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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Claire Phipps, Matthew Weaver and Lauren Gambino

Canada election: Trudeau says 'work has only just begun' – as it happened

‘Canadians have spoken,’ says new PM Justin Trudeau after election victory.

Summary

We’re going to power down the liveblog after nearly two days of rolling coverage. Here’s a look back at the last 36 hours in Canadian politics. Thanks for reading!

  • Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party swept to power in a stunning victory over the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, taking 184 seats. Canadians in every province voted for Liberal candidates, who won in striking victories in greater Toronto and Quebec.
  • At a rally in Ottawa on Tuesday, Trudeau told supporters and volunteers that the “work had only just begun”.
  • The prime minister-designate announced during his first press conference since winning a majority that he plans to unveil his cabinet on 4 November – one that has equal gender balance.
  • The Liberal leader said he was pleased voters responded to positively to the party’s “concrete but ambitious” vision. Now he beings the process of trying to implement it.
  • Trudeau had a “very warm conversation” with US president Barack Obama about the countries climate change goals, the Keystone pipeline, the fight against the Islamic State group, the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, strengthening bilateral relations – and Trudeau’s hair.
  • Trudeau said Obama “understands” his commitment to withdraw Canada’s fighter jets from Iraq and Syria, but did not offer a timeline.
  • Canada’s cannabis industry is seeing green after Trudeau reiterated his plans to legalize marijuana
  • Canada’s political landscape has shifted dramatically since 2011, in three maps.

Asked how he felt about the Liberals’ smashing victory, Trudeau responded:

“I feel good about how the campaign went. I feel good about the kind of messages that we were able to share with Canadians and the response they gave to message of pulling people together in a positive way ...

“I’m also very, very aware of both the opportunity and the responsibility that we have to live up to, having put forward a strong vision for growth, for unity, for positivity in this country. We now get to start working on delivering that.”

Here’s our latest round-up of Trudeau’s first day as PM-designate:

Updated

While we work up a summary on the day’s events, here’s video of an 18-year-old Justin Trudeau debate Quebecois independence. CBC first aired this story in 1990.

Updated

The White House on the Obama-Trudeau phone call

The two leaders agreed on the importance of deepening the already strong United States-Canada relationship and committed to strengthening the countries’ joint efforts to promote trade, combat terrorism, and mitigate climate change. In particular, they noted the successful conclusion of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and the need to move forward with implementing the high standards of the agreement, which promises to boost economic growth and support good-paying jobs on both sides of the border. They committed to work together to achieve an ambitious and durable global climate agreement in Paris in December.

Prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau holds his first press conference

Trudeau is asked if he will commit to a concrete emissions reduction target ahead of the Paris summit on climate change at the end of November. He said he will be meeting with other premiers ahead of the summit, and that the days of Canada being less than willing to act on the file are over.

Trudeau said he is planning to attend the G20 summit in Turkey, as well as other global conferences. He said he needs to balance the need to get a government up and running in Canada with the country’s commitments on the world stage.

Trudeau said he spoke to President Barak Obama about an hour ago. He said the world leaders discussed his commitment to end Canada’s bombing mission against ISIS in Iraq and Syria – a campaign promise – but didn’t commit to a timeframe, saying he will move forward with withdrawal in a “responsible fashion”.

What accounts for last night’s success? “I think Canadians had an extraordinary desire for change, ” Trudeau told reporters. He said the Liberal party’s “concrete but ambitious vision” inspired voters.

Trudeau said he will unveil his cabinet on 4 November, about two weeks from now. He said he aims to set up a cabinet that achieves gender balance.

Characterizing his conversation with Obama, Trudeau said it was very “warm”. The leaders spoke about their children, and Obama encouraged the young leader to take advantage of every moment with them because the grow quickly.

Trudeau said Obama also teased him about his lack of gray hair and said that he would likely get some grays soon – just like him.

On a serious note, he said the leaders discussed the fight against ISIS, the Keystone pipeline, the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and the importance of deepening their bilateral relationship.

“I indicated to Mr Obama that I felt it was important Canada demonstrates a level of positive engagement on the environmental file” Trudeau said.

In addition to Obama, Trudeau said he also spoke with UK prime minister David Cameron, French president Francois Hollande, Italy Prime Minster Matteo Renzi. His first conversation on Monday night was with Mexico president Enrique Peña Nieto.

Asked how he feels about the big victory, Trudeau responded: “I feel good about how the campaign went. I feel good about the kind of messages that we were able to share with Canadians and the response they gave to message of pulling people together in a positive way rather than the strategic division that has been a part of Canadian elections for so long ...”

