The Liberal Party will form government for the fourth time in a row, but Prince George is staying blue, something not surprising for Political Analyst Shirley Bond
“I don’t think anyone expected any other outcome for Todd Doherty and Bob Zimmer, I want to congratulate them as they go back to Ottawa to work hard on behalf of the people of this riding,” Bond said.
Aside from the expected results in the Prince George area, Bond said there were some significant things that happened.
“The NDP vote evaporated, we see that Jagmeet Singh lost his seat and will step down as the leader of the NDP,” she said.
“Elizabeth May held on to her seat, it’s likely Poilievre will lose his seat in the House of Commons, and tonight, Mark Carney got sent a message by Canadians, we want you to be Prime Minister, but we want you to demonstrate leadership, he has a very slim minority, and he will have his work cut out for him.”
Bond also called election night a devastating night for the NDP.
“I think that what happened is we saw a significant vote shift,” Bond explained.
“People who probably were lifelong NDP supporters made the choice when they saw that it was basically a two-party race to choose the party they align more closely with. When you look at what happened, you lost the NDP leader, their vote evaporated, they lost official party status, it’s going to be a really challenging rebuild as they work through this.”
Bond said Mark Carney will have a challenging House of Commons to work with as well.
“He’s going to have to demonstrate leadership and try to find ways to make government work with the outcome he’s been given,” she said.
Bond said she’s learned in her political career that politics are not predictable.
“Tonight, we saw that change, for many Canadians, was enough to change the leader of what was a very unpopular party just a number of months ago,”
“Tonight, they earned their fourth term in government, and again, I think we saw a number of external factors that influenced it, there is no doubt that Donald Trump and his approach toward Canada made a difference.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will lose his seat as well.
“There was some sense that that might be a challenge, we actually saw Poilievre go to his riding at some point very recently after concerns that it might be a horse race,” Bond said.
“As Pierre Poilievre himself said, they do have things to celebrate tonight. From their perspective, they’ve added a significant number of new Members of Parliament, and they also have the highest vote support that they’ve had since the late 1980s.”
Bond said it will be interesting to see the analysis that follows.
“I think most people will be asking themselves what happened to a 25 point lead over a very unpopular party,” she said.
Bond said we also saw the importance of advanced polling in this election.
“It speaks to me about the importance of opportunities for people to vote,” she said.
“The more convenient we make it, the more important the issues are, we get a more engaged electorate, at least I’m hoping that’s the outcome when we look at voter turnout. Our votes matter, one vote can make a difference. I hope that tonight people will see that getting out, making that decision, marking the ballot is an important privilege that we have here in Canada.”
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
