The Current - What just happened? Everything you need to know about election night

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

Liberal Leader Mark Carney will form Canada’s next government, though it remains unclear if he will lead a minority or majority parliament. Matt Galloway digs into what happened overnight, from where the Liberals won and lost, to the collapse of the NDP and Jagmeet Singh’s resignation, to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre losing his seat in the Ottawa riding of Carleton, but insisting he’ll stay on to steer the party.Then, former cabinet minister Sean Fraser said that he wouldn’t seek re-election, but changed his mind after a call from new Liberal Leader Mark Carney. He tells Galloway about the conversation that convinced him to change his mind, and Carney’s promise of a better work-life balance now that Fraser has retained his seat in Central Nova.Plus, how are the winners and losers feeling as the dust begins to settle on a tight race with plenty of surprises? Galloway talks to re-elected Liberal Wayne Long, who was among the first in his party to call for former prime minister Justin Trudeau to step down; Andrew Lawton, author of Pierre Poilievre: A Political Life and the newly elected Conservative MP for Elgin-St. Thomas-London South; and Heather McPherson, the NDP’s re-elected MP for Edmonton Strathcona, who some observers are saying could be the NDP’s next leader. We also check in with voters and political commentators we met on The Current’s election road show to hear how they’re feeling about the results.Also, what are Conservatives thinking this morning — and should Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre resign the party leadership? Galloway talks to Peter MacKay, a Conservative cabinet minister in former prime minister Stephen Harper’s government, who ran for party leadership in 2020.And Liberal Leader Mark Carney has said he’ll govern for all Canadians, but a tight race has laid bare some of the divisions he’ll face as he tries to unite Canada in the face of threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. Galloway talks to three people experienced in the challenges of governing Canada: former NDP MP Matthew Dubé, former Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay, and Conservative Chris Alexander, who served as minister of citizenship and immigration under Stephen Harper.

1942, Europe. Soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's Personally, Toy Soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. You know, I chose to enter politics because I felt we needed big changes in this country. But big changes guided by strong Canadian values. Humility, it's Canada after all. Ambition, it's Canada after all.

And unity, it's Canada. These are good values, these are Canadian values. Values that I will do my best, I'm just getting worked up here. These are values that I will do my best to uphold every day. It is not a result that anyone would have called six months ago. And at this point, the final result still isn't entirely clear. The Liberals under Mark Carney have won a fourth mandate, but final ballots are still being counted at this moment to determine whether that will be a minority or majority government. To start our special election results coverage, I'm joined by Catherine Cullen.

She of course is host of The House on CBC Radio, host of the podcast House Party. She was part of your election coverage last night on CBC television and she is with me in our Toronto studio, perhaps on very little sleep. Catherine, good morning. Indeed, I think I'm more caffeine than human at this point, Matt.

What happened last night? I said at the end of the night, last night, before we called the evening, that it's like someone took the snow globe of Canadian politics and just shook it wildly, right? I mean, there are so many incredible story lines here. Both the NDP, both the liberals and the conservatives can, in a sense, argue a victory here,

and yet at the same time all of the parties, the Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP, the Bloc, all have have some worrying to do about just what the path forward looks like. Where was this election decided do you think? I think well I mean again everyone's vote counts but I do think what happened in Ontario with the Conservatives is really significant. I think what happened in Quebec with the Bloc Québécois, incredibly significant. And what happened to NDP votes across the country, the decision for those votes to move away from the NDP is having a major impact on the final vote. You had the Bloc Québécois whose vote collapsed, which allowed the Liberals to pick up many seats there. In Ontario, it's suggested that the Conservatives

outperform the polling in some ways and did better in the 905 region, the greater Toronto area, than many people expected. Is that fair to say? That is what it looks like at this point and I do think, I mean, speaking to Conservatives just in the hours before the vote yesterday, they said we have a coalition that could come through, young voters, young male voters in particular, people who hadn't voted necessarily before and weren't being picked up by opinion polls.

The conservatives not quite in this sort of more extreme, like don't believe the polls kind of way, but a sense that the polling might not truly reflect their voter contingent. Jason Kenney, former leader in Premier in Alberta, was saying that last night on television, this idea of shy conservatives. Yes, which is a common phenomenon.

I asked David Coletto from Abacus Data, one of the stronger pollsters in this country about it, and he said, you know, we do try in our models to accommodate for that. The other factor, though, Matt, is that in many ways, this really was a two-party race. And you heard Jason Kenney and others say, and this is something again, I was hearing from conservatives before the vote, the modeling just doesn't work

in a scenario like that, right? The modeling is based on what happened last time. A result like this isn't something we've seen in decades. What people predicted perhaps six months ago is that Pierre Poliev would win an enormous majority. Can he stay on? He lost his seat. There will be questions that we're going to talk more about this with some political strategists in a moment, but what is the sense as to whether he can hang on? Well, not the losing the seat and the numbers, it is a fascinating cocktail. I mean, what

struck me was the speech last night. Some of that from Pierre Poliev was certainly stump speech, the phrases we're used to hearing, but it felt like 75% of that speech was him saying, I'm staying, I'm staying, I'm staying, I'm staying. We're going to fight for you in parliament. You wonder whether people will give him a chance to stay. It's going to be a fascinating question. Certainly there are people who are frustrated within that party that he could not yield a better result and also frustrated with the fact that they, the kind of discipline that

Pierre Poliev and his team have imposed has chafed against some members of the Conservative Party. I mean, we saw admittedly a different contingent of the Conservatives, but Corey Tonite, Doug Ford's campaign manager, you know, guns a-blazing midway through this campaign. So how does all of this play out right now? We are going to be watching carefully. There will be a new leader for the NDP. Jagmeet Singh lost his seat and the party lost official party status and he said he will step down. And I think a lot of people saw that coming. It was striking to me last night watching the results come in.

Heather McPherson, NDP in Edmonton's Strathcona, even before Jagmeet Singh made that speech, she told her supporters and CBC Sam Sampson reported it, the future of the NDP is in this room. My understanding is, Matt, from a few members of the NDP, that people in the labor movement, some of the sort of more vocal members of the party were told, just keep your powder dry for 24 hours. Give him 24 hours to make up his mind.

He made up his mind pretty quickly. We'll speak with Heather McPherson a little bit later on this morning. Just before I let you go, Mark Carney made a lot of big promises, came in with a big agenda into this election. We have a trade war that is unfolding right now. Where does, and we'll see whether this is a minority or a majority government, but where does that leave that agenda? Where does the, where do the results leave that agenda?

Well, I mean, listen, he has said that he wants to start negotiating with Donald Trump right away. And I think we would expect him to go ahead with that regardless of whether this winds up being a minority or a majority, but he cannot look away from the significance of what Canadians told him about the conservative agenda about these issues of affordability, housing, crime. He needs to try to govern for all Canadians and try to address that agenda. It's also gonna be interesting to see

this relative political neophyte govern in potentially a minority setting. I think Mark Carney keeps talking about himself. He's not a politician, we know, we all accept now. He's definitely a politician, but how is he gonna do in that wheeling and dealing environment of a minority government? I think that's gonna be fascinating to watch.