“I’m also very aware of both the opportunity and responsibility that we have to live up to having put up a strong vision.”

Updated

While we wait for Trudeau’s inaugural press conference, some fun facts.

h/t Tom McCarthy

Updated

President Barack Obama has also congratulated Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party on their stunning victory Monday night, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said during Tuesday’s briefing.

The president was expected to call Trudeau to congratulate him on Tuesday, Earnest said. He said Obama would also call Harper at some point in the near future to thank him for his leadership.

Earnest was asked if the White House thinks the bilateral relationship will “get easier” with the Liberal leader in power. Relations with Harper deteriorated over the Obama administration’s still pending decision over the Keystone XL pipeline, which the outgoing Conservative leader had lobbied Washington to approve.

“Well, I think it would be short-sighted to reduce the relationship between our two countries to just one issue,” Earnest said.

Updated

Justin Trudeau
Liberal leader and Canada’s Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau poses for a selfie while greeting supporters during a rally in Ottawa, Ontario, October 20, 2015. Photograph: Chris Wattie/Reuters

News with a view: Ready or not, here comes Trudeau

Voters made clear on Monday that Stephen Harper’s rightwing decade has run its course but Justin Trudeau’s victorious Liberals face tough choices about priorities, the Guardian’s editorial board wrote of the result.

The Liberals victory “marks a big political shift to the centre-left in a crucial G7 power, and the victory of Canada’s Liberals also has lessons for politics across the developed world”.

It is hardly surprising that Canadians have voted for change rather than more of the same. Mr Harper’s vindictive and divisive style, his addiction to shrinking the government, his authoritarian tendencies and his failure to offer anything new this time after a contentious if successful decade in office had clearly run their course. One in three Canadians continued to back Mr Harper all the same. But the two in three who wanted rid of him finally gathered behind Mr Trudeau and sent NDP hopes of heading Canada’s first leftwing government of modern times back to the drawing board.

Harper’s out, right? And Trudeau’s not in yet ... So who’s running Canada?

The queen? No!

The mounties? No!

Ace reporter Jessica Murphy explains that Harper will continue to serve as the prime minister until Trudeau is sworn in, likely in time to attend the G-20 summit in Turkey, which is on 15 November. Meanwhile, Canada will remain under a “caretaker convention”, as it was during the election cycle, while the new liberal government is formed.

Updated

Stephen Harper will remain an MP while his party elects an interim leader, CBC has reported.

Harper did not say he would resign from his post during his concession speech last night, but a brief statement released by his party indicated that he would leave his post.

On Tuesday, Conservative party president John Walsh elaborated, saying that Harper would remain an MP in his riding of Calgary Heritage and that the party would elect an interim leader “as soon as possible”, according to CBC.

Updated

Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley, whose politics align more closely with Canada’s new leader than Rubio’s, also congratulated Trudeau and his Liberal party on their victory on Twitter.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is seeking the Republican nomination in the US presidential elections, has congratulated Canada on being a lot like its southern neighbor.

“We share a long history with our friends to the north,” Rubio said in a statement on Tuesday, “including a commitment to democratic ideals and the peaceful transition of power.”

He congratulated Justin Trudeau on his victory and thanked outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his leadership and “commitment to the US-Canadian relationship”.

I look forward to continuing close cooperation with Canada on mutual interests through projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline and the policies needed to keep our citizens safe.

Updated

Rally for Justin Trudeau in Ottawa

Prime Minister in waiting Justin Trudeau is addressing supporters at the Ottawa. You can follow along here.

“Sunny ways, my friends, sunny ways,” Trudeau says, repeating a line from his acceptance speech last night. “This is what positive politics can do. This is what a positive,hopeful vision ... can make happen.”

“How ya feeling?” he asks, the crowd of supporters and volunteers. They erupt in cheers.

He then thanks them first in English and then in French. “I know that none of it would have been possible without all of you. You should be proud too. Thank YOU.”

Trudeau said getting out the liberal vote required 80,000 volunteers who together made nearly 13 million door knocks and phone calls. “By any measure that is incredibly impressive,” he said. “From the bottom of my heart, Thank you.”

He continued in French: “The work is only beginning. We have pledged to form a government – a government that invests in the future.”

“Today we can celebrate, but our hard work is just beginning,” he said.

He gets loud cheers for saying his government will listen to scientists, a dig at his predecessor who muzzled discussions on climate change.

Trudeau said many worried Canada had lost its compassionate spirit over the past nearly 10 years. Monday’s vote, he said, sent a “simple message” to the world.

On behalf of 35 million Canadians, we’re back.

