Canada's Trudeau topples PM Harper in stunning election win

MONTREAL/CALGARY - Canada's Liberal leader Justin Trudeau rode a late campaign surge to a stunning election victory on Monday, toppling Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives with a promise of change and returning a touch of glamor, youth, and charisma to Ottawa.

The Liberals seized a Parliamentary majority, an unprecedented turn in political fortunes that smashed the record for the number of seats gained from one election to the next. The Liberals had been a distant third place party in Parliament before this election.

Harper conceded defeat, ending his government's nine-year run in power and the 56-year-old's brand of fiscal and cultural conservatism.

Trudeau, 43, the photogenic son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, pledged to run a C$10 billion annual budget deficit for three years to invest in infrastructure and help stimulate Canada's anemic economic growth.

This rattled financial markets ahead of the vote and the Canadian dollar weakened on news of his victory.

Trudeau has said he will repair Canada's cool relations with the Obama administration, withdraw Canada from the combat mission against Islamic State militants in favor of humanitarian aid and training, and tackle climate change.

Trudeau vaulted from third place to lead the polls in the final days of the campaign, overcoming Conservative attacks that he is too inexperienced to govern to return to the Prime Minister's residence in Ottawa where he grew up as a child.

"When the time for change strikes, it's lethal," former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said in a television interview. "I ran and was successful because I wasn't Pierre Trudeau. Justin is successful because he isn't Stephen Harper."

The Conservatives were projected to become the official opposition in Parliament, with the left-leaning New Democratic Party in third.

Liberal supporters at the party's campaign headquarters broke into cheers and whistles when television projected that Trudeau would be the next prime minister.

Top Trudeau advisor Gerald Butts tweeted "Amazing work #TeamTrudeau. Breathtaking really."

The Conservatives weren't the only party that appeared headed for a crushing defeat. The third place left-leaning New Democratic Party's fall was highlighted in Quebec, where it had the majority of its seats.

Radio Canada projected it would end up with just seven seats, down from 54 in the last Parliament.

The Liberals' win marks a swing toward a more multilateral approach in global politics by the Canadian government, which has distanced itself from the United Nations in recent years.

The former teacher took charge of the party just two years ago and guided it out of the political wilderness with a pledge of economic stimulus and stirring appeals for a return to social liberalism.

Trudeaumania again?

Born to a sitting prime minister who came to power in 1968 on a wave of popular support dubbed "Trudeaumania," Trudeau will become the second-youngest prime minister in Canadian history and brings an appeal more common in movie stars than statesmen.

Pierre once jumped from a trampoline into the crowd. With boyish good looks, Justin thrusts himself into throngs and puts his hand to his heart when listening to someone.

Selfie requests are so common he happily takes the camera and snaps the photo himself, often cheek to cheek. He is the married father of three young children.

Criticized for being more style than substance, Trudeau has used attacks on his good looks and privileged upbringing to win over voters, who recalled his father's rock-star presence and an era when Canada had some sizzle on the world stage.

Pierre Trudeau, who died in 2000, was in power for 15 years - with a brief interruption - and remains one of the few Canadian leaders to be known abroad.

Single when he took power, the elder Trudeau dated movie stars and models before marrying. He had three boys while prime minister, the eldest of whom now succeeds him in the nation's top office.

Financial market players had praised the Conservative government for its steady hand in economic management, which had spared Canada the worst of the global financial malaise. Trudeau has also promised to raise taxes on high-income Canadians and reduce them for the middle class.

Political pundits have already began to speculate on the makeup of a Trudeau government while pondering what caused the downfall of Harper, 56, who has been criticized for his aloof personality but won credit for economic management in a decade of global fiscal uncertainty.

(Writing by Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Amran Abocar and Alan Crosby)

Canada court rules doctors can help ill patients die

TORONTO — Canada's highest court unanimously struck down a ban on doctor-assisted suicide for mentally competent patients with terminal illnesses, declaring on Friday that "an individual's response to a grievous and irremediable medical condition is a matter critical to their dignity and autonomy."

The Supreme Court's decision reverses its own decision two decades ago and gives Parliament a year to draft new legislation that recognizes the right of consenting adults who are enduring intolerable suffering to seek medical help ending their lives. The current ban on doctor-assisted suicide stands until then.

The judgment said the ban infringes on the life, liberty and security of individuals under Canada's constitution. It had been illegal in Canada to counsel, aid or abet a suicide, an offense carrying a maximum prison sentence of 14 years

"The law allows people in this situation to request palliative sedation, refuse artificial nutrition and hydration, or request the removal of life-sustaining medical equipment, but denies the right to request a physician's assistance in dying," the ruling noted.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, Albania, Colombia, Japan and in the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico and Montana. Euthanasia is currently legal in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Friday's decision reverses a Canadian Supreme Court ruling in 1993. At the time, the justices were primarily concerned that vulnerable people could not be properly protected under physician-assisted suicide.

"For seriously and incurably ill Canadians, the brave people who worked side by side with us for so many years on this case — this decision will mean everything to them," said a visibly overjoyed Grace Pastine, the litigation director for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.

The pressure will now be on Parliament to act in an election year, as the court says no exemptions may be granted for those seeking to end their lives during the 12-month suspension of the judgment.

Friday's decision was spurred by the families of two now-dead British Columbia women, supported by Pastine's organization.

Gloria Taylor was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, a degenerative neurological illness. Kay Carter was diagnosed with a degenerative spinal cord condition. At age 89, Carter travelled to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is allowed.

Taylor had won a constitutional exemption at a lower court for a medically assisted death in 2012, but that decision was overturned in subsequent appeals. She died of an infection later the same year.

It has been more than 20 years since the case of another patient with Lou Gehrig's disease, Sue Rodriguez, gripped Canada as she fought for the right to assisted suicide. She lost her appeal but took her own life with the help of an anonymous doctor in 1994, at the age of 44.

source: philstar.com

More Canadians confident of finances

Canadians' financial confidence is growing, with 70 percent feeling good about the year ahead, a 6 percent jump from a year ago, a poll indicates.

The CIBC poll conducted by Harris/Decima found residents of Ontario -- 74 percent -- and the Prairies -- at 75 percent -- are among the most positive in the country when it comes to their current financial situation.

More Canadians also are feeling better about their longer-term financial goals. The poll found 74 percent said they were confident they would reach their future financial goals, up 2 percentage points from last year.

More Canadians are also taking their own advice and setting goals for the year, with 61 percent of respondents saying they generally set financial goals for themselves, compared with 51 percent two years ago.

"Canadians are entering 2013 with a more positive outlook on their finances today, and with the confidence that they can reach their long-term financial goals," Christina Kramer, executive vice president at CIBC, one of Canada's largest banks, said in a statement.

Each week, Harris/Decima interviews more than 1,000 Canadians via teleVox, the company's national telephone omnibus survey.

These survey of 2,009 Canadians between Oct. 25 to Nov. 4, had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.

source: upi.com