Trudeau Upsets Harper, As 'Liberal Wave' Takes Canada's Prime Minister Post

By Bill Chappell / NPR

Published October 20, 2015 at 1:09 AM PDT

This story was published more than 8 years ago.

Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau gives a victory speech in Montreal, Quebec, after winning a stunning upset over Stephen Harper in Canada's federal election Monday.

Canadian news outlets are calling it a "Liberal wave." After nearly a decade in office, Stephen Harper has been ousted as Canada's prime minister, falling to the Liberal party's Justin Trudeau. Losing his bid for a fourth term, Harper will also step down as leader of the Conservative party.

Celebrating his victory, Trudeau, 43, touted "sunny ways" to a boisterous crowd in Montreal, a reference to his insistence on running a positive campaign. His critics had said Trudeau wasn't experienced enough to lead Canada. Trudeau is the son of the late Pierre Trudeau, who had two stints leading Canada before retiring in 1984.

"We beat fear with hope," Trudeau said after the win, according to the CBC. "We beat cynicism with hard work. We beat negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that brings Canadians together."

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Under Canada's parliamentary system, the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons is anointed prime minister. On Monday, the Liberal party took more than half the seats — 184 out of 338.

From Toronto, Dan Karpenchuk reports about the parliamentary election results for NPR's Newscast unit:

"The Liberals captured more than four times the seats they held before parliament was dissolved, sweeping the Atlantic provinces and all the seats in Toronto. "The Conservatives under Stephen Harper were crushed, winning only 99 seats. Harper conceded defeat and a statement from the party said he would be stepping down as leader. The New Democratic Party ran third with 44 seats, the separatist Bloc Quebecois took 10, and the Green party one."

In Calgary, where Stephen Harper won reelection to his parliamentary seat despite his party's overall loss, The Calgary Herald says that before the Liberal Party's upset, "You could sense it coming like some rogue Atlantic wave that gathered power across the country and finally crashed into the Pacific."

The newspaper adds, "It was an abrupt end to one of the most successful runs of any prime minister in a generation. If Harper's habitual style is any guide, he'll now give the voters what so many seemed to want, and quickly vanish from public view."

The Globe and Mail reports, "The result signals a vast reversal of fortunes for a party that was all but written off after winning just 34 seats in the past election."

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