If indeed that's the case, first, we got to watch the rest of the results roll in. Catherine, thank you very much. Thank you. Catherine Cullen, host of The House on CBC Radio and the politics podcast House Party. I'm joined now by our panel of political strategists. Melanie Richet is an NDP commentator, principal

at Ernst Cliff Strategies. She is in Burnaby, British Columbia this morning. Chad Rogers, founding partner at Crestview Strategy, former conservative strategist. He's with me here in our studio in Toronto. And in Ottawa, Susan Smith, liberal commentator, co-founder and principal at Blue Sky Strategy Group. Good morning, everyone.

Morning. Morning, Matt. Morning. Susan, let's start with you. If I had asked you in December, if you would have thought this would happen, that Mark Carney would be the prime minister, that the liberals would be returned to government. What would you have said?

I would have said that that would have been a stretch, Matt. A stretch. We were looking at a big blue wave of Pierre Poliev and his conservative party making their way across the country and practically eliminating the liberals. That's what it looked like in December and it looked like that in early January. They were ahead 27 points in the polls. So the turnaround that we've seen in the election night results last night is nothing short of remarkable and I think it's a resounding affirmation of the agenda and the vision that Mark Carney has for the country. I

think Canadians are waking up this morning with a sense of relief. They chose the adult in the room to negotiate with Trump. They chose the adult in the room to help pivot our economy and strengthen our economy in light of the trade, economic and security turmoil that's going on in the world. And so it really is a remarkable turnaround for the Liberal Party. And as I said, relief. There are MPs, Liberal MPs in every province across this country. And Mr. Carney was inspirational last night. I've asked for a copy of his speech. I think he set an amazing tone for how he will govern for every Canadian.

He talked about when we have kindness, you know, when we are kind, we grow kindness and when we act with purpose, we have unity and I think that's a wonderful message for Canadians. I want to come back to governing for all Canadians because conservatives had over 40% of the popular vote and there are a lot of people, you can look at the map, but you can also just talk to people. There are a lot of people who did not vote

for the liberals. Chad Rogers, Pierre Poliev was the prime minister in waiting, many people believe. How did he lose this? Donald Trump. What did it have to do with Pierre Poliev? Did Poliev lose this or is it just purely Donald Trump? Well, he won more votes, fairly distributed across the country that would have won him

a majority government in every scenario of an election in the last 35 years. So did the bargain moved higher? It did. Did the collapse of the NDP create a different condition? I mean, the former British prime minister Harold McMillan, we always invoke him when we say events, dear boy. Events. You know, the race changed. Did he rise to the change in the race?

I don't know, that's gonna be litigated in the days ahead and really, whether or not this is a majority or minority government outcome, there'll be a very different price for him to pay. If Mr. Carney gets a majority, Pierre's gonna have a lot of explaining to do. If he's held to a minority, I think he gets to stay. You think he gets to stay.

I was gonna say, what do you think the price is going to be? He lost his seat, a seat that he'd held since 2004. He said he's not going to step down. He said that, you know, we need to learn the lessons so that we can be better next time around. Is he going to be around next time? The conservatives have lost four straight times to the liberals. Yeah, look, majority or minority.

The conservative coalition has a problem of a high floor and a low ceiling. But you're within a gas. Pierre Poliak got 95% of the votes that Mark Carney did. And I would argue that Pierre Poliak had a much tougher campaign than Mark Carney did. Do you think the knives will be out though? The suggestion is the knives are already out. Majority or minority. That's what it's going to be. I think if it's a minority, people say there's no one else in the party. There's no factional leader.

There's no other elected conservative that could have done a better job than Pierre did in that campaign against an exceptional challenge. If it's a Kearney majority and you got to look down the barrel of four years, it's going to be tough. Melanie, you're in Burnaby. This was a two-party race in many ways, and we saw an historic collapse of the NDP vote. Jagmeet Singh stepped down as leader, he lost his own seat. How do you understand that?

You know, it's hard to understand and not because obviously seeing the geopoliticals that were at play like that, that I understand very much. When we were crisscrossing the country, I was with Jagmeet the last two weeks. But when we were crossing thecrossing the country, I was with Jignita the last two weeks. But when we were crossing the country, you know, everywhere we went, what we would hear

is whether this was an orange-blue riding or an orange-red riding. Folks were really scared of Trump. And for, you know, this election, the NDP was not an answer to that. So we were, you know, feeling the pressure from both sides. So whether that was on the island in British Columbia or it was in Southwestern Ontario, voters there kept telling us that they were really proud of what the NDP has been able to get, really proud of what he'd been able to get, really liked what he had to say about the things that he would fight for, but just didn't think that he was able to do what they

needed their political leaders to do in the face of Trump. So in that context, I understand. I think the party and members will need to reflect on what is needed so that the next time, I mean, hopefully we're not in a similar election where things are, you know, not the issues at play are not necessarily what's happening here in Canada, but from another country, hopefully that is not a thing that we're up against again. But the question of which leadership we need to take this on, I think we need to reflect on what we need to do there.

What's the credibility gap that we need to close, and how do we do that with whoever is next to lead the NDP for sure. Susan, minority or majority, what are the Liberals going to need to do to ensure that the 40% of Canadians who voted for the Conservatives feel like Mark Carney is governing for them? Well, they'll do a number of things. They will govern for all Canadians as Prime Minister Carney has said they will do. They will implement the building homes program that they have in place.

They will implement the energy corridor discussions that they've been talking about. Do you think people in Alberta believe that? I spent a lot of time in central Alberta and there are a lot of people who feel, they assumed that the liberals were going to win. They were not happy about it and they wondered what that was going to mean for

issues, for example, of national unity. Yeah. I talked about this a little, a little bit last night. Um, Matt, I think Canadians are tremendously proud of this country. I think there are very few people who want to be in the 51st state. Uh, I think coast to to coast we're proud of our Canadian passports and Prime Minister Carney will govern for the entire country. There are always people whose preferred choice did not get chosen in the election. That's the nature of democracy.

But Canada has always functioned and functioned well. There will be people that are grumbling, but I firmly believe that the majority of Canadians are extra proud of this country and have no desire and want to continue to grow, to thwart what Donald Trump is talking about, to build better and stronger trade relationships around the world. And that's something that Mark Carney brings to the table. He has the relationships with the global leaders. And at the same time, because he's been a public servant, he understands what the government of Canada needs to do to lift Canadians up.

And he talked about that. He said, you know, he said, we have to govern with kindness and compassion as well. And he recognizes, and we all need to recognize that it's going to hurt for a while because of what Trump's doing to the country. But I think, you know, he more than anybody understands, uh, what needs to be done in terms of the programs that are in place to, to catalyze the economy.