“This is is Canada and in Canada,” he says, and the crowd chimes in to finish the sentence, “better is always possible.”

Trudeau then shakes hands with the party’s most faithful. He expected to give a press conference at 5pm – the significance of which we have detailed here.

Updated

We’re just waiting for the rally to get underway in Ottawa, where Trudeau is expected to address the crowd any minute now ...

Updated

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Liberal prime-minister-in-waiting, is marking his first day with a symbolic outreach to Ottawa’s press corps, our reporter Jessica Murphy writes.

Trudeau’s inaugural news conference is to be held Tuesday afternoon in the National Press Theatre, a venue outgoing Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper mostly avoided during his nearly ten years in office.

News conferences in the Theatre – across from the Parliament Hill in Ottawa on the ground floor of the National Press Building – are moderated and managed by the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

The relationship between outgoing Harper and the national media can be described as frosty at best and easily outright hostile - in part because he distrusted the Ottawa-based press, which he viewed as cheerleaders for the former Liberal establishment he’d worked so hard to sweep from power.

And he maintained the strict centralized, top-down message control implemented in his government’s early days when he was first elected in 2006 with a caucus full of rookie MPs. His news conference also became few-and-far between and were often limited to a maximum of four questions.

Time will tell whether Trudeau’s openness with the press extends beyond symbolism, though the Liberal platform did include promises to improve government transparency.

I know, we shared this yesterday. But it’s so funny that we’re sharing it again.

williams shatner

Canadian actor William Shatner offers newly-elected prime minister Justin Trudeau some public speaking advice.

Sunny ways and hazy days are to come, Canada’s newly elected prime minister has promised.

Following liberal’s decisive electoral victory, prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau said on Monday night that he will “legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana”. My colleague Rupert Neate reports on what this important milestone would mean for the nation’s cannabis industry.

“Trudeau’s vow to legalise and regulate marijuana the ‘right way’ has set in motion the single most important catalyst for the marijuana space,” said Aaron Salz, an analyst at Dundee Capital Markets.

Legalising cannabis had been a key plank of Trudeau’s campaign and he had promised to work towards legalising it “right away”. “We don’t yet know exactly what rate we’re going to be taxing it, how we’re going to control it, or whether it will happen in the first months, within the first year, or whether it’s going to take a year or two to kick in,” Trudeau said in the run-up to Monday night’s vote.

Updated

After the revelry comes the real work – and Canada’s young leader sure has his work cut out. Jessica Murphy reports on Justin Trudeau’s ambitious policy agenda.

Trudeau, 43, and his team set the bar high in their campaign platform, promising sweeping policy changes on everything from drug laws – he pledged to legalize marijuana – to the appointment of senators, climate change policy, and relationships with Canada’s Aboriginal population.

The Liberals have also committed to increasing – and fast-tracking – the number of Syrian refugees brought into Canada from 10,000 to 25,000, boosting foreign aid, scrapping Canada’s purchase of F-35 fighter jets, and ending the country’s combat efforts in the US-led coalition against Isis in Iraq.

On pocketbook issues, they have pledged to slash taxes for the middle class while raising them for the wealthiest Canadians and rolling out an infrastructure plan that will put the country into three consecutive deficit budgets.

And their campaign pledges include a wide variety of electoral reforms, from eliminating the country’s “first-past-the-post” system of electing governments to studying measures like mandatory and online voting.

Let’s hope the pressure doesn’t take a toll on his world-class locks.

Justin Trudeau will hold a press conference in the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Tuesday – something of foreign concept for the journalists who covered Stephen Harper for the last nine years.

The New York Times recently characterized Harper’s relationship with the press as “one of outright hostility”.

At his notoriously brief news conferences, his handlers vet every journalist, picking and choosing who can ask questions. In the usual give-and-take between press and politicians, the hurly-burly of any healthy democracy, he has simply removed the give.

As of December 2014, Harper had held only one news conference in the National Press Theatre since first sweeping to power in 2006, according to the Hill Times. The paper also found that compared to the other G8 leaders, Harper was the “least likely of the major leaders to open up to journalists who cover them and their governments on a daily basis”.

On Twitter, political journalists reacted to the news of a press conference.

We are expecting to hear from Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau in just about two hours from now, at 2pm EST, at a rally with supporters in Ottawa, according to his press office.

Updated

During the 78-day election cycle, Stephen Harper ran attack ads against Trudeau that said of the young leader: “He’s just not ready.” A cartoonist for the Edmonton Journal ran with that notion.

Updated

A lot can change in four years and, as evidenced by last night’s Canadian elections, a lot did change.

