{"id":602841,"date":"2026-04-14T06:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602841\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:18:12","slug":"carney-clinches-majority-government-in-canadian-special-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602841\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney clinches majority government in Canadian special elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney leaves the stage after speaking during the 2026 Liberal National Convention in Montreal, Canada, on April 11, 2026. (PHOTO\/AFP)<\/p>\n

OTTAWA – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> secured a parliamentary majority \u200bfor his Liberal government on Monday, a win that he has said will help him deal more effectively with the trade war started \u200cby US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

It will also likely mean Carney, who took office with no political experience and has earned global praise for his efforts to band middle-power nations together, won’t have to worry about an election for years.<\/p>\n

Capping off an extraordinary few months in Canada when several opposition members joined Carney’s Liberals, his party said on X that it had secured two districts – \u200bknown as ridings – in Ontario in special elections.<\/p>\n

Those were the ridings of University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest which have long voted Liberal. The results of a \u200bthird election are still being counted.<\/p>\n

The win takes Carney’s Liberals to 173 seats in the 343-seat House of Commons.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Canada-US trade talks face strain<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe will \u2060be able to pass legislation without having to go to the opposition to secure enough votes,\u201d said Andrew McDougall, assistant professor in Canadian politics at the University \u200bof Toronto.<\/p>\n

The Liberals have relied on selective support from the Conservatives to pass economic and trade-related legislation in the last year.<\/p>\n

Carney has solidified his grip on leading Canada \u200buntil at least 2029, when national elections are due to be held next. The last time a federal government had a majority in Parliament was under Justin Trudeau from 2015 to 2019.<\/p>\n

Carney’s position strengthened when five opposition legislators in five months defected to the Liberals. Only the governments led by John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, and Jean Chretien have seen more politicians \u200bdefect to the ruling party.<\/p>\n

‘Large Liberal tent’<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, longtime Conservative politician Marilyn Gladu switched parties to join Carney\u2019s government, saying Canada needs \u201ca serious leader who can address the \u200buncertainty that has arrived due to the unjustified American tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gladu, a former chemical engineer who has previously drawn criticism for promoting unproven scientific treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic, opposing a ban \u200con conversion \u2060therapy and suggesting the military be used to end Indigenous-led protests against oil pipelines, thanked Carney for inviting her into \u201cthe large Liberal tent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The University-Rosedale seat was previously held by former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who resigned after being appointed as economic development advisor in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The Liberals also said they won a special election to replace former Liberal lawmaker Bill Blair, who resigned after he was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Canada unveils ambitious plan to strengthen arctic defense, development<\/a><\/p>\n

In the third riding in Terrebonne, Quebec, the Liberals are in an extremely \u200btight race with the Bloc Quebecois. The \u200bLiberals won it by just one \u2060vote in the last federal election, but the result was overturned by Canada’s Supreme Court because of a misprint on a voter’s envelope.<\/p>\n

Laura Stephenson, chair of the political science department at the University of Western Ontario, noted that while Trudeau had \u200bshifted the party to the left and prioritized issues like reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, rights for minority groups and immigration, \u200bthere are more pressing \u2060matters for Carney, a more centrist leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is focused on helping Canada survive the economic turmoil, not remaking society,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re in tough times like this, there are different calculations being made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent polling from Nanos shows more than half of Canadians prefer Carney as their prime minister, with just 23 percent picking Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. Before Carney \u2060became leader \u200bof the Liberal Party last year, Poilievre had been projected to win the next election by more \u200bthan 20 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarney has done a fairly good job showing Canadians he can handle Trump,\u201d said McDougall of the University of Toronto. \u201cHe\u2019s shown Canadians he\u2019s a competent manager of the economy and the country,\u201d \u200bhe said. \u201cAnd so far Canadians have not been overly impressed by the alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney leaves the stage after speaking during the 2026 Liberal National Convention in Montreal,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[228009,49,48,80101,227064,2659,44,228008,227931,227949],"class_list":{"0":"post-602841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-bloc-quebecois","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-liberals","12":"tag-majority-government","13":"tag-mark-carney","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-scarborough-southwest","16":"tag-terrebonne","17":"tag-university-rosedale"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}