Post-Election Thoughts
I want to start by thanking the residents of Edmonton West for electing me again as your federal representative in our Parliament. It is an honour to serve as your Member of Parliament, following in the footsteps of past Edmonton West MPs like Dieppe veteran and Speaker of the House Hon. Marcel Lambert and former party leader Hon. Rona Ambrose. I will continue to work hard serving our constituents in Edmonton while holding the Liberals to account in Ottawa.
I also want to thank all my volunteers, supporters and donors for their help and support during this election. We knocked on 27,000 doors over the course of the election to directly hear the concerns of those in the riding. And while the result federally was not what we had hoped for, we elected many new Conservative MPs across the country, defeated Liberal Ministers and, for the fifth time in the last six elections, received the highest number of votes nationally.
For this federal election, we should be blunt and call it what it was: a purely cynical attempt at a power grab by Trudeau and the Liberal government. Despite the obvious national emergency of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and a rising 4th wave, Trudeau plunged the country into an election because his polling showed he could win his treasured majority back – regardless of what it might mean to Canadians. Concerns about the economy and the health of Canadians meant nothing to this cynical, corrupt Prime Minister compared to the opportunity to grab more power and stoke his ego.
At a time when federal leaders must lead calmly and unite the country as it struggles with an ongoing pandemic and economic crisis, Trudeau made it top priority to politicize the crisis by announcing mandatory vaccine mandates just a day before the election call – flip flopping from what he stated just a month earlier. He then ran one of the most cynical and divisive campaigns in Canadian history. As Prime Minister, he should have worked with all parties, levels of government and health authorities to get Canadians vaccinated and leave politics aside to ensure better public health outcomes. Instead, he politicized it for personal gain.
He failed on this account. In the end, voters stood against his power grab and held him to a minority government. The Prime Minister spent $600m in taxpayer funds for basically the same outcome in 2019 – all the while garnering 360,000 less votes.
The Prime Minister then declared the outcome as a “clear mandate” to govern. Such a claim is complete nonsense. The Liberals set a record for the lowest vote share in Canadian history for a party forming government with just 32.6% of the vote. Who held the prior low record? The Liberals again! They received just 33.1% of the vote in the 2019 election. One would have to go all the way back to 1979 during the Progressive Conservative government of Joe Clark to find the third lowest vote share for the formation of government at 35.1%. For two elections now, Justin Trudeau’s “mandate” could not even win the popular vote and, in the recent election, faced opposition from nearly 69% of voters.
During the campaign I heard loud and clear the issues of concerns of the people of Edmonton West: concern about the sky-rocketing debt dumped onto the Canadian public by the Liberal government, inflation eating into savings and the continued attack on our vital oil and gas industry by the Liberals and NDP. All important issues that were hardly addressed – if at all – by the Liberals.
Inflation and energy shortages are occurring around the world. The price of gas is up massively across the country, our inflation hit 4.4% and is expected to grow higher and supply chain issues are hurting companies and consumers across Canada. Yet Parliament will not resume seating until the end of November, over three months after an election Justin Trudeau described as “pivotal” for the future. So pivotal and vital that Trudeau needs three months off from work.
The Liberal government may not be interested in these issues and those that affect the lives of those in Edmonton West, but we are. I will continue to work hard to serve the people of our riding and to hold this government to account.
In your service,
Kelly McCauley
Member of Parliament for Edmonton West