Dr. Nivedita Das Kundu writes: The win of Liberal Party in recent national election in Canada lead by Justin Trudeau, shocked the world, winning a majority, ending nearly a decade of Conservative rule Justin Trudeau, the Liberal Party leader looked like an unlikely candidate to be Canada’s next Prime Minister. However, the election results changed this impression totally The 43 years old Trudeau, son of former long-serving Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau, was first elected to parliament in 2008 and took the helm of the party in April 2013He is going to be the second youngest Prime Minister of Canada in Canadian history.

In the parliamentary elections, the Liberal party won a majority vote, winning 184 of the 338 seats in parliament with its representative’s presence almost in every province The most-populated regions, Quebec, Ontario, and from Canada’s Eastern Seaboard and the Pacific Coast city of Vancouver, showed a wave of Liberal red, marking an impressive victory. This win showed the first Liberal majority in 15 years in Canada This election resulted in a deep defeat for conservative party and its leader Stephen Harper. The Conservative party fell from 166 seats to about 101 However, the Conservatives maintained their support in the resource-rich western provinces, as well as, in majority of rural Canada. The Liberal’s victory was also a defeat for the left-leaning new democrats, who ended up with just 42 seats. The discourse among political analysts in Canada is that Canadians were fed up with 10 years of Stephen Harper governments rule; hence, this change was brought.

In this national election the Indian-origin candidates won a record 19 seats. Indo-Canadian Liberal candidates’ won 15 seats, while 3 Indo-Canadian candidates won from the Conservative Party. An Indo-Canadian candidate from the NDP also won a seat. Indian-Canadians make up over 3% of Canada’s population i.e. of about 35 million and have become a significant political force in Canada This election results indicated that one should not take one’s opponents for granted, even if they are placed way behind.

India and Canada share strong bond of democracy and inclusiveness enriched by a vibrant Indian Diaspora. India and Canada’s bilateral ties have seen a transformation in recent times underpinned by shared values of  pluralism, expanding economic engagement, increasing  regular high-level interactions and long-standing people-to-people contact.   It is expected that the Liberals in Canada will have relatively easy time passing legislation through Parliament due to their majority, nonetheless, Justin Trudeau will be under a spotlight both as a politician and as a leader, as Canadian voters will keep judging him as either a correct choice or a gamble by letting this young but inexperienced flamboyant leader to head such a magnificent vibrant country.