In three maps, my colleagues Alberto Nardelli and Glenn Swann show just how much Canada’s political landscape has changed since 2011.

canada liberal vote
In 2011 the Liberals captured just 19% of the vote and 34 seats – the fewest in the party’s history. Last night they won 39.50% of the vote and 184 seats.

Updated

I’m taking over this liveblog for my colleague Matthew Weaver as we continue our rolling coverage of the Canadian election.

I’ll get started with a graphic from Maclean’s that neatly summarises the 43rd Parliament by party, gender and age. It also tallies how many members of parliament are indigenous, visible minorities and whether they’re a newcomer or incumbent.

By the numbers – There are 89 women in this Parliament, meaning they now hold 26.3% of seats – a 2 percentage point increase from the last Parliament, according to the magazine.

And 2.7% of MPs in our new Parliament are Indigenous, up very little from 2.3% in the previous House.

Updated

Trudeau is expected to give a press conference in the next four hours or so. In it he may provide hints as to who will serve in his first cabinet.

CTV provides profiles of the leading cabinet contenders.

Those hoping for a U-turn in Canada’s climate change policy after Stephen Harper’s crushing defeat are in for a reality check, warns Suzanne Goldenberg.

Trudeau has repudiated Harper’s vision of Canada as an “energy superpower”, promised to reverse devastating cuts to government science budgets, and fix the country’s reputation as a carbon bully in international climate negotiations.

But it would be a mistake to see Trudeau or the Liberals as climate champions. In his victory speech on Monday, there was no mention of climate change, and he was criticised for being vague on the issue during campaigning.

Trudeau committed to take part in the Paris climate conference at the end of the year, and to convene a meeting of provincial leaders within 90 days to come up with a plan to fight climate change.

His party’s campaign platform called for the setting up of a $2bn fund to help projects that promote clean energy.

However, Trudeau supports the Keystone XL pipeline – Canada’s bid to find new markets for its vast carbon reserves in the Alberta tar sands – a position that puts the Liberal leader at odds with campaigners and with Barack Obama.

Turnout up

Turnout for the election was significantly up on previous polls, according to Elections Canada.

With 99.8% of the vote counted it reported a turnout of 68.49% a big increase on the turnout in the 61.1% turnout in 2011 and the 58.8% recorded in 2008.

Anti-monarchy campaigners have welcomed the departure of Stephen Harper, who angered republicans by trying to raise the profile of the Queen in Canada during his tenure as prime minister.

Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, tweeted he was “very happy Harper is out of power”.

Clarification: Smith later pointed out that he made the comment in a personal capacity.

A poll in 2008 found that less than a quarter of Canadians knew that the Queen was nominally Canada’s head of state. Harper wanted to change that, and ordered pictures of the Queen to be displayed in government buildings. This controversially involved replacing paintings by contemporary Quebec artists at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Justin Trudeau’s stance on the monarchy is harder to pin down. In May this year he tweeted congratulations to the the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after the birth of Princess Charlotte.

But he has also said he is open to debate about the role of monarchy in Canada.

In what appeared to be a deliberately ambiguous letter to Canada’s Monarchist League he wrote:

My view is that severing our centuries-old connection to the monarchy is not a decision to be made lightly. The monarchy remains a cornerstone of Canada’s foundation, and any debate surrounding changes to this institution must include as many Canadians as possible in the discussion.

Updated

Canada’s image abroad now has sex appeal judging by the reception to Trudeau’s win in some quarters.

Will Trudeau ratify TTIP the controversial trade deal?

During the campaign, he said he supported free trade but would need to see the text of the agreement before deciding whether to sign it.

But Trudeau’s statement on TTIP suggested that he objected to the secret way the deal was agreed rather than its substance. He said:

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership stands to remove trade barriers, widely expand free trade for Canada, and increase opportunities for our middle class and those working hard to join it. Liberals will take a responsible approach to thoroughly examining the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Harper Conservatives have failed to be transparent through the entirety of the negotiations – especially in regards to what Canada is conceding in order to be accepted into this partnership.

“The government has an obligation to be open and honest about the negotiation process, and immediately share all the details of any agreement. Canadians deserve to know what impacts this agreement will have on different industries across our country. The federal government must keep its word and defend Canadian interests during the TPP’s ratification process – which includes defending supply management, our auto sector, and Canadian manufacturers across the country.

“If the Liberal Party of Canada earns the honour of forming a government after October 19th, we will hold a full and open public debate in Parliament to ensure Canadians are consulted on this historic trade agreement.”