And at the same time, make sure you have dental care and pharmacare and things like that, that the people need for help. Chad, we're just about out of time. I have to ask you about, and I mentioned the knives. In the wake of a loss, you have Jamil Jivani, who won his seat in Bowmanville, Oshawa North, best friend of JD Vance, US Vice President. He did an interview with CBC and he said that Doug Ford

is a problem for Ontario and for Canada. Call him the hype man for Mark Carney. Is that a problem for the Conservatives? I take the words of President Ronald Reagan here on what he called the 11th commandment of politics, which is thou shalt not speak ill of other members of their movement. We certainly did it last night on live television. Yeah, the fallacy that's being chased there is that somehow Pierre didn't have the same

electoral math or magic in Ontario when last night the early data shows that he got more votes in Ontario than Doug Ford did, about 2% more, a few hundred thousand more votes. So the difference here is between a bunch of pretty big personality partisans and their businesses. I don't think this is a, the same people who canvassed for Doug Ford went out and canvassed for Pierre Poliev. Something to check back in on. And good to have you all here this morning to try and make sense of what happened last

night and we'll reconvene as we try and figure out what the path forward is. Thank you all for being here. Thanks, Pat. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Susan Smith is a Liberal Commentator, co-founder and principal at Blue Sky Strategy Group. Melanie Richet is an NDP commentator, principal at Earns Cliff Strategies and Chad Rogers is a founding partner at Crestview Strategy, former Conservative strategist. Joined now by Sean Fraser, re-elected

MP from Central Nova in Nova Scotia, formerly the Minister of Immigration and the Minister of Housing in the Trudeau government. Sean Fraser, good morning to you. Hi, good morning. Thanks for having me. Congratulations. Yeah, thanks so much. How are you feeling this morning?

Pretty topsy-turvy night for you. You looked like you were in second place for a long time and then things changed, the math changed at the end. Was your stomach churning? Look, you can never take anything for granted. a long time and then things changed, the math changed at the end, was your stomach churning? Look, you can never take anything for granted. This riding has a long history of being a conservative stronghold prior to 2015, really over the course of Canada's history. But so, we knew it was going to be a challenge, but we also knew that we had a well-organized campaign and that the advance polls hadn't come in until very late and we were counting on a strong showing there.

So the result at the end of the night is what we were hoping for despite there was a few of our supporters chewing on their fingernails along the way. What did Mark Carney say to you in that phone call? You said that you wanted to leave politics to spend more time with your family. You're now spending more time with your political family. What did he say? Yeah, so the months leading up to the Prime Minister calling me and asking me to come back, were filled with supporters and former colleagues and including Mark Carney's team

asking me to reconsider, but I had resisted it. But the day before I had made the decision to return when the Prime Minister called, we started with a short conversation about his desire to see me return, but very quickly he pivoted to say, we know why you made the decision to leave, and I respected, but I want to know what making it work looks like. And we spent more than half an hour on the phone talking about my desire not to be sent to the other side of the world, if he has any potential responsibilities

for me in mind, knowing that on weekends and when the house isn't sitting, when I've got obligations with my young children at home, I would prefer not to be sent to all corners of the country for fundraising opportunities or every groundbreaking that may take place, but that I'm still very much willing to do the job, to do what it takes to be in Ottawa when it's necessary, to work the ground in my constituency when it's necessary. And I left feeling at the end of that conversation like it would be possible for me to be a good member

of parliament and a president and engaged husband and father at the same time. And that's when I made the decision to jump back in. Just have a minute or so left. And I mean, obviously that decision is easier to make when the party isn't facing political oblivion. I mean it's six months has changed so much. This country, there are two very different political visions that were presented and you take a look at the map and again the country is very divided when it comes to the electoral

results. What is your party and what is your prime minister, Canada's prime minister, going to have to do to try and bring this country together? Well, first, I think it's important that we acknowledge that though we may have different visions for the country, we should not question the loyalty of the supporters of other parties to it. We must remain united, particularly at this moment in time when we're facing an external threat with the United States turning its guns towards us,

so to speak, with the economic threats it its guns towards us so to speak with the economic threats it's been launching. We have to work the ground to communicate to people who may not have supported us in this election that we're governing for everyone. Thankfully the challenges we face are common to families whether they support liberals or conservatives and we need to remain engaged with people on the ground and take our lead from those who send us to Ottawa and not making decisions behind closed doors on Parliament Hill. A long night for you. I appreciate you taking our call this morning.

Sean Fraser, thank you very much. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Sean Fraser is the re-elected Liberal MP from central Nova in Nova Scotia. This is our special election results show. Mark Carney, as you've been hearing, is Canada's next prime minister. It is an astonishing turnaround given where the Liberal Party was just six months ago. Joining me now from St. John, New Brunswick is Wayne Long.

Back in June 2024, he was deeply involved in that turnaround. He was the first Liberal MP to publicly call for Justin Trudeau to step aside. Now Wayne Long is headed back to Ottawa as the re-elected member for St. John, Kenobakasis. Wayne Long, good morning. Hey, Matt, good morning. Thanks for having me on. Congratulations. Are you taking credit for what happened last night?

Well, depending on who you ask. No, I mean, I don't take credit. I don't, and like I said before, I don't jump for joy as to what transpired, but people needed to stand up and speak up and make a change in our leadership. And yeah, I was the first one at the end of June, but many MPs followed. And clearly, Christoph Friedman was the, you know, I think the straw that broke the camel's back. But we needed change. And look where we are. We, six short months ago, we were probably looking at 25 to 35 seats.

And, you know, right now we're at 168 hopefully a few more over the next day or two but I think the country overwhelmingly last night chose a vision, progressive leadership, a leader with a plan, a leader with focus and a leader with international respect. It's a great day for Canada. How is Mark Carney going to bring Canadians together? As you know, liberals and conservatives each have about 40% of the popular vote.

And there are many people in many parts of this country who feel, and it's on different sides, who feel like the result is not the result that is going to make them feel like they're part of the larger Canadian project, if I can put it that way. So how does Mark Carney and how does the Liberal Party bring this country together? You bring the country together clearly by actions,

not words. And like we always say, talk is cheap, but we need to act. We need to show the West, we need to show Alberta that we're serious about an energy corridor. I'm here in St. John, New Brunswick. I'm a strong advocate for the pipeline. We need to make sure that from coast to coast to coast, we are acting and bringing policies in and bringing in strong leadership that shows from Premier Daniel Smith to E.B. to Tim Houston. We need to

show Premiers that we're going to act I mean we are in a new reality in this country we need to relook at everything we've done you know inter provincial trade barriers energy corridors you know developing stronger relationships with the EU Asia Pacific and they'll obviously paramount to stand up to Donald Trump. So I have every confidence that Mark Carney is going to put a team around him and we are going to show Canadians that we're going to act and we will bring Canadians together.

I have absolutely no doubt about that. I have to let you go, but could you have possibly imagined that we would be having this conversation six months ago with you as a returning MP? Oh my gosh, no. I mean, I think the turnaround is just, I think one of the greatest turnarounds in Canadian political history. It's a great day, the sun shining here in St.

John, Kennebacasis. I'm looking forward to getting to work. And I think we will show Canadians from coast to coast to coast that we mean business and we're going to move our country forward. Enjoy that sunshine. Wayne Long, good to talk to you. Thank you. Always Matt, take care. Wayne Long, newly re-elected Member of Parliament for St. John

Canapacases in New Brunswick. Our next stop is in southwestern Ontario. Andrew Lawton is the author of Pierre Poliev, A Political Life. He wrote the book on Pierre Poliev, then he ran under the umbrella of Pierre Poliev. And Andrew Lawton is the newly elected Conservative Member for Elgin St. Thomas, London South. Andrew, good morning to you. Hey, good morning. Good to be with you. Congratulations. Thank you. Just a few months ago, the Conservatives had a 25-point lead. They looked to be cruising

to a majority government. Pierre Poliev was the Prime Minister in waiting. How do you explain the results of last night? Well, look, I think once we get the full accounting and see exactly what's happened, there will be a better way of analyzing it. But the one point that I think is crucial to understand is that the actual vote share that the Conservatives got is not far behind where it was at that high watermark. The difference is that the liberal polling surged in large part due to a collapse of the NDP vote.

