Trudeau overcomes scandals to win second term as Canada’s PM

Bloomberg

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won a second term in national elections, displaying once again a remarkable ability to overcome scandal and controversy to remain in power.
Trudeau’s Liberal Party won or was leading in 156 of Canada’s 338 electoral districts, as of 1:33 am Ottawa time, losing his majority in parliament and the popular vote, but gaining enough seats to secure a stable government with support from smaller parties.
The most likely partner for Trudeau would be the pro-labor New Democratic Party, which is on track to win 24 seats, giving the two parties a combined 180.
While his minority position weakens his mandate, the result will nonetheless come as a relief for Trudeau, 47, who entered the campaign wounded by a scandal over his handling of a judicial case for a Quebec engineering firm, and was further rocked by revelations he wore blackface at least three times when he was younger.
Canadians “voted in favour of a progressive agenda and strong action on climate change,” Trudeau said in his victory speech in Montreal.
“I have heard you my friends, you are sending our Liberal team back to work, back to Ottawa with a clear mandate.”
The prospect of a relatively stable minority government sparked little market reaction, with the Canadian dollar trading little changed at C$1.3086, a three-month high.
One Canadian dollar buys 76 US cents.
Trudeau even won support from Donald Trump.
The second term allows the Liberal leader to cement one of the most left-leaning agendas the country has seen in at least a generation — progressive on social issues, willing to run deficits to tackle income disparities, assertive on climate change and fervently internationalist in an era of populism.
The push to the left would be accelerated if the Liberals are forced to team up with the NDP — an alliance that will produce some trepidation in Canada’s energy sector, already saddled with reduced oil prices due to pipeline bottlenecks. Trudeau can also turn to other parties for support on a vote-by-vote basis.