Justin Trudeau will form Canada’s next government, but does not reach enough seats for a majority government

Montreal (CNN) – Several Canadian media outlets project that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s liberal party will form the next government after a hotly contested general election against his conservative rival Erin O’Toole.

However, Trudeau did not achieve his goal of winning enough seats to form a majority government.

The Trudeau Liberals held 155 of 338 seats in the last Parliament. To obtain a majority, a party must secure 170 seats.

At 2:00 am ET, Elections Canada showed Liberals winning 157 seats compared to Conservatives winning 122 seats with nearly 95 percent of polls nationwide reporting.

The remaining seats in the next parliament will be held by the left-leaning New Democratic Party and the Quebec-based bloc Quebecois separatist party.

Trudeau called snap elections in mid-August, just two years after his minority rule, betting that he could capitalize on his handling of the pandemic to win the majority.

But polls that were once favorable to Trudeau and his liberals quickly reversed course, with O’Toole of the Conservative Party struggling to fight his way to a statistical tie, according to national follow-up polls in recent days.

Covid-19, climate change, housing affordability, and gun control have been featured as major issues for voters, but a headache for Trudeau is that few Canadians saw the need for this election. A policy expert told CNN that holding snap elections in the summer during a global pandemic has infuriated many voters who cannot identify a compelling “ballot box” issue to justify the decision.

O’Toole had tried to capitalize on the perception that Trudeau, the son of a former Canadian prime minister, is a classical liberal political elitist who is more interested in his own political ambition than in leading the country.

During the campaign, O’Toole attacked Trudeau in a way uncommon in Canadian politics.

“All Canadians have known a Justin Trudeau in their lives: privileged, with rights and always looking for number one. He was looking for number one when he called for this expensive and unnecessary election in the middle of a pandemic. That is not leadership, that is it’s self-interest. And that’s Justin Trudeau through and through, “O’Toole said at a recent campaign event.

Trudeau responded in an equally forceful way, saying, “I’m going to let him and his proxies and the anti-vaccine movement and the gun lobby and the anti-abortion crowd continue to attack me, okay. I’m going to stay focused on Canadians.”

As much as the candidates have tried to meaningfully engage on the issues, a wave of polarization is emerging among voters, one that seems to reflect the US experience, especially on cultural issues or so-called “gaps” such as the right to abortion, gun control and climate change.

The pandemic in particular has ignited fury among a small but fierce minority that opposes some covid-19 protocols, especially vaccination and mask-wearing mandates. Earlier this month, a protester threw gravel at Trudeau at a campaign event in Ontario after the Canadian leader was harassed by protesters angry at his pandemic policies.

The vote includes six federal parties. While Trudeau and O’Toole are probably the only leaders capable of forming a government, Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), could again maintain the balance of power in any Canadian Parliament.

News in development.

CNN’s Luke McGee contributed to this story.