Wanderings – Canadian election reflections

The 2025 Federal Election was one of the most interesting elections in the last 40 years. There were many upsets, and the results were not quite what was predicted – yet the results are exactly what they should be.

I am someone who has long supported proportional representation, and a mixed-member Parliament – neither of these options, along with a ranked ballot, will ever be adopted here. But I am comfortable with minority governments. It requires parties to work together, to compromise, and provides checks and balances to government that our un-elected Senate cannot provide.

The election results were surprising, though. Voter turnout was five per cent higher than in 2021 nationally. It is still less than 70 per cent, which is unfortunate. The collapse of support for the NDP was also surprising. We are not returning to a two-party political system long-term, but it is going to take quite a while for the NDP to rebuild. It’s unfortunate to see Jagmeet Singh leave federal politics for now, the same as the Green Party dropping back to being just the Elizabeth May party. Canada is better when there are many voices providing ideas and alternatives from the status quo. The best policies in the last 70 years have come from having more than two parties to choose from.

Pundits and politicos can spin the Conservative election results any way they want – but they lost. The Conservatives won more seats than they had going into the election, but they did not win enough seats to be the government. That is a loss. If a hockey game ends with a 4-0 score, the team with the most goals won, and the team with the least goals has lost – it’s that simple.

The Conservative party blew a 20-point lead in the polls because it did not plan for an election without Justin Trudeau until it was too late, and the party’s leader sounded like Donald Trump.

When you rail against the sitting government of the day, saying that the country is broken, and mimic the nonsensical rhetoric at rallies such as electricians harnessing lightning to power homes, what outcome is to be expected?

The party did not pivot from a Trudeau-free political sphere and continued their Trumpian name-calling. And the party’s leader, Pierre Poilievre, could not win his own seat – one of the safest seats for Conservatives in Canada. The only seat safer than Carleton is one in the middle of an Alberta wheat field.

Mark Carney won the election because people coalesced around his party not being seen as Trump-like, the belief that Carney is knowledgeable enough to deal with Trump and his associates, and that he wasn’t Justin Trudeau.

Under normal circumstances, the Liberals should have earned a four-year period on the opposition benches to retool while another party formed government for a term or two. Considering the scandals that plagued Trudeau’s time in office, from wearing blackface to SNC Lavelin – that a political party has remained relatively unscathed like the highest quality Teflon product, irks me. But these are not normal circumstances and sometimes the larger picture has to be looked at rather than settling scores.

Locally, it was refreshing to see a more competitive local election with more than one candidate being in the race – and not just saying they’re in it. The Conservative candidate had the typical blue machine, and the Liberal candidate had to build from scratch. Years of stagnancy led to there being no resources for the local Liberal, and given the traditional view that few support that party, the federal Liberals did not put many resources in. That said, the local Liberal drew on her own resources, from disaffected former members of other parties and put a lot of work into running. There was still an 11,000 vote difference between winner and second place, but considering the two candidates combined had 87 per cent of the popular vote, it was a much better race.

Local election races should be competitive – not a cakewalk for one candidate. Landslides are in no one’s best interest. It makes the local candidates more responsible to the public, and shows that the candidates don’t take voters for granted. Pierre Poilievre didn’t do that, and he lost in his riding. In fact, I don’t see how Poilievre can maintain the leadership of the Conservative party with the pair of losses he had on April 28.

It’s also interesting, less than a week after the election, that a re-elected MP from Alberta in one of the safest Conservative ridings in the country, is going to step aside for Poilievre to run in a by-election. Considering we just had a general election that taxpayers are footing the bill for – maybe Elections Canada should send the bill for an unnecessary by-election to the party that is triggering it.

Having followed Canadian politics for more than a couple of decades, I haven’t watched election night results as closely as I did April 28 in many years. Multiple pundits have said that the difference between a Liberal majority or minority government was less than 1,000 votes in total – spread across a half dozen ridings. Close results require a recount the morning after the election. The Liberals lost a riding in Quebec by 44 votes on a recount – and won an Ontario riding by 29 votes on a recount. This should dispel anyone from thinking that their vote does not count in an election. At least I hope it does.

An annoying thing to me in this election, and recent elections is the lack of party platforms until the final weeks or days of the campaign. No political party should be able to run in a general election and release their party platforms last-minute. Those documents (fully costed out) should be released within the first week of a campaign – not the last. The next campaign won’t be anything like this one, and having proper platforms from the start might just help more voters be informed. Whether the next election is in three months time, or three years, the major parties should have these platforms ready and available when the writs are issued, not after advanced polls have already closed.

Covering election night as a journalist in 2025 had a nostalgic feeling too. At the winning candidate’s party (at a wing place no less) there was a media table. There were journalists from all the local media, in one place – a point that was not lost on us there. Seven different outlets were represented, mostly local – the CBC crew of two sat by themselves separate from the rest of us. Of those journalists, only one still has a physical newsroom that they work out of. The rest work from home – a sad sign of the times.

When the winning candidate arrived, everyone leapt into action – a speech from the candidate, followed by media scrum with seven different outlets asking questions. Given the winner was Conservative, all questions were answered and follow-up questions were allowed. This all aligned with my first experience covering an election, quite a few years ago. It’s nice in a world of change, to see a few things remain the same – if only for a few hours.

After two election nights in two months – one provincial, one federal – it will be a nice change of pace to return to somewhat normal news. Maybe.

This column was originally published in the May 7, 2025 print edition of The Morrisburg Leader.