And I think that's the story we're seeing in a lot of writings across the country. Now the reality though is with Pierre Poliev is not the Prime Minister. Do you believe he lost his seat last night, a seat that he's held for 20 years. Do you believe he can stay on as leader? Absolutely and I think he shows an indication in his remarks last night that he will do that and hold the government to account and I fully support him in that. Again even when the Conservatives got a majority government, our share of the vote was not as high as it was in yesterday's election. So I think there is a clear appetite for change. Obviously, the vote

distribution being what it is didn't give us the Conservative government we wanted, but there is still a strong mandate to hold the Liberals to account. How deep do you think the rift in the conservative movement is? You have seen, um, you know, the, the campaign manager for the Ontario premier, Doug Ford talking about campaign malpractice. You have the premier of Nova Scotia, Tim Houston, who apparently has a frosty relationship such as it is with, uh, the Poliev team.

There have been questions about this, this movement. How deep is that rift do you think? I think the one thing we've seen in the Conservative Party under Pierre Polyaev is a significant expansion of the Conservative base and of the Conservative family. So you don't believe there's any problems within that family? I'm not saying there aren't problems within it, but I think Pierre is focused on growing the base, bringing new people in, and that's a lot less divisive than what we're seeing from others who call themselves conservative leaders.

I have to let you go, but when we talk of divisiveness, there have been people who held protests against you even running in your riding. They were concerned about statements you've made in the past about Muslims, about women, about LGBTQ people. What do you say to them this morning, those people who feel, in your own riding, feel offended by the things that you have said in past? I've addressed those things many times over and my role as the member of parliament elect, soon to be the member of parliament,

is to represent everyone and that's precisely what I'll do and it's a great honour. And you believe you can do that given what you've said in past? I think my work speaks for itself and the fact that I'm on your show and have been on CBC Numerous Times shows

that I have a voice and I'm using it for good. Andrew Lawton, good to speak with you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Matt. Andrew Lawton is the author of Pierre Pauliev, A Political Life. He is the newly elected Conservative member for Elgin, St. Thomas, London South in southwestern Ontario. Well, we go now to Edmonton and we have with us on the line Heather McPherson of the NDP. She is the newly re-elected MP for Edmonton Strathcona. Heather, good morning to you. Good morning, Matt.

Congratulations, but congratulations comes with, it's a strange word to say given, I mean, not just what happened to you, you won, but your party took a hammering last night. It sure did. Yeah, yeah, it was disappointing to see that. I lost some really wonderful people that were part of my political family and some fantastic MPs that weren't reelected. It's a hard thing to have. And yeah, it's a difficult morning to wake up and know that some of those people who deserved to be there deserve to be in our House of Parliament,

deserve to be representing Canadians, aren't going to be there. Why do you think the NDP wasn't able to persuade more progressive voters to stay with the party deserve to be in our House of Parliament, deserve to be representing Canadians, aren't going to be there. Why do you think the NDP wasn't able to persuade more progressive voters to stay with the party rather than lend their votes, such as it is, to the Liberals? Yeah.

I mean, we've seen this before. It's a pretty common playbook from the Liberals to say, you know, you have to vote for us this time because we have to be able to stop the Conservatives. It just showcases for me that we've got a bit of a problem with our electoral system. You know, Justin Trudeau and the liberals had promised to stop first past the post, and people voted this election, I felt, often. They voted from a place of fear, and I understand that.

I mean, it is a scary time with Donald Trump and with what's happening around the world. But voting out of fear is not usually how do Democrats do really well. We do really well when people are voting for a vision, when they are voting for something. And so we've got to roll up our sleeves and get back to work. The NDP has lost official party status. Jagmeet Singh lost his seat. He announced his resignation last night. Last night you said the future of the party is in this room. Do you want the leadership of the NDP? I was referring to the incredible, you know, volunteers and candidates that we had in Edmonton. The number of people that came out, the young people, the vibrancy that you see, people that came out, the young people, the

vibrancy that you see in the rooms across this country of people that believe in building a Canada that works for everyone. You understand why somebody might hear those comments when the leader of the NDP has lost his seat

and is out of a job and says maybe she's interested in that. Is that something you would want? Would you want the leadership? I haven't even thought about it. I mean, up until 12 hours ago, we were focused on winning our seats and picking up some more seats in this country. You know, up until 12 hours ago, I didn't, we didn't know that we weren't going to have party status, some of these things. And, you know, I'm so proud of the seven members of parliament that are going to be, or the six members of parliament that are going to be joining me with the NDP, because it is a minority government. And what we were able to achieve as the NDP with the minority government in the last election

is huge. You know, the biggest expansion of dental care happened under Jagmeet Singh. He will be remembered by that. He'll be remembered by the PharmaCare program, the 10 days of sick leave, the anti-scab legislation, the fighting for workers' rights, all of those things Jagmeet will be remembered for. And you know, I'm proud of the seven extraordinarily strong members of parliament that are coming back to Ottawa and you know, we're going to get back to work and we're going to put together a plan to rebuild the NDP and make sure that in the next election, Canadians

don't feel that they have to vote out of a place of fear, but that they can vote out of a place of what they see. You know, nobody wants a two-party system in this country. We don't want America-style politics. There needs to be an NDP. The NDP plays a crucial role in our democracy, and I think we just really need to fight to make sure that the NDP can stay strong. We'll come back to that question of leadership perhaps in the days ahead. In the meantime, it's been a long night for you. I appreciate you speaking with us this morning. Heather, thank you. Yeah, thanks. Thank you. Have a great day.

And you Heather McPherson is the newly re-elected NDP MP for Edmonton Strathcona, one of seven NDP MPs heading back to Ottawa. We turn now to Quebec. The liberals made significant gains at the expense of the Bloc Québécois. Michel C. Auger is a political columnist at La Presse, commentator for Racha Canada. Michel, good morning to you. Good morning. Speaking with Heather McPherson, we talked about lending votes to the liberals. We saw this in Quebec as well. When I was there in Quebec City, there were a number of people, Bloc supporters, who said that for the first time in many ways, they were voting liberal. What do you make of the results in Quebec? Well, there are two things.

First, there was a very strong anti-poilier sentiment in this province, perhaps more than anywhere else in Canada. You could hear it in the streets where people saying, oh yeah, but I don't like poilier. So that was part of the gains the Liberals made. There is also third parties, life is very difficult, your previous guest said so, but it's true for the Bloc Québécois also. Voting for a party that can't take power is not normal in elections. So they lost 11 seats.

This is a difficult situation, but they've been through that before. They were down to, I think, three or four seats at one point, and they came back. They have official status, which is not the case for the NDP. So they're functional, at least. There was so much talk about Mark Carney and his connection or lack thereof with Quebec voters language, culture, can you name a cheese, can you name a singer? What do you think he did to connect with Quebec voters? I think first of all, the fact that he was the right person at the right place, you know, not very many people have been governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada.

