Mark Carney Clinches Majority Government In Canadian Special Elections

OTTAWA, April 13 (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney secured a parliamentary majority for his Liberal government on Monday, saying the win would help it deal more effectively with the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.

It will also mean that Carney, who came to office with no political experience and won global praise for his efforts to bring middle-power nations together, will likely not have to worry about the election for years.

Capping off an extraordinary few months in Canada, where several opposition members joined Carney’s Liberals, his party said it had secured two districts (known as ridings) in special elections in Ontario in October.

These were trips by long-time Liberal-voting University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest. The results of the third election are still being counted.

The win took Carney’s Liberals to 173 seats in the 343-seat House of Commons.

“He’ll be able to pass legislation without having to go to opposition to get enough votes,” said Andrew McDougall, an assistant professor of Canadian politics at the University of Toronto.

The Liberals relied on selective support from the Conservatives to pass economic and trade legislation last year.

Carney has solidified his grip on leading Canada until at least 2029, when national elections are held. The last time a federal government had a majority in Parliament was under Justin Trudeau from 2015 to 2019.

Carney’s position was strengthened when five opposition legislators defected to the Liberals in five months. Only governments led by Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, and Jean Chretien saw more politicians defect to the ruling party.

On Wednesday, longtime Conservative politician Marilyn Gladu switched parties to join the Carney government, saying Canada needs “a serious leader who can address the uncertainty created by unfair American tariffs.”

Gladu, a former chemical engineer who has previously faced criticism during the COVID-19 pandemic for promoting unproven scientific treatments, opposing a ban on conversion therapy and suggesting the use of the military to end Indigenous-led protests against oil pipelines, thanked Carney for inviting him into the “big Liberal tent.”

The University-Rosedale seat was previously held by former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who resigned after being appointed as an economic development adviser in Ukraine.

The Liberals also said they had won a special election to replace former Liberal MP Bill Blair, who resigned after being appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom.

In the third race in Terrebonne, Quebec, the Liberals are in an extremely tight race with the Bloc Quebecois. The Liberals won the last federal election by just one vote, but the result was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada due to misprinting on the voter envelope.

Laura Stephenson, chair of the political science department at the University of Western Ontario, said Trudeau has moved the party to the left and is prioritizing issues such as reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, the rights of minority groups and immigration, but there are more pressing issues for Carney, who is a more centrist leader.

“It focuses on helping Canada recover from economic turmoil, not on restructuring society,” he said. “When we are in difficult times like these, different calculations are made.”

The latest poll by Nanos shows more than half of Canadians prefer Carney as prime minister, while only 23% choose Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. Before Carney became leader of the Liberal Party last year, Poilievre was predicted to win the next election by more than 20 points.

“Carney has done a pretty good job of showing Canadians that he can handle Trump,” said McDougall of the University of Toronto. “He has shown Canadians that he is a competent manager of the economy and the country,” he said. “And so far Canadians have been unimpressed with the alternatives.”

(Reporting by Maria Cheng and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Caroline Stauffer, Deepa Babington and Edwina Gibbs)