Liberal Party, led by the new Prime Minister Mark Carney, has been able to form a minority government. (Photo: 'X')
The results of the Canadian elections have been sensational, given that the Liberal Party, led by the new Prime Minister Mark Carney, has been able to form a minority government in a political comeback, defeating the Conservative Party of Pierre Poilievre.
The catalyst to the Liberal's stunning turnaround was US President Donald Trump, whose name, as observers joked, had been printed on the ballot paper with invisible ink! Till just three months back, the highly unpopular Liberal Party, which, after a decade of continuous rule under Justin Trudeau, had alienated a bulk of the 28 million Canadians eligible to vote because of inflation and other issues, trailed the Conservatives in opinion polls by as much as 25 percent and faced certain defeat.
Then, shortly after his re-entry into the White House, Trump had dropped a bombshell on Canada, America's biggest trading partner and closest ally, by accusing it of taking advantage of the US and threatening to impose tariffs on imports from that country.
His taunts of Canada being potentially the 51st state of the US had roused the heckles of the otherwise phlegmatic Canadians, who became enamoured of the hardline nationalist response of Mark Carney and dramatically switched allegiance.
They felt that Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, was the man who could save Canada from Trump and the looming fiscal crises.
Carney, too, had served his cause through strident anti-Trump messages asserting that America wanted to break Canada so as to acquire its resources, but they cannot have it! He also laid out a coherent fiscal policy to counter Trump's tariff threats and reduce reliance on the US for exporting its produce by exploring new recipients.
This, certainly, worked a miracle and reversed the anti-Liberal trend, and although he could not quite reach the 172 seats mark that would have enabled him to form a majority government, Carney did succeed in upsetting the Conservative's apple cart.
There was some cheer for India too at the stunning Canadian election results – Jagmeet Singh's New Democrats Party (NDP) fared very poorly, not even managing to get the 12 seats in the Canadian House of Commons to enable it to retain its 'party' status, while Singh himself lost the seat that he had been holding since 2019.
It may be recalled that Singh, a Khalistan supporter who wants Canada to ban the RSS, had earlier made the charge against the Indian government that it was behind the assassination of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, causing tensions to break out between New Delhi and Ottawa.
Considering that the electoral debacle of the NDP and its failure to acquire a 'party' status mean that the Liberals will no longer depend on it for support, it will enable Carney to reset India-Canada relations and restore normalcy.