“We could be back voting again in six months or this minority government could potentially stand for two years.”
That’s from Prince George Chamber of Commerce executive director Neil Godbout after the Mark Carney-led Liberals outlasted the Conservatives in Monday’s federal election.
Godbout told MyPGNow.com with all the political pomp and circumstance out of the way, it’s now up to the Liberals to roll up their sleeves and re-gain public trust.
“Now is the time to lean into reducing inter-provincial trade barriers, now is the time to work more closely with provinces on some of the major economic development opportunities such as resource development
“And now is the time to re-visit some of these policies that the former Trudeau government brought in, which frankly was unhelpful. Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, which is broadly known across the Canadian business sector is seen as the No Development Act in terms of the obstacles it has put up.”
He added the biggest headlines was the NDP’s free fall, leading or elected in just 7 ridings – however, party headwinds are nothing new in the political game.
“We have always seen this ebb and flow. There was an election in the early 90’s where the federal conservatives were almost wiped off the political map. We saw the federal Liberals twenty years ago in the political wilderness both in terms of the number of seats and there support amongst voters across Canada.”
“I think the NDP is well-established enough federally and provincially since they form our government in BC. This will be a time for potentially rebuilding the NDP and they do bring a perspective to the table.”
Jagmeet Singh, who has since resigned as NDP leader lost his Vancouver-area riding on Monday night. Ditto for Conservative party head Pierre Poilievre who lost to Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy in rural Ottawa.
Godbout added Carney would be very wise to work with newly-elected Skeena-Bulkley Conservative MP Ellis Ross due to his ties with the Haisla Nation as he was the band’s first full-time councillor, holding the job from 2003-2011.
“Many First Nations are in the economic development space and are in the resource development area and we need to move from that economic reconciliation turning into reconciliaction.”
Ross also served as an MLA in the same riding as a member of BC United (former BC Liberals).
According to Elections Canada, over 68% of eligible voters cast a ballot – that equates to 19.5 million people.
That is an increase when compared to 2021 where 62.6% of eligible voters headed to the polls.
Federal voting results show the Liberals elected or leading in 169 ridings to the Conservatives’ 144.
172 seats are needed to form a majority.
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