A graphic from the Toronto Star neatly summarises how the Liberals swept away so many Conservatives in and around Toronto (known as the 905 area because of its telephone code).

Justin Trudeau was described as likeable but hardly a sure fire success for the Liberal party in a confidential US state department cable in 2009, writes Mark Tran.

The cable, obtained by WikiLeaks, analyses the state of the Liberal party, then under the leadership of Michael Ignatieff, who had just taken over from the discredited Stephane Dion in dramatic fashion in December 2008.

Ignatieff is described as the Liberal’s newest and best hope after years in the political wilderness.

“Urban, articulate, bilingual, and with an impressive rolodex of contacts around the world - including in the new Obama Administration – Ignatieff represented the Liberals’ newest and best hope that they could reverse their several years-long slide and emerge in the next election,” said the state department.

But the US official goes on to describe Ignatieff as someone who is out of touch, who “just doesn’t listen,” the same flaw most attributed to Dion. As to who might be a stronger candidate to lead the Liberals, the official says there is no obvious replacement.

“The only name that still comes up is Bob Rae - another 62-year-old white male from Toronto - who has now lost the leadership sweepstakes twice and who has privately insisted that his sole remaining political ambition is to be foreign minister. Many Liberals are concerned that the “new blood” of the Liberal Party is apparently so anemic, with no real stars on the horizon - apart from Justin Trudeau, who most describe as eminently likeable but sadly prone to stray off script - not the sure-fire leadership a successful Liberal party will need.”

Labour MP Tristram Hunt, has become the latest internal critic of Jeremy Corbyn, to use Trudeau’s victory to attack the party’s leaders (see earlier for more). Writing on Facebook, Hunt said the Canadian result showed “voters want strong leadership from an articulate, engaged, and convincing politician, with a well-managed party behind them.” Here are Hunt’s five takeaways from Canada’s poll.

  1. Optimism works. Justin Trudeau did not win on a miserabilist account of the state of modern Canada. His was a passionate, patriotic, optimistic vision of what Canada could and should be. It was not a tale of woe; but a story of hope. As he put it, “Sunny ways, my friends, sunny ways.”
  2. Tory hegemony is not inevitable. The victory of Trudeau means the removal of Stephen Harper – a man whose ambition was to turn the Conservative Party into the natural governing party of Canada. The virtue of democracy is its glorious ability to overturn inevitability.
  3. The offer of a new political economy. Smartly, Trudeau outmanoeuvred the more left-wing New Democratic Party on ‘three modest deficits’ for infrastructure spending and tax rises for the wealthiest (alongside tax cuts for middle income earners). This was essentially Labour Policy at the 2015 General Election. The difference is that Trudeau leaned into it; spelt it out in primary colours; and had confidence in the message. To me, this is a question about trust: can the leadership and the party be trusted to deliver more radical policies on economic redistribution? In May, the British Labour Party failed that test. In Canada, Trudeau showed it can be done.
  4. Leadership is key. Voters want strong leadership from an articulate, engaged, and convincing politician, with a well-managed party behind them.
  5. Lynton Crosby is fallible. The man, and his candidates, can be beaten.

CTV lists the high-profile politicians who lost their seats in the election. Among the casualties in Stephen Harper’s cabinet were the finance minister Joe Oliver, the citizenship and immigration minister Chris Alexander and Bernard Valcourt, the minister minister of aboriginal affairs and Northern development.

The lists also includes several shadow cabinet members from the New Democratic Party after the official opposition only secured 44 seats. They included the party’s environment spokeswoman Megan Leslie.

Here’s the final seat tally

Seat tally in the Canadian elections.
Seat tally in the Canadian elections.

World leaders continue to pass on their best wishes to Trudeau (as well as boilerplate sentiments about relations with Canada).

They include messages from the leaders of Malaysia, Luxembourg and Mexico.

So far there’s been no official word yet from David Cameron, but foreign office minister, Hugo Swire, has congratulated Trudeau.

Justin Trudeau’s victory has prompted a collective trawl through the photo archives of pictures of the future PM at the feet of his father Pierre who led Canada for more than 15 years.

Pierre and Margaret Trudeau, accompanied by their children Justin, center, Sacha, left, and Michael, right, stand together after his speech on Parliment Hill in Ottawa, Canada on May 20, 1977.
Pierre and Margaret Trudeau, accompanied by their children Justin, centre, Sacha, left, and Michael, right, stand together after his speech on Parliment Hill in Ottawa, Canada on May 20, 1977. Photograph: AP
Pierre Trudeau greets his sons Justin (L), Sacha (R) and Michel after returning home from a foreign trip in Ottawa, in 1983.
Pierre Trudeau greets his sons Justin (left) after returning home from a foreign trip in Ottawa, in 1983. Photograph: Andy Clark/Reuters

But according to Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove Justin owes more to his grandfather.

