The Canadian general election of 2021: one of the biggest wastes of time and money in modern political history

The Canadian general election of 21 September 2021, called by current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau so voters could assess his performance during the recent coronavirus pandemic-nothing else-turned out largely to be a considerable waste of time and Canadian taxpayers' money.

Mr. Trudeau's attempt to regain the parliamentary majority he and the Liberals lost in 2019 failed-he made a net gain of only one seat compared to 2019, falling 12 seats short of an overall majority. The (Canadian) Conservatives under Erin O'Toole, meanwhile, actually made a net loss of 2 seats and notably all but two of their losses were in Alberta (the only landlocked province in Canada, and also their strongest province) and British Columbia (their weakest province and the only Canadian province with a Pacific coastline). The New Democratic Party, led by Jagmeet Singh, made a net gain of 1 seat, with their only 2 losses involving ridings where the incumbent was retiring; that said Nunavut was the only riding which they kept with a retiring NDP incumbent. Bloc Quebecois gained 2 seats and lost none; they were the only major party in Canada to retain all their 2019 seats. 

It was the Green Party of Canada and the People's Party of Canada (closer in outlook to Reform UK and pre-2019 UKIP in practice) who suffered most from this early election. Just months before the election, Jenica Atwin, MP for Fredericton in New Brunswick, had defected to the Liberals; she easily held her seat whilst the Green candidate who took her place, Nicole O'Byrne, finished a poor third. Surprisingly, Paul Manly in Nanaimo-Ladysmith finished third in a close contest with the Conservatives and Liberals, the latter of whom gained that riding by just 1,001 votes, with Mr Manly being just a further 1,737 votes behind. In fact the Greens fared quite poorly in British Columbia overall, the province long regarded as their strongest-in Victoria, a riding they have long hoped to gain, they dropped from a challenging second to a miserable fourth. Former Canadian Green Party leader Elizabeth May held onto her own riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands easily but her 2019 majority was nevertheless more than halved from 19,650 to 8,171. However, they did manage to gain Kitchener Centre, with that riding's incumbent Liberal MP Raj Siani falling to fourth place after withdrawing partway through the campaign due to sexual harassment allegations; it helped that Mike Morrice had contested the seat before, achieving a good second place in 2019. The Greens' poor performance is primarily attributable to infighting over the controversial leadership of Anamie Paul, although it also only fielded 252 candidates in this election when it normally fields close to a full slate meaning a lot of Canadians could not vote Green (and a time when the climate emergency is so crucial and when Mr Trudeau's environmental record has been clearly inadequate); not since 1997 have fewer Green Party candidates been fielded in a Canadian general election. The People's Party once again failed to win a seat, and only its leader Maxime Bernier came second, in the same riding of Beauce which he was a Conservative MP for, but he did not come close to winning. Although some Albertan Conservatives had criticised Mr O'Toole for failing to heed Western Canadian interests, this proved to be of no help to the PPC or the Maverick Party, reminiscent of the 1980s Reform Party of Canada in many respects. Finally, the Freedom Party of Canada, opposed to strict post-coronavirus measures including vaccine passports, failed to make any significant impact with most of its candidates polling less than 1,000 votes per riding, much like similar single-issue anti-coronavirus restrictions parties around the world.

Only 24 ridings changed hands at this Canadian general election-the lowest since 2000, and only 20 incumbents were defeated-8 Liberals, 9 Conservatives, 1 Green, and also Derek Sloan and Michel Boudrias who were deselected as MPs by the Conservative and Bloc Quebecois parties respectively and who failed badly to remain in the Canadian House of Commons as independents.

As expected with an unnecessary early general election, turnout dropped sharply, from 67% to just over 58%, with low turnouts most notable in urban conurbations, highlighting further how much of a waste of time and money this particular early Canadian general election was, especially with such low seat changes across the board.