You know, not very many people have been governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada. The ballot question was who do you want to send to meet Donald Trump as representative of Canada? And Mr. Kearney fit the bill for a lot of Quebecers. Also, like I just told you, the anti-party sentiment was there and that made the people go To the known quantity that is the the Liberal Party It's interesting we heard that when we were there the people Many people felt that they were hiring him for a specific role and the role was to work with Donald Trump in some ways Oh, yeah that that from day one people knew that this election was about naming

From day one people knew that this election was about naming Canada's representative at the table of his evi President Trump and that did not change. I understand that that in in the rest of the country. They may have been local issues or That that influenced the vote but not here here really it was a vote first of all anti-Trump, second of all saying okay who do we pick among the party leaders to do this and and Carney came out came out on top and he really owes his minority to Quebec, you know, they made gains here. The Liberals have talked just finally, they've talked a lot about working quickly to try to move ahead. For example, you know, resources, looking at an energy corridor, that would have to go through Quebec and there are debates as to whether that is what Quebecers want, things like pipelines coming through that province.

What's your sense of that? That will not be easy for Mr. Kearney. The opposition to pipelines is not so much an opposition to development. It's really about the environment and about why should we take risks like that if there's no benefit. So Mr. Carney has a big selling job to make about the energy corridors and stuff like that. This is not going to go through easily. And he will have to talk to Francois Legault.

Monsieur Legault is not the most popular politician in Quebec right now, but he's the premier. So it will be interesting to see what Monsieur Legault, who had this easy way out of saying, oh, there is no social acceptance for a pipeline. Now, if it comes back on the table, Mr. de Gaulle who is a more right-wing politician than Mr. Kearney in certain instances, would be interesting to see what the two men will hammer out on this.

This is a fascinating story and so important in understanding the results of last night. Michel, thank you as ever. Bye bye. Michel C. Ogier is a political columnist at La Presse, commentator for Radia Canada. Now our change will honour the Supreme

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Listen to season six, wherever you get your podcasts. Yudhvir Jaiswal is group editor and CEO of Y Media. It's one of the most influential media outlets serving South Asian communities. He's somebody that we turn to often to understand the politics of what's known as the 905, the ring of 30 plus writings around the city of Toronto.

Yudhvir, good morning to you. Good morning, Matt. Thanks for having me. Always good to talk to you. Thank you for being back on the program. This is a region that often tells the tale of an election. So how would you explain the story of what happened in the 905 last night? Yeah, as in the entire country itself, you know, I think the conservatives did well.

I know the liberals have won the majority of the seats, but conservatives really fought hard on many writings, including, you see, they fought hard on few writings in Mississauga, but very close contest in Brampton, they've taken one as well. What do you make of that? In some ways, the conservatives have outperformed the polling in that region. The suggestion was, and you and I talked about this, that the liberals perhaps would do stronger than they did in some of the seats. Why didn't that happen? Yeah, remember we also talked about one thing that was undercurrent. As much as when you look

at the poll numbers, we see the liberals very strong, but then was a strong undercurrent regarding affordability, crime and so many other issues. I think this is the undercurrent that we were talking. What is it that Pierre Poliev said on those issues, on affordability, on crime that you think turned the heads of voters? Yeah, I think he did a lot of rallies in the GTA region including a huge crime rally in Brampton, though the very next day, yes, we had Mark Carney also doing a rally, but I think we all know the issues of affordability and all these issues were really hammered, especially throughout the campaign by Pierre Bolivar.

I think that did make the difference. These are very, very close seats in many ways. When you take a look at the races and the number of votes coming in, what do you think voters who have voted for Mark Carney, what are they looking for now? We've been talking about the Trump issue, but there's also, to your point, issues of affordability, issues of people being able to perhaps own a home for the first time. So what are voters looking for from the prime minister? Yeah, they're all saying,

we had a discussion last night after the results came in. Actually, we were there in the studios till 3 a.m. in the morning. Would you believe this? We had callers in the studio till 3 a.m. in the morning. And they were still calling. They were still calling till 2 a.m., 3 a.m. And they were saying, saying oh we're glad that

it's a minority though we founded majority but at least we know if the government doesn't do something very quickly for affordability for crime and so many other issues oh we hope we have another election really the people they want action that quickly very quickly the first one even the liberal supporters were mentioning this liberal supporters on our studio on calls they were mentioning this yes the supporters on our studio, on calls, they were mentioning this. Yes, the government has to act very quick and fast. Are you surprised by the results? I'm a bit surprised.

Especially I would mention Brampton West. You have the Health Minister Kamal Khaira. She lost her seat. I don't think so many would have expected she would lose her seat. She was the incumbent there and she lost to the conservative, Amarjeet Gill. Yes, yes and you know even a smaller cabinet by Mark Carney she still made to get a birth there though Ruby Sohota she was the cabinet minister she didn't get a seat but anyways Kamal Khairan nobody expected and Ruby Sohota you know very hard fought

writing there are others writing Brampton Centre, still nobody knows there. And Sonia Siddhu right up until the end. Mrs. Agha also some tough call. Paramgul, he faced a tough fight there as well. Yudhvir, good to speak with you. Thank you very much. Thanks Matt. You have a wonderful day. Thank you. Yudhvir Jaswal is group editor and CEO of Why Media. We are kind of cycling through a lot of different writings and a lot of different communities across this country, speaking with people about

the results. And it's something that we tried to do earlier in the election campaign when we took the current on the road and spoke with Canadians in a number of different provinces about who they were voting for and why we were in five provinces over the course of about five or five and a half weeks. We went to Alberta, to Red Deer in particular.

And one of the people that I met in Red Deer was Jeff Rowe. He is the owner of an oil service company called Dark Star Production Testing. He welcomed us into his shop to sit around with a number of people and talk about the campaign and what they, the three gentlemen who are sitting there, wanted from the next government and Jeff Rowe is back with us on the program. Jeff, good morning. Morning, Matt. How are you? It's Jeff Rose back with us on the program. Jeff, good morning. Morning. It's good to have you back on the show.

When we talked in Red Deer earlier this month, you said that one of the main issues for you, um, was national unity. So how are you feeling about, about the election results of last night? Well, I think it's, uh, it's going to be very difficult, uh, for the next little bit here. And I think that, uh, be very difficult for the next little bit here and I think that

Carney has to make some pretty major steps here to kind of appease the Conservatives electorate and put us in Alberta adding news with the government going forward. Tell me more about that. I mean, the Premier of Alberta, Daniel Smith, has put out a list of demands. You have, and we spoke about this when I was there with you, kind of a nascent, such as it is, separatist movement in Alberta. It doesn't have overwhelming support,

but there are a lot of people who believe that a liberal government could amplify that support. What are people worried about there? Well, I think that we definitely need a clarification on the liberal position on the carbon tax. We need some provincially-led framework around that. One of the big issues here is we need a commitment to major energy infrastructure problems. We have a challenge, and I think we won the challenge in the Supreme Court with the Bill

C-69. So we would definitely like to see him walking back some of that talk or at least balancing it like launching some kind of joint Alberta, Canada trade mission so that we can actually look at accelerating our energy exports into the US and other markets. Those are some main pieces going forward. You said something really interesting when we were chatting before which was that whoever becomes the Prime Minister is going to have to make compromises. What are those compromises that you think are going to be needed from from the Liberal government but perhaps also from premiers like Daniel Smith who put out that list of demands. Well, I think a lot of what we saw in this

election was a lot of personal opinion being interpreted as fact. One of the things that needs to be happening here is one of the big key points is the kind of hardships that we feel in Alberta about the equalization formula. So I think that we definitely need to re-evaluate that. I don't think Alberta earnestly wants to withdraw from Canada. It definitely doesn't. It's just we feel that we've been put out for too long and we've

been kind of hindered on our ability to grow. We're very diverse across Canada and I think that we have to take a more diverse view to how we impose a lot of these taxes into our regional government. We can't curtail Alberta's number one resource development by instituting these emission caps. You and I talked about what my beliefs are around the ability to get energy to the world to offset, you know, higher carbon contributing nations. So by inflationary or in exports here in Alberta, we are making a positive change for carbon reductions globally. So it just seems like cutting off the nose to spite your face to continue to curtail our export development progress.