Trudeau’s political role model is not so much his beloved “papa,” whose public persona over 15 years as prime minister mixed charisma and aloofness, but his maternal grandfather, Jimmy Sinclair, a consummate glad-handing, baby-kissing Scottish immigrant to Canada and Rhodes scholar. It was no accident that Trudeau held his final campaign event Sunday night in the Vancouver constituency his grandfather represented from 1940 to 1958.

The Globe and Mail newspaper, which is often regarded as the paper of the Canadian establishment, says Trudeau outmanoeuvred his opponents.

In an editorial on the result it says:

Mr. Trudeau had the advantage of running against a tired party and a leader who had been in office for nearly a decade – but so did Tom Mulcair and the New Democratic Party. Mr. Trudeau cannily allowed his opponents to lower expectations about him, and then out-campaigned two party leaders who spent millions of dollars on advertising that sought to portray them as more experienced and better suited to the job of prime minister.

His optimism and openness, combined with solid performances in multiple debates, undid the Conservatives’ strategy of presenting the Liberal leader as “just not ready.” It may yet prove to be true in government, but it was not on the campaign trail. The Liberal platform also successfully countered the Conservatives’ fearful message that voting for anyone other than the incumbents meant putting the economy at risk. The Liberals similarly outflanked an NDP that chose to sell itself as closer on the fiscal spectrum to Mr. Harper. In the end, the NDP ended up seeing much of its vote shift massively and suddenly to the Liberals in Quebec and Ontario. Voters went to the party that could knock off Mr. Harper.

What happens next?

Trudeau is expected to give his first press conference on Tuesday as prime minister-designate, but it could be several days or even weeks before he is officially sworn in.

The swearing-in ceremony is expected to take place before the G20 summit in Turkey which starts on 15 November, according to the Globe and Mail. But first he will need to form a cabinet. Trudeau has pledged to appoint an equal number of men and women to his front bench. The key appointments to watch will be the finance minister and foreign minister.

One of Trudeau senior advisers, Robert Asselin, said parliament could return within the next two weeks to usher in the new government. The privy council office has been instructed to start the transition and the Liberal team will begin to engage with officials Tuesday, he told the Hill Times.

“The earlier the better,” he said. The size of Trudeau’s victory means the transition is likely to be swifter than usual.

During the campaign Trudeau promised that his first legislation as prime minister will be to raise taxes for the rich and lower them for the middle classes.

It will lower the tax rate on income earned between $45,000 and $90,000, and create a new tax bracket for income over $200,000.

For the Conservative Party the next job will choosing a new leader to replace Stephen Harper.

Outgoing defence minister Jason Kenney is widely considered the front-runner, according to CBC. But it names five other possible contenders including Kellie Leitch the outgoing minister of status of women.

Here’s the Guardian’s latest news story on the Canadian election results.

And our picture desk has put together a gallery of Trudeau’s victory.

Some Canadian voters were still queuing to vote when broadcasters were calling the victory for Trudeau and his Liberal party, Global News reports.

The voting hours were staggered across the country’s different time zones so that the majority of results were available at approximately the same time. But it left some voters feeling that their vote wouldn’t count.

Global News reports:

Frustration erupted on social media from many voters in Western Canada Monday night, apparently upset that a Liberal government was called before the polls closed in their province.

“How relevant can the voters in B.C. feel if the election is called while they are still in line to vote,” said one Twitter user.

Global News and several other media outlets called a Liberal government shortly after 9:30 p.m. ET. However, the polls remained open in B.C., where some voters were still in line to cast their ballot as the election was called.

Updated

Fair tax campaign and adviser to Jeremy Corbyn, Richard Murphy, claims that Trudeau won by campaigning to the left of the NDP on economics.

Writing on his blog, he says:

When will the right wing of social democratic parties realise that you can’t win an election by claiming to be on the left and yet offer austerity? Time after time it fails, and rightly so.

And it will in the UK again unless Labour does really embrace what it means to be on the economic left.

Trudeau's victory splits Britain's Labour party

Trudeau’s victory has exposed continuing divisions in Britain’s Labour party as rival factions offering contrasting interpretations of the results.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell is spinning the victory of the Liberal party as a boost for the kind of anti-austerity policies prompted by Labour’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Fellow Corbynista Grahame Morris, the Labour MP for Easington, makes a similar point.

