(Files by Brendan Pawliw-MyPGNow)
A waste of time and money.
That’s the narrative UNBC Political Science Lecturer Jason Morris put out there after the Liberals claimed the most seats in last night’s (Monday) federal election.
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau will be forming a minority government once again, after winning the most seats.
Morris told Vista Radio the end result made it feel a lot like Groundhog Day.
“With the negligible change from 2019, I guess the obvious narrative is that the election was a waste of time and money. No doubt, 37 million Canadians are asking for their 600 million dollars back.”
“The deep-seated attitudes voters have about federal politics was reconfirmed to be pretty much immobile. It’s like we checked in on ourselves and said we are pretty much feeling about the same.”
The Liberals are leading or elected in 158 ridings followed by the Conservatives with 119, Bloc Quebecois 34, NDP 25, and Green with 2.
To form a majority government one party needed at least 170 seats.
However, Morris doesn’t expect any groundbreaking changes amongst all the parties as most leaders often get two kicks at the can to form a government.
“That should put the NDP and the Conservatives in the drop zone. The NDP leader (Jagmeet Singh) is probably safe because they don’t have the expectation to win but what I would expect to happen is that the Conservatives caucus demand a high-stakes meeting.”
More locally, Conservative Incumbents Todd Doherty and Bob Zimmer are headed back to Ottawa after claiming the Cariboo-Prince George and PG-Peace River-Northern Rockies ridings.
Morris believes like the previous results in 2015 and 2019, both politicians will have their work cut for them as the Tories continue to play second-fiddle.
“For Conservative strongholds, in a Liberal minority or any type of government, the challenge is being outside the corridors of power. The hardest-working member of parliament for a region who is not in government is going to be challenged to fully represent the views of their constituents.”
In Skeena-Bulkley Valley, Taylor Bachrach claimed the riding for a second consecutive term for the NDP.