I'm going to let you go, but if you had the opportunity to put a call in to the Prime Minister Mark Carney, what would you say to him based on everything that you said and what you told us when we were out there in your shop? Well, I think it's now it's a time for national unity and I think that we really need to see Mark Carney, the Liberal government, making moves to bring Alberta back into the fold. And I think we have to have a lot of discussions and, you know, like I put forward, I believe that Canada and Alberta should be at the table together, unified in our approach to dealing with the Trump administration.

So anything that we can do moving forward to put a lot of this emotions behind us and look forward to growth over the next four years. A role for the premier in that as well to put some of those emotions behind her. I mean, again, and everybody kind of, you know, turning the temperature down, if I can put it that way. Yeah, no, I definitely agree with that. Like we have an emotional low after here in Alberta. It's heavily influenced by a lot of opinion and not necessarily fact. So I think that we need to sit down and just have an earnest conversation with Canada as a business and as a business going forward.

You're really good to have us into your shop for that conversation and I'm glad that you would wake up early and talk to us again. Jeff, thanks so much for this. Yeah, it was just an opportunity. Thank you. All the best. Jeff Rowe is the owner of the oil service company Dark Star Production Testing in Red Deer, Alberta. We spoke with him in Red Deer as part of our election road trip over the course of the campaign. It's funny, like a few months ago it was leaning towards conservative and then all of a sudden with the whole Trump stuff, we've united as a nation to come together and say no, we're gonna keep going with liberal.

I mean on the one hand I'm glad the conservatives didn't get any sort of controlling amount, but also I am disappointed by the lower numbers for the NDP support. I'm a trans woman myself, so slowly seeing all of the anti-trans rhetoric creeping into the Conservative Party has me concerned for my own safety. Everybody has the same concerns with dealing with their neighbours to the south, I think. I mean, that was going to be an issue either way. Carney was the right person for the job within the Liberal Party. I think, you know, if it's the best chance that we've got to handle that. So I work in the oil patch as a water hauler

on the drilling rigs. Just what Pauliev was talking about when it comes to the oil patch, I was hoping that the Conservatives were going to win. I do want to see more support for our military. And I want to see more support and more discussion and more, less conflict with with Danielle Smith with Ottawa. Pierre Poliev because he's a decent person, he's not a moron and he wanted to help Canadians not steal their money down the road. I liked his honesty, I liked his intelligence, I liked the fact that the reporters couldn't trip him up and that I felt he really cared about Canadians. The voices of voters at Union Station in downtown Toronto in the midst of the morning commute. We spoke with them moments ago, them talking about the vote. Did they get the government that they

wanted? Who did they vote for and why and what do they think the big issues are facing this country? Well, joining us now, three people who know well the challenges of governing Canada. Chris Alexander served as the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Matthew Dubé was the NDP MP for Bel-et-Chambly in Quebec from 2011 to 2019. And Martha Hall Finley is a former Liberal MP and leadership candidate. They all join us now to talk about what happened and where we go from here. Good morning, everyone. Hi there. Good morning, everyone. Hi there. Good morning. Good morning, Matt.

Martha Hall-Finley, what just happened last night as a liberal? Are you still scratching your head, wondering how the math changed so quickly? Well, to be clear, I was a liberal when I was in politics. I think of myself as being significantly post-partisan.

A recovering liberal, is that how you put it? Well, I mean, I think what, especially has been highlighted by Donald Trump, but for many, many of us watching what's been happening with the country, we're not doing well economically. Our productivity numbers are terrible. Um, and we're falling behind our country, uh, peers.

And so we have an awful lot of work to do. Um, I think what happened was that there was a greater recognition of, oh yeah, we have to actually do an awful lot for our economic prosperity, which of course is critical then for our social prosperity. And there was a view that because of Trump, it was pretty clear. I think an awful lot of people look to Mark Carney

as being that experienced. I mean, I'm not saying anything most Canadians weren't thinking as well, right? We looked at Mark Carney as that globally experienced person who showed a potential path to really taking the country forward in a way that we need to. Chris Alexander, Donald Trump is not on the ballot, although he put out a social media post yesterday,

essentially saying people should vote for him and vote for what he's interested in. How did he scramble the math, do you think, in this election? Well, he scrambled it totally, Matt. I mean, I was joking with some people yesterday that it was gonna be an orange wave a bit like 2011, but not with the NDP,

but with the orange, unpredictable ball of trouble that we're all facing in the US influencing this race. And it did. And it's given us, it shaped the election. It gave Mark Carney his mandate. It brought the Liberals back to life. But it's really given the two leading parties a victory in that they have the lion's share of the vote. They're both over 40%. The conservatives go up in seats more than any other party more than the liberals, which most of the polling and most of the projections hadn't expected. So

they're kind of two qualified victories. Carney doesn't have a full mandate, a majority mandate, certainly not yet. And Paul Lever has more seats, but not a seat for himself and some issues, uh, and housekeeping to look after inside the conservative family. Do you think he can stay on as conservative leader?

The conservatives have lost four consecutive elections to the liberal party. Can Pierre Poliev stay on? It'll be a question. I mean, it'll play out. What do you think of that question? I think it's going to be hard for him unless he can mend fences with the Ontario party, mend fences

with the Nova Scotia party. There was clear disconnects there and show that he's going to be someone who's bringing conservatives together and not driving us apart. Last night's coverage of the election was as much about this swirling constellation of emotions among conservatives as it was about the broader political story. Constellation of emotions is, is, is an interesting turn of phrase where a lot of

people would say that it's infighting. It's infighting. Yeah. I mean, it broke into the open last night, some of it. Um, and it has to be overcome if we're going to meet the moment, if he's going to be the leader that he wants to be and ultimately take government.

So, uh, there's tough going to have to be soul searching on his part. I think whether he keeps his job depends on the soul searching that he does, he and his team. Matthew Dubé, the NDP saw its vote collapse and the party has lost official party status. It is going to have to search for a new leader because Jigmeet Singh lost his seat and is stepping down. Where does that leave the party?