But for one of Corbyn’s opponents in the party, the MP John Mann, the real lesson from Canada for Labour is the collapse in the vote for the New Democrats under Thomas Mulcair.

What Mann doesn’t mention is that Trudeau was seen as outflanking Mulcair to the left during the campaign.

One time leadership contender Chuka Umunna made a more subtle dig at Corbyn.

Updated

Summary

This is what positive politics can do. This is what a positive, hopeful, a hopeful vision, and a platform and a team together can make happen.

Canadians from all across this great country sent a clear message tonight, it’s time for a change in this country, my friends, a real change.

Liberal party leader and PM elect Justin Trudeau with his wife Sophie Grégoire after his victory speech in Montreal.
Liberal party leader and PM elect Justin Trudeau with his wife Sophie Grégoire after his victory speech in Montreal. Photograph: Chris Wattie/Reuters
  • Outgoing prime minister Stephen Harper conceded the election after nearly 10 years in office, saying, “the people are never wrong”. He will step down as leader of the Conservative party, which took 99 seats.
  • The leftwing New Democratic Party (NDP) – previously the official opposition to Harper’s government – suffered major losses, slumping to 44 seats. Leader Thomas Mulcair conceded to Trudeau and found solace in the humiliation of the Conservatives:

Canadians have turned the page on 10 long years. They have rejected the politics of fear and division.

  • The Bloc Québécois has taken 10 seats, and the Green party, with one seat, is down from two before the dissolution. Green leader Elizabeth May was re-elected in the Saanich–Gulf Islands.

I’m handing over this live blog now to my colleague Matthew Weaver. Thanks for reading.

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has tweeted his congratulations to the new PM, saying he has “fond memories” of his visit to Canada in April:

Aside from the three main parties, the smaller groupings have mostly failed to score any seats in the new parliament (you can see the full list here).

Two that will be making an appearance in parliament are the Bloc Québécois, which has taken 10 seats, and the Green party, with one seat, down from two before the dissolution. Green leader Elizabeth May was re-elected in the Saanich–Gulf Islands.

Updated

What of Stephen Harper, the Conservative prime minister now out of that role – and that of leader of his party – after close to a decade in the top job?

Shortly before the election, my colleague Nick Davies put together this in-depth profile of a “deeply unpopular politician” – who was nonetheless, at that point, still a contender to emerge from the election as prime minister:

In the 11 years since he became leader of the country’s Conservatives, the party has been fined for breaking electoral rules, and various members of Team Harper have been caught misleading parliament, gagging civil servants, subverting parliamentary committees, gagging scientists, harassing the supreme court, gagging diplomats, lying to the public, concealing evidence of potential crime, spying on opponents, bullying and smearing.

Harper personally has earned himself the rare rebuke of being found to be in contempt of his parliament.

One of his many biographers, John Ibbitson of the Globe and Mail newspaper, who is more sympathetic than most, concludes: “No prime minister in history and no political party have been loathed as intensely as Stephen Harper and the Conservative party.”

Yet this deeply unpopular politician has won three elections in the last nine years.

Nick Clegg – remember him? – is cheered by the result in Canada:

(For our non-UK readers, here’s who Nick Clegg is.)

“Sunny ways, my friends, sunny ways,” is how Trudeau began his victory speech in Montreal, as he lauded what he called the power of “positive politics”.

He even directed a note of positivity towards the defeated Conservatives, telling Liberal supporters:

Conservatives are not our enemies, they’re our neighbours.

But he did take a shot at some of Harper’s more controversial policies:

Canada was built by people from all corners of the world. We believe in our hearts that this country’s unique diversity is a blessing bestowed upon us by previous generations of Canadians. Canadians who stared down prejudice and discrimination in all its forms.

[Canadians] know in their heart of hearts that a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.

‘Canadians have spoken,’ says new PM Justin Trudeau after election victory. Link to video.

It’s fair to say there hasn’t yet been a flood of congratulations from other world leaders but it’s early and they are starting to pop up now: this is from Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi:

A short primer for readers new to this live blog: here are some of the priorities that Trudeau has set for his first weeks in power:

Trudeau on climate change

He has promised a climate change policy agreed with the provinces within 90 days of the UN climate change summit in Paris in November.

On indigenous rights

“We will build a renewed relationship with indigenous peoples on a nation-to-nation basis,” he has said. “That will include, for example, a national public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. It will include $2.6bn over four years for First Nations education.”

On abortion

He is pro-choice: “It is not for any government to legislate what a woman chooses to do with her body. And that is the bottom line.”

On taxes

His first move will be to raise taxes on the richest 1% to fund cuts for the middle classes.

