riding’s votes, while Conservative MP Eric Melillo retained his seat in Kenora-Kiiwetinoong with 50.3 percent of the vote.
On a wider scale, Liberal leader Mark Carney secured his riding of Nepean, while CPC leader Pierre Poilievre lost his Carleton riding, though he remains party leader at this time. Green leader Elizabeth May also held her riding in Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.
However, this election saw support for both the federal NDP and Bloc Québecois collapse. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh conceded his riding and party leadership following an election that saw orange support disappear throughout the country and the party drop from 25 seats in 2021, and while the Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet retained his seat, his party also saw losses from their 2021 total of 32 seats.