I think one of the key considerations will be when ends up happening when the final votes are tallied. I know as we're speaking, the Liberals are still a couple of seats shy from a majority. So I think that changes the calculus for the NDP a little bit if there's an opportunity to play a role with the Liberals that are a few seats shy of a majority to have a dance partner, if you will, in the House of Commons. But it's definitely not a fun morning. It wasn't a great night for New Democrats. I think a big part of the reason is that there is the juxtaposition of what I think were meaningful policy achievements, but a complete breakdown of support. And I think the other thing that was notable to me is where the party stood in writings

where they shouldn't have been so far back. One writing that jumped out to me was Halifax. It used to be Alexa McDonagh's writing, a former party leader, also represented by Megan Leslie, a strong, prominent New Democrat MP from a number of years. And to see the NDP, last I checked, maybe those numbers will change as the morning goes on. But to be third there is not good. It's not where the party needs to be. And obviously, there's a confluence of factors. But I think there's a lot of questions to be asked as well about where it's not just about the upending of the proverbial apple

cart with Donald Trump and those issues. I think when you look at how well the conservatives did in writings, you know, picking up Windsor West, long represented by Brian Massey from the NDP. These are long time, I mean, what people in quotation marks would call, you know, working-class voters that were scooped up by conservatives. Yeah, absolutely. So I think, and you know, don't get me wrong, the policy gains that the NDP made, you know, with dental care and the starting point of pharma care, those are things that do matter to working people and should matter. But I think there's questions to be asked about how that's

communicated, if you will, and sold, for lack of a better term, to those working class voters, because there's clearly a disconnect there. Martha Hall-Finley, you're in Calgary and when we take a look at the results when you're assessing the popular vote, both the conservatives and the liberals come in over 40% when we were in Alberta and we just heard this from a man that I met in central Alberta in Red Deer. There are a lot of people in that part of the province who still feel and feel perhaps even more this morning shut out from the national conversation.

What does Mark Carney as prime minister need to do to try to make people coast to coast to coast feel like he can represent them? Well, a couple of things. He can become, he can be much clearer than he has been so far on things like emissions cap. And to be clear, I don't know anybody who isn't really concerned about the environment, who isn't concerned about climate. There are an awful

lot of people very concerned about that and a real desire to do what we need to do from emissions, reductions, etc. But the emissions cap as it was structured simply was not feasible in terms of actually putting shovels in the ground. And when you have to have the right construction people, you have to have the technology, you need to understand that. And arbitrary caps and timelines, Mark, it would do wonders for Mark Carney if he could say, look, we all know we're working toward reduction of emissions,

but we also recognize that the timelines that the predecessor actually imposed probably don't make sense. So let's figure out how we can work with industry. Let's figure out how we can work with the premier. There's an incredible opportunity for collaboration here. Both of the leading parties got over 40%. Do we want either one of them to then have to turn

to the NDP or the Bloc to govern what is just such an incredible time for this country, both challenging but I would say also opportunity. You know, it's not a stretch to think when you listen to the two leaders of the main party saying similar things like the need for infrastructure corridor, the need for pipelines, the need for other trade infrastructure, the need for us being able to get more of what we have in Canada to other countries. There is a huge opportunity here for Mark and for Pierre Pouillier and for Danielle Smith to say we need, this is a moment in time for Canada that we cannot lose, right?

You don't wanna say- That sounds like you're taking the politics out of it in some ways. I mean, I just wonder whether it's possible, and sure, there's a role for Marconi in there, but there's a role for the premier of Alberta and Daniel Smith as well- Absolutely.

To turn things down and try to figure out how to work together. Absolutely, but I think that the threat that we have to the south of us, and we have a whole lot of Russians to the north, like these are pretty serious times for this country. But I think that the threat that we have to the south of us and we have a whole lot of Russians to the north like These are pretty serious times for this country um, I do think people can rise above and take some of the politics some of the partisan politics the nasty stuff out of

It and say look we've there are a lot of things that we've said that we actually agree on Can we park the ultra politics for a bit and recognize that the country, not a party, but the country will benefit if we can figure out the ways, the places that we can collaborate. And I actually think that that's possible. And I've heard that from Mark Carney. I've, I, I have heard it from Danielle Smith. That's not necessarily what you get in the

headlines. So I'm actually pretty hopeful. That's optimistic. Um, Chris Alexander, you were talking. I prefer to be optimistic. That's optimistic. Um, Chris Alexander, you were talking. I prefer to be optimistic. Yeah, that's great. Chris Alexander, you were talking about, um, what the conservatives need to do again, on

the string of, of, of four election losses. What does the party have to do to broaden its coalition to, to bring more people? 40% is a lot of voters, but it's not enough in this circumstance to put them over the top. What does the, what does the party need to do? It is about the leader or is it about something more, more broad? No, I think it's broader. Um, there has to be more of a, of a, of an effort to reach out to

urban voters. There has been progress in the 905 here, uh, smaller cities in Ontario, but the islands of Lavelle and Montreal, greater Ottawa, most of Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, the lower mainland were not strong areas and, and it's hard to win without them. What turns those voters off, do you think, from the party? Well, I, I think it's, I think those urban voters were really, uh really prepared to buy into this affordability cost

of living agenda several months ago, but they were really shocked by Donald Trump and they didn't see conservatives buying into that, coming in behind them, the real emotional quandary that Canadians were in. And housing, do conservatives understand how it works in the big cities? Do they understand that it's about incomes as well as in urban centers across the country, as well as the cost of actual housing units.

The incomes need to grow if people are going to afford it. There need to be job opportunities that are in the sectors that are driving our cities. We need to give the energy sector a fair shake. It's Canada's biggest export sector by far in terms of value. But we have to grow the whole country. And I think conservatives are still being asked

in the big cities, how they're going to do that. Matthew Dubé, this is, people have thrown this existential word around a lot over the last few months to talk about the state of Canada, but this is a real moment for the NDP. What is one thing that the next leader of your party needs to think about to try to bring this party back? I think one of the things is what we already touched on in my earlier remarks,

where they need to consider how to speak to working people, but also balance that with some of the, you know, some of how the party's demographics are shifting, you know, with young people who are thinking more of the environment and maybe not those traditional blue collar workers that have long made up NDP support. I think there's a tension there, some of the more urban voters who are, who weren't what the NDP voter typically looked like,

30, 40 years ago. And I think over the last number of years, there's been a shift there. And I think the party has struggled a little bit with how to address that. And so I think that'll be something important to look at. And I think the party has struggled a little bit with how to address that. And so I think that'll be something important to look at. And I think the other thing is, you know, there's a longstanding, another longstanding tension in the party about what the party wants to be.

And there's some, including among caucus members, there are some who see it more as a movement, the conscience of parliament, you know, there to make an impact and sort of nothing more. And there's others who look at it more in the way we would traditionally see political parties as being a vehicle to forming a government and compromise. And I think if you look at new democratic governments provincially across the country, whether it's in Manitoba or British Columbia and in places like Saskatchewan where they've

been in power previously, and even in Nova Scotia a number of years ago, they've been more pragmatic. And so I think that there needs to be a conversation about what the raison d'etre of the party is. And I think for myself, when I was an MP, it was very much to form government and the art of politics is compromised. So I think Jagmeet Singh was successful in doing that internally with the liberals in the Supply and Confidence Agreement, but it just didn't translate to broader support.

I think there needs to be recalibration on that front, and it's certainly something that the next leaders should give some thought to. It's going to be a real moment for that party. And Martha Huffman, we have to let you all go, but a real moment for this country as well. Your optimism and the hope that you ended your last remarks with, I think, are really important. This has been such a tumultuous time for this country, and in part that has shaped the election.

