Trudeau calls for snap elections in Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Sunday that he was calling for an earlier election in an effort to win back a majority in the House of Commons. 

In order for elections to be triggered, the Canadian prime minister must make a request to dissolve Parliament to the governor general, according to The Washington Post. Queen Elizabeth’s representative in the country, Governor General Mary Simon, approved the request after meeting Trudeau on Sunday.

Though the next election was slated for October 2023, Trudeau is betting that the Liberal Party may be able to win its majority again after the last election in 2019 left his political party with not enough seats to take control of the House of Commons, according to The Post.

His party only received 157 seats out of 338 in the 2019 election, short of the 170 needed to gain the majority, Al Jazeera reported.

The last time the Liberal Party won control of the majority of the House of Commons was in the previous 2015 election, according to Al Jazeera.

The report follows weeks of speculation that an earlier election could be called. 

Amid a strong economy post-pandemic and over 70 percent of eligible Canadians vaccinated in the country, Trudeau hopes that an earlier election might strike success for his party, Reuters reported.

“We will be taking decisions that will last not just for the coming months but for the coming decades. Canadians deserve their say. That’s exactly what we’re going to give them,” Trudeau said on Sunday, according to the wire service. 

In response to critics who questioned why he was calling an earlier election, he said, “In this pivotal, consequential moment, who wouldn’t want a say? Who wouldn’t want a chance to help decide where our country goes from here? Canadians need to choose how we finish the fight against COVID-19 and build back better,” according to Al Jazeera.