A weakened Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set out Tuesday to secure the support of smaller parties he will need to form a government after winning Canada’s nail-biter general election but falling short of a majority.
Trudeau’s Liberals took 157 seats in the 338-member House of Commons, down from a comfortable majority of 184 in the last ballot (and from 177 at the dissolution of parliament), official results showed.
The standard-bearer for progressivism will now have to seek some kind of accommodation with the Bloc Quebecois or the New Democratic Party (NDP) to consolidate his position.
Before launching talks with their leaders Trudeau greeted people at a subway station in Montreal and posed for selfies.
He was scheduled to address the nation on Wednesday.
Monday evening Trudeau received congratulations from US President Donald Trump and on Tuesday from European Council President Donald Tusk.
The win, after a horse race with the Tories, was a vindication for Trudeau, amid a campaign in which his Liberals lost support across Canada.
Going into the elections his golden-boy image had already been damaged by ethics lapses in the handling of the bribery prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin. His popularity took a further hit with the emergence during the campaign of old photographs of him in blackface makeup.
The scandals, which also included his bullying of his attorney general, could still be investigated by federal police.
