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OTTAWA, October 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Justin Trudeau, who legalized euthanasia and expanded abortion access in Canada and globally, was reelected prime minister Monday with a Liberal minority government.

With all but two ridings officially called, the tally stands at Liberals with 157 of 338 seats, down 27 from their 2015 sweep, and their closest rivals, Andrew Scheer’s Conservative Party of Canada, capturing 121, a gain of 26.

Yves-François Blanchet’s Bloc Québécois came third with 32 seats, a gain of 22, while Jagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party captured 24, a loss of 20. Elizabeth May’s Greens took three seats, and former Liberal attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, who left the Liberals over the SNC-Lavalin scandal, won in Vancouver Granville and will sit as the sole independent in the House of Commons.

Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada won no seats, with the leader losing his Quebec Beauce riding to Conservative Richard Lehoux. In his speech conceding defeat, Bernier said his party would continue to grow. 

The Conservatives captured 34.4 percent of the popular vote, and the Liberals, 33.3 percent.

With the Liberals 13 seats short of the 170 needed for a majority, pundits are predicting a “stable” minority government.

Scheer pointed out in his speech that the Conservatives pulled the Liberals down to a minority government, and are now the government in waiting. “This is how it starts,” he said. “…Our work is not over. Canadians are counting on us.”

Trudeau focused on “climate change” and gun control in his victory speech, which he began at the same time Scheer was delivering his address, forcing broadcasters to tune out the Conservative leader temporarily.

“From coast to coast, tonight, Canadians rejected division and negativity. They rejected cuts and austerity, and they voted in favour of a progressive agenda and strong action on climate change,” said Trudeau.

“I have heard you, my friends. You are sending our Liberal team back to work; back to Ottawa with a clear mandate. We will make life more affordable. We will continue to fight climate change. We will get guns off our streets and we will keep investing in Canadians.”

High-profile defeats included Conservative Party deputy leader Lisa Raitt losing her Milton, Ontario, seat to Liberal Adam Van Koeverden, and Liberal Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale losing his Regina-Wascana seat to Conservative Michael Kram.

Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life, pro-family political lobbying group and largest pro-life association, said it was “disappointed” with Trudeau’s reelection and a Liberal minority government.

In his first four years in office as Canada’s most pro-abortion prime minister, Trudeau legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide, discriminated against Canadians who didn’t adhere to his pro-abortion views — infamously banning groups that did not sign his abortion attestation from receiving Canada summer job grants — expanded abortion access in Canada, and committed billions of Canadian tax dollars to funding and advocating for abortion overseas. 

The 47-year-old prime minister was raised Catholic by his father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who brought in legal abortion in 1969. Justin Trudeau recently announced he no longer personally opposes abortion. 

“Regardless of what the prime ministerial hopefuls said during the campaign about abortion, we remind the leaders and MPs that in Canada, our parliamentary tradition holds that MPs are free to act on their conscience on moral issues,” Jeff Gunnarson, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, said in a press release.

“We hope that they will be free not only to vote their consciences on such legislation and motions, but be allowed to bring forward private members’ bills to address the most important moral issues facing the country,” he added.

Campaign Life Coalition believes the Conservative Party’s failure to capture a majority was caused by Scheer’s betrayal of, and disrespect towards, the party’s large social conservative base, it stated.

“The opposing Conservatives led by Andrew Scheer might have formed government if they had not alienated so much of their natural base of social conservatives, with their cynical but ultimately ineffective campaign to diminish the importance of moral issues,” said Gunnarson. 

“Scheer stepped into a trap set by his Liberal opponents of getting him to conduct voter suppression on the CPC’s own base,” pointed out Jack Fonseca, political operations director for Campaign Life Coalition. 

“By saying he’d personally vote against any pro-life bill, by turning his back on family values and embracing the LGBT-agenda, and firing pro-family candidates, Scheer deflated his own base, sabotaged the ‘small-c’ conservative vote, and threw away the majority he could’ve been celebrating tonight,” said Fonseca.

Campaign Life extended congratulations to the 46 socially conservative candidates it endorsed whose election had been confirmed at press time. 

“CLC is proud of its success in nominating and electing dozens of pro-life candidates this federal election,” said Gunnarson. 

“By mobilizing our 200,000-strong supporter database to volunteer and get-out-the-vote, we helped many pro-life candidates win, including in some close races where our engaged and dedicated supporters made the difference,” he added.

Moreover, Campaign Life Coalition had identified 147 pro-life candidates running in the election, the highest number in over twenty years. Of these, 68 ran for the Conservatives; 29 for the People’s Party of Canada; 46 for the Christian Heritage Party; one for the Libertarian Party, and three were Independents.

That number “speaks volumes about the hunger among grassroots pro-lifers to have elected officials represent their values and principles,” said Gunnarson. “This is very positive and encouraging for the pro-life movement and for the future of Canada.”

According to Campaign Life’s data, Manitoba and Saskatchewan had the highest percentage of pro-life candidates, with New Brunswick, Alberta and Ontario running a close second. Quebec trailed the field with only three identified pro-life candidates in 78 ridings.

Identified pro-life candidates by province: Manitoba: 13 candidates (11/14 ridings—78.6 percent); Saskatchewan: 11 candidates (11/14 ridings—78.6 percent); New Brunswick: six candidates (6/10 ridings—60.0 percent); Alberta: 27 candidates (20/34 ridings—58.8 percent ); Prince Edward Island: two candidates (2/4 ridings—50.0 percent); Ontario: 63 candidates (60/121 ridings—49.6 percent); British Columbia: 20 candidates (18/42 ridings—42.9 percent); Newfoundland: one candidate (1/7 ridings—14.3 percent); Nova Scotia: one candidate (1/11 ridings—9.1 percent); Quebec: three candidates (3/78 ridings—3.8 percent).

Unofficial voter turnout was 64.7 percent, down from the record 68.5 percent in the 2015 Liberal landslide, which was the highest since 1993.

About 4.7 million Canadians voted in advance polls last weekend — a 29 per cent increase over 2015, according to the CBC

An Ipsos Global News poll released a day before the election showed the Conservatives and Liberals in a neck-and-neck race, with the former ahead at 33 percent, and Liberals at 31 percent. That was thought to be the closest in the polls the Liberals and Conservatives have been since the 1972 election, when Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals were reduced to a minority government, according to the National Post.

This article was updated to reflect the correct number of socially conservative candidates endorsed by the Campaign Life Coalition.