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We were clearly over former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 鈥� no offence, but familiarity breeds contempt. The more we were exposed to his government, the more likely we were to find faults and lose respect. After almost 10 years of power, Trudeau鈥檚 Liberals made missteps and flat-out mistakes. Canadians wanted something new. When he formally stepped down in March, Carney became Liberal leader and prime minister. This week, the public confirmed it.

A globally respected economist with centrist appeal, Carney was the safe and strong alternative to Poilievre鈥檚 populist politics, which was too close to that of U.S. President Donald Trump. Monday鈥檚 election wasn鈥檛 about embracing a bold new vision. It was about battening down the hatches against economic uncertainty and stopping a Conservatism that reminded too many of Trumpism.

Unfortunately, the NDP were sacrificed at the altar of strategic voting 鈥� and maybe a little of that familiarity fatigue crept in as well.

According to the Elections Canada, more than 19 million Canadians (67.4 per cent) 鈥� out of 28.5 million eligible voters 鈥� cast their ballots up from 63 per cent in 2022. Canadians clearly wanted to have their say in who would run the country and how it would be run.

The Conservatives gained more seats, but their leader lost his long-held seat in the Carleton riding. Maybe it was Poilievre鈥檚 personality that rubbed people the wrong way 鈥� he is very much an attack dog. For some, it was his war on “wokeness,” which felt too much like a mission to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in all institutions.

Poilievre鈥檚 definition of “woke” was always fuzzy that he couldn鈥檛 exactly put into words. Recently, he said to The Canadian Press, 鈥淰ery simply, after a lost Liberal decade of dividing Canadians, turning people against each other and weakening our Armed Forces, we need to put Canada first.鈥� Poilievre also mentioned the Liberals鈥� 鈥渨oke criminal justice agenda鈥� and 鈥渨oke agenda on spending.鈥�

The term “woke” began as a term in African American communities meaning awareness of racial injustice, but over time it expanded to cover broader social justice issues.

But for many voters, the culture war wasn鈥檛 enough to win his seat.

Overall, the Conservatives did end up more seats than in 2022. This wasn鈥檛 a landslide Liberal win that signalled a full rejection of the right.

This close win says that the Cons tapped into to something real. Canadians do want more affordable housing, lower inflation and less taxes. That鈥檚 clear. What we didn鈥檛 want was what we are seeing in Trump鈥檚 first 100 days in office: confusion, chaos and constant conflict.

Now, as Carney selects his first elected cabinet and executes his first mandate, the hard work begins. Canadians chose competence over potential chaos and pragmatism over populism. We rejected extremism, but we didn鈥檛 offer the Liberals a blank cheque.

Nope, it鈥檚 understanding that we, Canadians, don鈥檛 want the populism of Trump 鈥� the culture wars of us vs. them, anti-immigration and anti-intellectualism 鈥� getting a stranglehold on our values and our politics. We do need change. The same ol鈥� same ol鈥� won鈥檛 cut it. We also need a strong hand to keep our country moving forward.

And we can鈥檛 forget that the NDP has long been the conscience of Canada. Their loss of party status isn鈥檛 just the result of a bad campaign 鈥� it feels like a national sacrifice.

We wanted a reset, not a rerun. Now it鈥檚 up to Carney to prove we made the right call.

With continued #elbowsup.