While not all the results are in, we do know enough to say with certainty that the Liberals will have the opportunity to form the government, albeit yet again in the minority.
The Liberals are leading or are elected in 158 ridings at the moment. In total there are 18 ridings where candidates have not been declared a winner of which 12 see the Liberals leading. In the election of 2019 the Liberals won 157 seats to the Conservatives 121. The Conservatives currently have elected or are leading in 119 ridings. The Bloc Quebecois have elected or are leading in 34 ridings, up to 2 from the last election while the Greens are down a seat. The NDP have elected or are leading 25 ridings, up 1. Of note the number of people who voted is down somewhat from the last election.
With respect to the space file, François-Philippe Champagne who was the Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, won his seat and it would make sense for him to remain in the portfolio he took over earlier this year.
Other key cabinet posts that are relevant to the space file and which should retain their respective ministers include Marc Garneau in Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland in Finance, and possibly Omar Alghabra in Transportation.
During the election François-Philippe Champagne reiterated the Liberals support of the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) and just last week he stated more “investment (was) in the pipeline.” This jibes with what we had previously heard with respect to a couple of projects expecting funding from the SIF program.
The Liberals of course will move forward with the $2.05B lunar program. As well, the community hopes the Liberal government will follow through on executing further on the Space Strategy they unveiled in 2019. Anything associated with climate change and the environment including a new Earth Observation plan is likely to be a priority, though how much funding is allocated to new projects is unknown and if the past is any indication, it will be a modest amount.
One space-based telescope the astronomy community has ralied together to support is the Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and ultraviolet Research (CASTOR) project. This $100M plus project is one of several projects put forward by the Canadian Astronomical Society in its long-term plan released in 2020.