By Canadian Press

Trudeau’s political future hangs in the balance as Atlantic results show tenuous lead

Sep 20, 2021 | 8:02 PM

MONTREAL — Thirty-six days after his fateful decision to trigger a federal election, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau saw some early warning signs Monday night as results began to roll in for Canada’s 44th election.

He lost a cabinet minister in Bernadette Jordan after the Liberal-held South Shore—St. Margarets riding in Nova Scotia fell to the Conservatives, The Canadian Press projected.

The Canadian Press also projected that 17-year Liberal MP Scott Simms lost his Newfoundland and Labrador riding of Coast of Bays — Central-Notre Dame to Tory challenger Clifford Small. 

Nonetheless, the Liberals were holding on to all four seats in Prince Edward Island.

Trudeau spent the past few days barnstorming the country — hitting four provinces on Sunday alone — and delivering his final whirlwind pitch to Canadians. Over the weekend, the eight-year leader marketed his party as the only one that could stop Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives from forming government.

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He has dug in against the top Tory on vaccine mandates, gun control, climate change and daycare, leaning on the Liberal record on pandemic management and economic stimulus.

The campaign got off to a rocky start in August as opposition leaders hammered him on his decision to call an election amid a surging fourth wave and turmoil in Afghanistan.

After travelling back to Quebec from Vancouver on a red-eye flight, Trudeau cast his ballot Monday in his Montreal riding of Papineau, with his three children at his side and Canada’s 44th election on the edge of completion.

At the Liberals’ election night headquarters at a downtown Montreal hotel, candidate Pablo Rodriguez said a second consecutive minority government would be a validation from voters.

“Even if it gives me a minority, it’s a mandate,” he said in French, bathed in the hotel ballroom’s red studio lights.

“In 2019, the word COVID did not exist in our vocabulary … Today, spend one single day without hearing the word — it’s impossible,” he said, adding that the election rode largely on the issue of pandemic management.

Rodriguez also insisted that a Liberal minority would not mean Trudeau no longer has Canadians’ confidence: “Not at all.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2021.

Christopher Reynolds and Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press