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Mark Carney has said he will govern with “humility, determination and a clear understanding of what this moment demands” after his Liberals swept three byelections Monday evening, forging a parliamentary majority just more than a year after he took power.
Carney has achieved only the third majority government in two decades – and has done so in a highly unusual fashion, cobbling together both ballot box wins and defections from rival parties.
While the Liberals were heavily favoured in two of three byelections on Monday, they outperformed in all contests at the expense of a struggling Conservative party.
Danielle Martin won easily in University-Rosedale and Doly Begum, who Carney’s team wooed from the provincial New Democratic party, captured nearly 70% of the vote in Scarborough Southwest. Tatiana Auguste, whose 2025 victory of a single vote made headlines, came out on top after a close battle in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne.
Ahead of Monday’s special elections, the Liberals held 171 seats in the House of Commons. Five of those came from lawmakers who had defected from other parties.
The Liberals now hold 174 of 343 seats. The Conservatives have 140, the Bloc Québécois 22, the NDP six, and the Greens one.
“This is a time to come together so we can build a Canada strong for all,” Carney said in a statement shortly after midnight, calling for bipartisan “collaboration, partnership, and ambition” in the coming months.
“We will build a Canada that is not just strong, but good; not just prosperous, but fair; not just for some, most of the time, but for all, all of the time,” he said. “That is the responsibility we have been given by Canadians. We will achieve it together.”
Carney’s Liberals were handed a minority government mandate by voters last year. But the constant threat of Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies – and the highly erratic and unpredictable nature of how those policies are implemented – has shored up support for Carney, who has pledged a steady economic hand.
A string of floor crossings from parties to both the ideological left and right of the Liberals has produced a feat without modern precedent: building a majority government from a legislative minority.
Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader who has lost four of his parliamentary members to the Liberals, condemned the outcome on Monday evening.
“The Carney Liberals did not win a majority government through a general election or today’s byelections. Instead, it was won through backroom deals with politicians who betrayed the people who voted for them,” he wrote on social media. “Liberals expect Canadians to give up, get complacent and go away, so Carney can have total power without any accountability. That will not happen. Our country and its people are worth fighting for.”
With an election now likely three years away, Poilievre must contend with reduced political power – and persistent rumours that more Tories are preparing to abandon the party. Electoral results underscored the challenge he faces: the Conservative vote share dropped by double-digits in all three ridings, including one of the party’s worst-ever performance outside a major city in Quebec.
An aggregate of national polls show the Liberals far ahead of the Conservatives –dramatic reversal for the Tories who, less than two years ago, were on the cusp of a historic majority government.
Liberals will now control committees in the House of Commons and dictate both the scope and pace of their legislative agenda. One of the main focuses of the government is minimizing the economic impacts of the US war with Iran, which has pushed up fuel costs across Canada. On Tuesday, Carney said his government would suspend the federal fuel excise tax on gasoline and diesel later this month until early September, telling reporters the move was a “responsible measure” to cut fuel costs.
Canada also is bracing for what experts suspect will be a bitterly fought set of trade negotiations with the United States in the coming months as the two sides look for a renewed free trade pact.
