25 May 2017, 03:18 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The centre-right Conservative party of Canada, one of the leading parties in the country, elected Andrew Scheer, a member of the lower house of Canadian Parliament and the former lower house’s speaker, as a new party leader, who is supposed to run against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the Liberal party in the upcoming election, local media reported.
Scheer won the the election with 50.95 percent of support on Saturday, while his closest rival and Member of Parliament Maxime Bernier, who was initially predicted to win. finished second with 49.05 percent, the National Post newspaper reported.
“We have all grown because of your hard work … you have each brought your passion and what you believe in to the center stage, and I plan to ensure the very best of those ideas are brought forward … to help us win in 2019,” Scheer said in his victory speech, as quoted by the newspaper.
The general election in Canada is set to take place in October, 2019. Scheer will face competition mainly from Trudeau and Tom Mulcair, a member of parliament and the leader of the opposition New Democratic Party.
