GBP/CAD has declined by 0.16% on Tuesday as the UK cannot make up its mind on Brexit while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won the national election yesterday, though his party lost the majority.
1 British pound buys 1.6926 Canadian dollars as of 11.16 AM UTC. The price action has broken the support line of a medium-term uptrend that started on October 10. Now the price is heading towards the 1.6800 territory, but it all depends on how the British parliament handles Brexit.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Wins Right for Minority Government
Yesterday, Canadians took part in the national election, which saw the two largest parties — Trudeau’s Liberal Party and the Conservative Party — securing about 6 million votes or more than 33% each, with the latter having a slight advantage.
However, given the way votes are counted, the Liberal Party has won much more seats in the House of Commons, yet still not enough to form a majority government. While the results are still reviewed, Trudeau’s party is expected to take 156 or 157 seats, which is 13 or 14 seats short of the 170 required for a majority government. Thus, the Liberal Party’s narrow victory will make it depend on other parties, such as the New Democratic Party (15.9%), Bloc Québécois (7.7%), and the Green Party (6.5%).
PM Justin Trudeau told the party supporters in Montreal:
“We seek hardship for none and prosperity for all, and if we unite around these common goals, I know we can achieve them.”
Interestingly, Trudeau won the election even though he was previously hit by a major scandal when his former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, revealed the PM had pressured her to stop the prosecution of a Quebec company.
UK PM Boris Johnson Loses Chance for Another Meaningful Vote
In the UK, the House of Commons speaker John Bercow refused another “yes or no” vote on Brexit, saying that the proposal is similar to that of Saturday, when Johnson failed to convince the parliament to vote his latest deal with the EU.
Now the PM has to go for the hard way by passing the so-called Withdrawal Agreement Bill through both chambers, which will take several days or even weeks. However, Johnson still hopes to take the UK out of the bloc by the end of this month.