On marijuana

Trudeau has said he would start moves to legalise it “right away”, based on the Colorado model.

On feminism

Updated

John Barber, reporting from Toronto, says Trudeau’s victory heralds the return of a sunnier Canada:

The new Canadian leader’s easiest job will be showing the world that Canada has returned to its traditional role of international boy scout, abjuring the hard-right, militaristic and climate-denying record of the Harper government. In that, he will be helped by the fact that the previous government – despite its own rhetoric and that of its enemies – never completely abandoned the role.

Canadians and international observers can expect a sharp change in tone if not policy with respect to refugees and Canada’s involvement in the Middle East. In his victory speech, Trudeau also took pains to disavow the previous government’s attempts to win votes by inspiring fear of Muslim women who cover their faces.

“We know thar our enviable, inclusive society didn’t happen by accident, and won’t continue without effort,” he declared.

But there are challenges ahead:

The substance of the new leader’s claims will quickly be tested on the international stage at next month’s Paris climate summit, where a hastily assembled Canadian delegation will struggle to shake off the country’s reputation as a laggard in the international fight against climate change.

That may be more difficult than imagined, given Trudeau’s consistent support for the Canadian oil industry, especially the notoriously dirty tar sands.

Well, I say unlikely contender. As a four-month-old, Justin Trudeau was heralded as a future Canadian prime minister by then US president Richard Nixon. Which is an endorsement of sorts.

As CBC News reports:

“Tonight we’ll dispense with the formalities. I’d like to toast the future prime minister of Canada: to Justin Pierre Trudeau,” Richard Nixon said at a gala buffet in April 1972 during a state visit to Ottawa when Trudeau was just four months old.

According to a contemporary news wire report, Trudeau’s father Pierre, then nearing the end of his first four-year Liberal mandate as prime minister, responded that should his eldest son – born on Christmas Day 1971 – ever become Canada’s leader, “I hope he has the grace and skill of the president.”

This is Justin Trudeau, on the left, being scooped up by his father, Pierre, who was returning from an overseas trip in 1983:

Pierre Trudeau greeting his sons Justin, Sacha (right) and Michel (centre) after returning home from a foreign trip to Ottawa.
Pierre Trudeau greeting his sons Justin, Sacha (right) and Michel (centre) after returning home from a foreign trip to Ottawa. Photograph: Andy Clark/Reuters

Updated

How did Justin Trudeau pull off this victory? Just a few months ago, he was an unlikely contender to be Canada’s next prime minister.

Running third in the polls, behind the incumbent Conservatives and the resurgent leftwing New Democratic party, Trudeau – son of legendary prime minister Pierre Trudeau – was slated as too young (he is 43) and too inexperienced to haul his beleaguered Liberal party out of the electoral mess of the 2011 general election.

What changed? Harper’s tactics, referring to his challenger condescendingly as “Justin” and campaign ads that poked fun at his “nice hair”, found no grip among a section of the electorate that wanted the Conservatives out at all costs, and increasingly saw Trudeau as the best chance of achieving that.

The long election campaign – the longest, in fact, since 1872, at 78 days – gave the Liberals the time to build on that boost. Trudeau told the Guardian in July that he relished it: “If there’s one thing that recent history in Canada has shown it’s that campaigns really matter. And there’s a tremendous volatility among voters who are just looking for the right alternative.”

Opening summary

Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Canadian general election, which has seen Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party score a stunning victory over the Conservative government of Stephen Harper.

Here’s how the night panned out:

  • The Liberal party has won a convincing majority, taking 184 seats. Canadians in every province voted for Liberal candidates, who won in striking victories in greater Toronto and Quebec.
  • Justin Trudeau, son of arguably Canada’s most famous politician, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, follows his father into the role.
  • After rousing his party from third in the polls to first place on voting day, Trudeau promised “sunny ways” for all Canadians:

This is what positive politics can do. This is what a positive, hopeful, a hopeful vision, and a platform and a team together can make happen.

Canadians from all across this great country sent a clear message tonight, it’s time for a change in this country, my friends, a real change.

Stephen Harper concedes defeat in Canada’s election. Link to video.
  • Outgoing prime minister Stephen Harper conceded the election after nearly 10 years in office, saying, “the people are never wrong”. He will step down as leader of the Conservative party, which took 99 seats.
  • The leftwing New Democratic Party (NDP) – previously the official opposition to Harper’s government – suffered major losses, slumping to 44 seats. Leader Thomas Mulcair conceded to Trudeau and found solace in the humiliation of the Conservatives:

Canadians have turned the page on 10 long years. They have rejected the politics of fear and division.

Updated

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