canada

Justin Trudeau Wins Election for Second Term as Canadian Prime Minister

Photo: Cole Burston/Getty Images

Late on Tuesday night, CBC News and CTV News called the 2019 Canadian federal election in favor of Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party, which won a plurality of votes. Though he was able to rise above neck-and-neck pre-election polling with Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer, vote projections indicate that Trudeau will lead a minority government, falling short of the 170 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.

Throughout the mercifully short, six-week campaign, Trudeau was mired in controversy, from charges of climate hypocrisy for spouting green rhetoric while purchasing a $3.4 billion oil pipeline to allegedly pressuring the former attorney general to impede an investigation into a construction company in Quebec. And on September 18, Time published a picture of Trudeau in brownface. At least two more similarly racist photos soon surfaced in turn, along with the following nightmare of a statement: that he was “wary of being definitive about” the number of times he’d appeared in racist makeup.

If projections are correct, the Liberal Party’s minority leadership will be the fourth such government in 15 years, and it would require the Liberals to partner with one or more parties to pass legislation. Trudeau will have until mid-January to recall the House of Commons, the lower chamber of parliament.

Justin Trudeau to Win Second Term as Canadian Prime Minister