Canadian Federal Election, 2019 (BobSmit)

Previous Election                                                                                                                              Next Election The 2019 Canadian Federal Election was held on April 30th, 2019. The election was brought about due to the 2019 Federal Budget, authored by Finance Minster Scott Brison. The budget made large cuts to social services in order to lower taxes, which ran counter to the policies of the NDP, the junior party in the coalition. Leader of the NDP and Deputy Prime Minster Megan Leslie was in favour of the budget, but she was threatened with a leadership review by the grassroots of her party unless she led her MPs to vote against it, which they did. On March 4th, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau asked Governor General Marc Garneau to dissolve govenrment, which he did, and an election was called that day.

Summary
With the NDP out of the coalition and the Liberals not winning the most seats, Justin Trudeau could no longer sit as Prime Minster. The fall of the government and the loss of the election was blamed on him, but despite this, he chose not to resign. In late 2019 a leadership challenge was posed by New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc, and Trudeau lost, allowing LeBlanc to take over the helm of the party.

Thought the knives within the party were coming for Megan Leslie after the government fell and during the election, a good showing by the NDP afforded her the right to stay on as leader.

The Conservatives under Kenney actually lost seats, but they still were able to form government, thanks to the Trudeau government falling apart. Despite coming from the right-wing of the party, Kenney was able to satisfy the more centrist factions due to his more Liberal views on immigration and social issues.

The Bloc lost two seats but maintained official party status. Paille would go on to retire as leader in 2020, replaced by Andre Bellevance.

The Greens modestly increased their vote, and both Elizabeth May and Andrew Weaver were re-elected.

Independent Maria Mourani was re-elected to her fifth term.