New Democrat leader Tom Mulcair’s support crumbles in Federal Election 2015

Tom Mulcair was locked in a tough battle for the Montreal riding of Outremont late Monday.

A projection by polling analyst Eric Grenier of threehundredeight.com points to either a Liberal or a Conservative minority.

“It has so many negative consequences”.

Despite the fact that the proposal on the face covering was popular in Quebec, Mulcair backed the current rules that only require that they are removed for identification purposes, but not during the swearing-in process.

He congratulated Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe on the campaign, but admitted they’d hoped for a better result than the 10 seats and the 19.3 per cent of the popular vote the party obtained.

When the votes were tallied, the Green vote in B.C. had increased only marginally – from 7.7 per cent to 8.2 per cent – and they hung onto only May’s seat. If 50-per-cent-plus-one of the delegates support such an election, one would be held within a year of the convention vote.

The mood in the room was sombre, with a smattering of cheers and applause as the occasional victory rolled in – including that of Ruth Ellen Brosseau in the Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinongé, the young woman who traveled to Las Vegas during the 2011 election campaign and then had come to symbolize how numerous paper candidates from 2011 had worked hard to become serious MPs.

While the NDP tried to protect its Quebec seats by running on a platform that placated soft Quebec nationalists, Trudeau was unabashedly pro-Canada.

Mulcair has repeatedly told Quebecers his party would respect a referendum vote if sovereigntists won by a single vote, while Trudeau has categorically dismissed that possibility.

“I don’ think that we will succeed if we do that”, said Topp at the time.

Trudeau will have several big names to choose from as his new Quebec lieutenant.

The NDP was left to conduct a painful post-mortem on what went wrong and undertake serious introspection about the future of the party, its policies, and who should lead New Democrats into the next election four years from now.

Conservative Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, first elected to the House of Commons in 2008, lost her seat in the P.E.I. riding of Egmont to Liberal Robert Morrissey, a former member of the provincial legislature.

One volunteer responded: “It’s nice to work for the next prime minister”.

Political scientist Don Desserud said he believes Atlantic Canadians cast their ballots strategically to bolster the Liberals’ chances of forming government and defeating the Conservatives.

“Good trade agreements are good for the country if they’re negotiated properly, but you can not trust what this man (Harper) is saying to you on that agreement”, Williams said.

Trudeau thanked supporters Monday night for voting for him – and his message of tolerance. “A PM who never seeks to divide Canadians but takes every single opportunity to bring us together”.