DHAKA: Justin Trudeau is set to become Canada’s new prime minister after his Liberal Party swept to power in general elections, ending nearly a decade of Conservative Party rule.

The Liberals seized a parliamentary majority, an unprecedented turn in political fortunes that smashed the record for the number of seats gained from one election to the next.

The Liberals had been a distant third place party in parliament before this election.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper conceded defeat, ending his government’s nine-year run in power and the 56-year-old’s brand of fiscal and cultural conservatism.

Trudeau, 43, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, pledged to run a $7.7bn annual budget deficit for three years to invest in infrastructure and help stimulate Canada’s anaemic economic growth.

This rattled financial markets ahead of the vote and the Canadian dollar weakened on news of his victory.

Trudeau has said he will repair Canada’s cool relations with the Obama administration, withdraw Canada from the combat mission against the Islamic State (IS) of Iraq and Syria group in favor of humanitarian aid and training, and tackle climate change.

Trudeau vaulted from third place to lead the polls in the final days of the campaign, overcoming Conservative attacks that he is too inexperienced to govern and to return to the prime minister’s residence in Ottawa where he grew up as a child.

‘When the time for change strikes, it's lethal,’ former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said in a television interview.

‘I ran and was successful because I wasn’t Pierre Trudeau. Justin is successful because he isn’t Stephen Harper,’ Mulroney added.

BDST: 1230 HRS, OCT 20, 2015
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