And you entered this day, the 29th of April, with a sense of hope for the country. Thanks, Matt. Thank you. Chris Alexander. Thanks for having me, Matt. Good to have you all here. Chris Alexander served as the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration under the former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Martha Huffindley, former Liberal MP and leadership candidate, and Matthew Dubé was the NDP MP for Belay Chambly in Quebec from 2011 through 2019. This is The Current. My name is Matt Galloway and we are whipping through many of the communities that we have spoken with in past and communities that had interesting things to say on our road trip about the election, who people were voting for

and why. Amit Kumar runs a trucking company. He's president of the Canadian Trucking Association of British Columbia. He is in Surrey, British Columbia. Amit, hello to you. Hello, Matt. You and I spoke in the pouring rain outside of a trucking depot talking about the election and who you were voting for and why. What's your reaction

to the results this morning your writings in South Surrey White Rock and a liberal has won that writing That is correct. I think if You know remember we spoke about change, so I do see a lot of change again There are some changes, you know, which we like there are some we don't but you know changes change There are some changes which we like, there are some we don't, but change is change. So if we look at the time when we spoke, all three leaders, so even though it was just intruder for the major part, he's gone. Jagmeet Singh lost his election, Pierre Pauli have lost, so people did change.

That's why I said all change is not to our liking, but there was change that was seen in the selection results. You were cautious about saying who you were going to vote for. Do you mind saying, will you tell us who you voted for? Yeah, I voted for conservatives. You voted for the conservatives. And what was it about the conservatives that was attractive to you? More about security and infrastructure. So those were the things which are real close to heart.

They have been, and that was something which I did not hear a lot. The safety part did not come out very much from the Liberal Party. When it comes to that issue of, and again, this is something we spoke with you, but outside, the issue of your relationship with the United States. What do you want to see from the Prime Minister, Mark Carney?

Being in trucking, you have that intimate relationship. Trucks go back and forth and back and forth across that border. And so what do you need to see from the Prime Minister now to address the uncertainty that so many people like yourself are feeling? the Prime Minister now to address the uncertainty that so many people like yourself are feeling? He has to come up with a plan and deal with this issue head on. It cannot be delayed any further. It's been, today's gonna be 100 days of Mr. Trump in office

and the rhetoric hasn't stopped. So they have to take it head on. You optimistic that they'll do that? They would have no choice but to deal with that. So they have to. I'm glad to talk to you again. Thank you very much. Thank you, Matt. Amit Kumar runs a trucking company. He's also president of the Canadian Trucking Association of British Columbia and we reached him in Surrey, BC. This is The Current on CBC Radio. We are whipping through the results of the federal election where Mark Carney and the Liberals will form the next government. Peter McKay was a cabinet minister in Stephen Harper's government. He ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2020.

He lost to Aaron O'Toole. Obviously, he has been watching these results very closely. Peter McKay, good morning to you. Good morning to you, Matt. How are you? I'm well. How do you make sense of what happened last night? Well, look, it's hard to make sense of it because it's really still a little bit up in the air in terms of some seats to be decided. But, you know, clearly disappointing for the Conservatives, to say the least. I know what it takes to go into these elections and the preparation work and that that applies to everyone to be clear but uh, you know one of the more important messages that I heard coming from prime minister carney last night was

That we need to pull together and I I think that that is Still raw and hard for conservatives and for others, but that has to be where we get And and the way to do that, of course, is from the government leadership position to reach out, to follow through on some of the big commitments, including working to build our economy, including our energy sector, and of course, to wrestle with the enormous challenges that will come and further recriminations from the United States. So we have an enormous challenge before us as a country and staying unified is among the top priorities

in my opinion. Why couldn't Pierre Pauli have closed the deal? He had an enormous lead, what, four, six months ago, ends up with a fourth consecutive loss to a liberal government, but also losing his own seat, a seat that he held for some 20 years. Why do you think Piropolyev could not seal the deal here? Yeah, look, it's bitter for sure, but let's unpack that a little further. I think there's two main factors that saw that lead melt away. Number one was the departure of Justin Trudeau and all of the anger and frustration that went with it

seemed to dissipate very quickly. So it was a bit of an artificial inflated lead that the pure Pollyanna conservatives were enjoying. And then of course, there was the continuous intrusions right up to and including in the middle of the election And last night for goodness sakes Donald J Trump just could not resist the temptation to continue to insert himself in the Canadian election and that caused fear and It caused a lot of people I think to drift back to the liberal party in the hopes that Mr.

Carney with his resume, his previous positions, that he was the guy. Well, we'll see. And you know, as a Canadian, I hope it's true. I really do. Pierre Pelléov did not resign last night, having lost his seat. Do you think he should have?

No, I think he's earned the right to at least take the time to contemplate his future. Uh, he put a tremendous amount of time and effort into bringing the Conservative party to the very cusp of, uh, of victory. And, um, you know, last night, I'm sure it was extremely difficult for him, for his family. So he's earned the right to make that decision

and, uh, and to continue on if he chooses to do so. Do you believe he should continue on as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada? I believe he should. I believe he's earned the right. And, uh, I know that that is difficult from outside the commons. It has been done before.

There are precedents for it, but I believe he, you know, deserves that opportunity. it, but I believe he you know deserves that opportunity I respect what he did I respect his efforts to bring Canadians together around thoughtful policy costed solution and You know time will tell but that that is the brutality of politics You know there was a lot of people who lost their positions last night on on all sides and that's hard on families. It's it's hard on communities sometimes and it's you know it's the nature of politics. For conservatives it seems you know the last 50 years we've been born to have our hearts broken.

You mentioned unity. There are, you would well know, rumors of tension between the Premier of Nova Scotia, Tim Houston and Pierre Poliev. This video that Tim Houston put out, which was him celebrating Nova Scotia, but to a lot of people seemed like him announcing something that he was interested in something, and some conjecture that he is gutting for Pierre Poliev's job. What do you make of that?

Well, let me put that to rest. That's just not the case. I mean, I was out on the doorsteps with Tim Houston's wife and our local candidate. He said very openly the other day that he was voting conservative. So it was just a video of him celebrating Nova Scotia, is that what it was? No, Matt, no, no. It was him celebrating the fact that Nova Scotia is doing what all provinces should be doing and that is building our economy, looking for new markets, celebrating our products, the fact that Nova Scotia is feeling optimistic in the face of some

of these challenges and Tim Huston is a very talented communicator, he has economic background and credentials and he's working in the best interests of Nova Scotians as the premier of Nova Scotia. I didn't see that as any sort of an over challenge or an announcement of anything other than promoting Nova Scotia. Just finally, Mark Carney will be the prime minister for all Canadians.

And there are a lot of Canadians who did not vote for the Liberal Party. If you were to put a word into him, what would you say as a word of advice to ensure that we've been talking a lot, just as a sub theme, it seems like this morning about national unity. What would you say to him about the importance of bringing this country together and how he'd go

by doing that? Well, I would say move with haste to bring parliament back and, uh, and to allow that important institution to do its work. I would suggest as a priority that he spend a significant amount of time working with premiers and other leaders within the country.

And prioritize our natural resources including he has spoken about having a national energy, national security, national economic corridor that goes from coast to coast that follows the vision of John A. Macdonald when he built the railroad. That to me is going to be our salvation. If we're able to get our products to market and to bring down trade barriers within Canada, that will fortify us against

the threats that appear to be coming right now that are coming from the United States of America. Busy morning for you. I appreciate you taking some time to speak with us about what unfolded last night and what is ahead. Peter McKay, thank you so much. Thank you, Matt. All the best. Peter McKay was a cabinet minister in the government of Stephen Harper, former contestant

and somebody who wanted to lead the leadership of the Conservative Party back in 2020.