It was election day on Sept. 21 and projected results arrived faster than anticipated with Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party setting sail to form a minority government yet again. Surprised? I know I’m not.
Since the dissolution of Parliament on Aug. 15 with only a 36-day campaign period, many (including myself), did not understand the gamble Trudeau played in an attempt to gain more seats in the House of Commons. His conquest for more power ended up backfiring: millions of dollars were spent to generate the exact same outcome as before, and everyone was left wondering what the point of this debacle was in the first place.
Rather than gaining a majority government as Trudeau first accomplished in Canada’s 2015 election, he won with a minority government, similar to his 2019 win. To make matters even more embarrassing, the Liberal Party of Canada did not significantly increase their number of seats in the Canadian House of Commons. Compared to 2019’s election where Trudeau and his party won 157 seats, this year’s election has shown an increase of only two seats in total as of Sept. 24.
Although the two seats were admittedly given to the party, it was at a very costly price. The rapid-fire campaigning period cost Canada more than $600 million CAD.
In today’s new day and age of COVID-19, the world has been shown the importance of allocating money towards the most crucial of areas in a nation. Money that could have been invested in the healthcare system, COVID-19 prevention measures, struggling small businesses, long-term care homes and more, were invested in a repeat election.
Despite leaders of all parties disapproving the start of a new election in the midst of a pandemic (not yet under control, might I add), Trudeau evidently failed to listen to their concerns and proceeded to do as he wished. This showed a lack of consideration; his now-failed pursuit for increased power was the only thing that mattered to him.
Many, including myself, wondered what the point of spending so much money and such little time over something that produced the same results as before was. My conclusion boils down to simply one word: greed. The greed for power was clear as day. If compromising the health and lives of Canadians across the country during a pandemic in order to obtain a majority government does not classify as being power-hungry, then I don’t know what does.
However, there might be a faint silver lining in this situation (if you even want to call it that). In such times when citizens of a nation are divided (in even the most minuscule of ways), many Canadians from different parts of the country and with different political views, can still agree on the fact that this election brought us back to square one.