The mood inside the Rogers Centre on Monday night shifted from cautious optimism to somber resignation as Conservative supporters gathered to watch federal election results come in.
Donning Tory-blue hats and T-shirts emblazoned with Pierre Poilievre’s signature “Canada First” campaign maxim, attendees at the downtown Ottawa event initially exuded hope that weeks of stubbornly unfavourable polls were somehow wrong.
And early returns from Atlantic Canada did hint at Conservative over-performance, prompting sporadic cheers from a crowd of supporters deeply frustrated by a decade of Liberal governance.
“I think our country is in a sad state right now,” said Blake Davis, 64, who drove in for the event from Brockville, Ont. “I don’t know what else to say. It’s just sad.”
Davis says he is troubled by the economic hardship facing generations below him. He sees Poilievre as a champion for gen-Zers and millennials.
“I have a business. I’m financially secure. But I want young people to live a decent life.”
But the hopes of Poilievre supporters like Davis were soon dashed by ballot tallies in Quebec and Ontario; the Tories simply could not flip all the seats they needed to flip.
Slowly but surely, the arithmetic of defeat spelled itself out in silent, blinking numbers.
At just after 10:00 p.m. ET, CBC projected a Liberal minority government under Mark Carney. The announcement was met with stunned silence, and the earlier enthusiasm gave way to hushed conversations and dejected glances between staffers and party faithful.
As the numbers dashed across the screen, the faces in the crowd became not witnesses to a long-anticipated victory, but mourners at a wake that would have seemed unimaginable mere months ago, when the Tories held a commanding double-digit lead in national polls.
By Tuesday morning, the Liberals’ projected seat total hovered around 168 — a few seats shy of the 172 threshold needed to form a majority government.
Popular vote
Just after midnight, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced his resignation as party leader after coming in third place in his B.C. riding of Burnaby Central.
Singh, who was first elected to Parliament in 2019, lost by double-digit percentage points to both his Liberal and Conservative challengers.
Singh’s resignation was met with applause by Tory supporters throughout the Rogers Centre. Many pointed to the NDP’s underperformance as a decisive factor in the Conservative defeat.
As of Tuesday morning, the NDP had won just 6.3 per cent of the popular vote, and was projected to win only seven seats.
The Liberals received 43.5 per cent of the popular vote, and the Conservatives received 41.4 per cent.
‘My purpose in politics’
Shortly before 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Poilievre took the stage. Smiling, and outwardly undisturbed by the Conservative loss, Poilievre emphasized the need for political perseverance.
“The promise that was made to me, and to all of you, is that anybody from anywhere can achieve anything — that through hard work, you could get a great life,” Poilievre told his supporters. “My purpose in politics is, and will continue to be, to restore that promise.
“It will be an honour to continue to fight for you, and to be a champion of your cause as we go forward,” he said.
Early Tuesday morning, the CBC called Poilievre’s own Carleton riding for the Liberal candidate, Bruce Fanjoy. This leaves Poilievre without a seat for the first time since becoming a parliamentarian in 2004.
The loss raises questions about whether Poilievre will stay on as leader — and who will take up the mantle if he does not.
I think the majority of Canadians would disagree with this diagnosis: no the country is not in a sad state, there is a mass sigh of relief that someone who is much too close to Donald Trump in attitude and governing philosophy has been electorally defeated, and a person who is experienced and competent, and shows a facility for standing up to Donald Trump, and has a positive vision for improving Canada’s prospects is now our Prime Minister. In other words, it’s only sad if you insist on remaining in an extreme right-wing bubble.