Sask. scholar says Trudeau’s election win will further divide Canada

National unity is a great concern for some people after Justin Trudeau was re-elected as Canada’s prime minister.

That’s the case for a professor from the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan.

“I watched Monday night with sorrow, not with any joy. I’ve never been more distressed about Canada than I am right now,” Ken Coates told 650 CKOM’s Brent Loucks Show on Tuesday.

“This is a country that has lost direction, that is suffering from a huge shortage of leadership and is actually not clear where it’s going at a time when we need clear direction and a real sense of national purpose.”

Trudeau’s Liberals won a minority mandate after calling a controversial election at a time when the country is dealing with a fourth wave of the COVID-19 virus.

Coates is discouraged that the country will again be led by the party that did not receive the most votes.

The election saw the Conservatives win the popular vote, with 34.1 per cent of the overall count compared to 31.9 per cent for the Liberals.

According to Coates, the results speak to how “fragmented” the country has become. The bulk of Trudeau’s support lies in the big cities of Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal, leaving the rest of Canada underrepresented.

“Saskatchewan has become the most Conservative part of the country now both in terms of the Conservative Party itself and the People’s Party of Canada,” said Coates.

“We’re really outside the Canadian mainstream. We need to think about what that represents for our province and how we sort of position ourselves in a country that is drifting further and further away from what we would consider Western Canadian values and priorities.”

Coates predicts the election will only fuel Western alienation.