Q & AThe Americas

Canada’s Elections Down to the Wire, With Minority Government Likely

Canada’s Elections Down to the Wire, With Minority Government Likely
New Democratic Party leader Tom Mulcair at a campaign event at the Palais des Congres, Montreal, Canada, Oct. 9, 2015 (photo by Flickr user Anne Campagne licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license).

Canada votes on Monday, and the latest polls show the centrist Liberal Party with a slight lead over the ruling Conservative Party and the New Democratic Party. In an email interview, Brian Tanguay, professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, discussed what is a stake in Canada’s elections.

WPR: What explains the emergence of the New Democratic Party (NDP) as a national political contender, and why have its prospects faded recently?

Brian Tanguay: In the early days of this very long campaign, most polls indicated that the NDP would, for a second straight election, sweep Quebec—a phenomenon known as the “Orange Wave,” because of the color of the party’s logo—taking anywhere from 60 to 65 of the 78 seats up for grabs in that province. With pockets of support in the other regions of the country, Tom Mulcair and his party were realistically thinking they could win a majority, which would require 170 seats out of 338, on Oct. 19.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

BEGIN YOUR WPR SUBSCRIPTION NOW

More World Politics Review