Having stood at the helm for nine years as the worst of the financial crisis raged, the government of Steven Harper’s Conservatives has fallen as the economy tried to chart calmer waters. With most of the results in, it looks as if the Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau, son of former late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, has come from third place in the poles to take a clear victory.
The Liberal party has comfortably secured a margin of 14 seats to give them an overall majority with a total 184 seats. This is quite a comeback from the level which the party slumped to in the last elections in 2011 when it returned just 36 seats. The plans that the incoming government is making are a change from what has gone before insomuch as it has already announced a halt to austerity. The new government is intending to run a current account deficit (i.e. spend more money than it receives) over the next three years in order to meet infrastructure spending. The plan also calls for a reduction in the income tax burden of the middle class and more taxes on wealthier Canadians. Other objectives will see the legalisation of marijuana which has proved popular and lucrative in some US states; more action over environmental concerns; a pullback from military activity in Syria combined with greater help for refugees, but the government intends to continue to help with the training of Iraqi forces.
Canada is one of the ten wealthiest nations in the world. It has a population of just over 35 million people and very substantial natural resources, but is characterised as a high-technology, industrial economy. Unemployment runs at about 6.9%, but twice this level of those under 24 are without work. The nation slipped back into recession earlier this year with the Q1 and Q2 figures recording contractions of 0.2 and 0.1% respectively.