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OUR VIEW: That was one expensive election just to maintain status quo

The result, give or take a seat here or there, is inconsequential
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau poses for a photo as he greets commuters at a Montreal Metro station on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau needs to be called out on the carpet for imposing a federal election on Canadians that changed nothing yet cost so much.

Consider the outcome on Monday night. After 36 days of campaigning, during the fourth wave of this pandemic, Canadians elected 158 Liberal MPs, 119 Conservatives, 34 Bloc Québécois, 25 NDP and two Greens.

In comparison, in the 2019 election – a mere 23 months ago – the Liberals formed a minority government with 157 seats in the House of Commons, while the Conservative won 121 seats, the Bloc Québécois 32, the NDP 24, the Green Party 3, and one Independent.

No “red tide,” or “orange crush” this time out.

SEE ALSO VIDEO: Surrey MP-elect’s post-vote party draws criticism for lack of masks, dancing

The result, give or take a seat here or there, is inconsequential and given that, with Trudeau not winning the majority he banked on with an estimated $610 million of taxpayers’ money for this change-nothing election, voters can likely expect another trip to the polls sooner rather than later. That was one heck of an expensive roll of the dice.

Locally, we congratulate those who won a seat in Surrey – and all of those who ran for office. It’s no small thing to stand for election and a chance to serve the public.

As expected, not much changed here in Surrey, with all incumbents being re-elected except for Conservative MP for Cloverdale-Langley City Tamara Jansen who, before mail-in ballots were counted at least, looks to have been replaced by Liberal John Aldag.

She defeated him in 2019 in an exchange similar to the back-and-forth between the NDP’s Jinny Sims and Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal in Newton-North Delta in 2011 and Surrey-Newton in 2015.

Now-Leader



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