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)

Quebec, students clinch deal on tuition hikes

VICTORIAVILLE, Canada — The government of the French-speaking province of Quebec and student groups clinched a roadmap agreement Saturday to put an end to 12 weeks of often violent protests over tuition hikes, officials said.

The deal came after some 23 hours of arduous negotiations between Education Minister Line Beauchamp and four major Quebec student groups, and just hours after clashes in Victoriaville that left nine people injured and ended with 106 arrests outside the Quebec Liberal Party’s annual convention.

Details of the agreement were not immediately available, as student leaders said they wanted to first have group members review the document before final approval.

The Victoriaville protests overnight were among the most violent since mid-February, when students took to the streets to protest the Quebec government’s plans to raise university fees by $1,625 over five years to $3,800 per year as part of an effort to rein in the budget deficit.

Quebec’s main student groups have mobilized some 170,000 students who are refusing to go to class until the matter is resolved.

During the skirmishes in Victoriaville, some 170 kilometers east of Montreal, protesters threw stones and police shot tear gas and fired rubber bullets. The injured included six protesters and three police officers.

Three of the students were rushed to hospital with head injuries, but officials said they were in stable condition.

One protester, identified as a student at Cegep de Saint-Laurent university in Montreal, lost the use of his eye, medical officials said.

The ear of another student was also severely cut, according to witnesses.

“We were on top of the little hill behind the protests and there was a guy with a bloody ear,” said Shania, who attended Friday’s demonstration and would not provide her last name.

People toward the back of the demo were peaceful, a protester who gave her name as Tania told AFP.

“I don’t understand how you can justify police who are supposed to be protecting the convention ending up in an area further away,” Tania said.

But police spokesman Captain Jean Finet told reporters that the officers had “used the necessary force to ensure citizens’ safety.”

In one exchange demonstrators attacked and beat a police officer, according to local media, which said the officer did not suffer serious injuries.

Police attributed the violence to a small group of troublemakers among the protesters.

Provincial police had initially arrested four people during the protest in front of the Victoriaville convention center, where Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s party was holding its annual meeting.

Overnight, officers stopped three buses full of students heading home to Montreal, according to officials.

More protesters were in Victoriaville for the second day of the Quebec Liberal Party’s convention.

source: japantoday.com