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91ƵIssue-by-issue parliament91Ƶ: Expert says Liberals need to placate NDP to be effective

Scandals, social issues, racism defined 2019 federal election, SFU prof says
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NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and his wife Gurkiran Kaur wave to supporters on stage at NDP election headquarters in Burnaby, B.C. on Monday, Oct. 21, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

All things considered, the Liberal Party should be happy it held onto power Monday night, according to a political science lecturer at Simon Fraser University.

Stewart Prest said given the scandals that seemed to dominate the news cycle for Justin Trudeau, it91Ƶs impressive they held onto power at all.

91ƵThey do need to come away from this realizing that something has to change,91Ƶ Prest said.

Some pundits have blamed the party91Ƶs loss of 25 seats since last election on its record on climate change: buying the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, but keeping carbon taxes. But Prest disagreed.

In a campaign that91Ƶs been described as nasty throughout, he said the Liberals provided plenty of non-policy targets such as the photos of Trudeau wearing racist makeup and the SNC-Lavalin affair.

91ƵEvery government collects baggage along the way, but this government collected a lot of it in a very short amount of time,91Ƶ he said.

The Conservatives shouldn91Ƶt feel too good about growing their seat total from 22 to 121, he added, because they were unable to take capitalize on Trudeau91Ƶs scandals.

Scheer was dogged by his own social missteps, which started when he did not apologize for a 2001 video clip that surfaced of him .

He was also noticeably absent from gay pride parades across the country, and failed to disclose he held dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship despite disparaging other Canadian political figures in the past who also held dual citizenship.

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For the NDP, Prest said the votes they lost in Quebec to the Bloc Québécois are telling.

91ƵThe difficult question to ask is whether it had to do with [leader Jagmeet Singh91Ƶs] appearance,91Ƶ Prest said.

In one instance, while campaigning in Montreal, a man asked Singh to remove his turban to look 91Ƶmore Canadian.91Ƶ

The leader91Ƶs response to the man, as well as to Trudeau91Ƶs blackface photos, only added to his star power and polling numbers.

91ƵI think people started to really warm up to him but it seemed like it was too little, too late.91Ƶ

Cara Camcastle, another political science instructor at SFU, agreed that the NDP didn91Ƶt create enough momentum to shift the polls in time for voting day.

91ƵI91Ƶm not sure how much surging there was. [The] NDP went from 16 to 19 per cent, so I think it was exaggerated.91Ƶ

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Camcastle said both the NDP and the Greens have an opportunity to affect decision making in the minority government.

91ƵThey91Ƶll have a more prominent role91Ƶ but at the same time, it91Ƶs a dangerous time for parties that don91Ƶt want to sell out on promises made to their supporters.91Ƶ

All parties will have to learn to cooperate better than they did on election night itself, she noted, when Trudeau broke with tradition and began his victory speech before the other parties had finished their concession speeches on live TV.

Prest said the Liberals will likely bend to NDP pressure on social issues like Pharmacare and daycare before they let go of the Trans Mountain expansion.

91ƵThe pipeline is a sticking point, but the NDP will have to make a choice: Do they care so much about the pipeline issue they91Ƶre willing to withhold support on those other priorities?91Ƶ Prest said.

91ƵI think there will be a little of a dance and it may be an issue-by-issue parliament.91Ƶ


katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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