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Canada's Trudeau to remain in power but with minority government

(SOUNDBITE) (English) CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER, JUSTIN TRUDEAU, SAYING:

"From coast to coast to coast tonight, Canadians rejected division and negativity."

Justin Trudeau's Liberals are projected to win Canada's elections - but lose their majority.

It means that the country's incumbent prime minister will hold on to his job.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER, JUSTIN TRUDEAU, SAYING:

"You are sending our liberal team back to work, back to Ottawa with a clear mandate. We will make life more affordable. We will continue to fight climate change. We will get guns off our streets and we will keep investing in Canadians."

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But the 47-year-old will enter a second term with less power than before.

And will now need the support of a smaller left-leaning party in order to govern.

Trudeau is seen as one of the world's most high-profile progressive leaders.

He took power in 2015 as a charismatic figure promising "sunny ways" and championing diversity.

But his hard-fought election campaign has been tainted by scandal.

His popularity dropped as old photos of him in blackface emerged.

And his handling of a corporate corruption case was widely criticized.

In August, a top watchdog said Trudeau breached ethics rules.

Canada's economy, though, has been on a general upswing in 2019.

The Canadian dollar has been the best-performing G10 currency this year.

As the economy added jobs at a robust pace and inflation stayed closed to the Bank of Canada's 2% target.

Ahead of the vote, polls had shown a tight race between Trudeau and his main rival, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer.

Preliminary results showed the Conservatives actually won the national popular vote.

But Sheer's hopes for a major breakthrough were dashed as his party trailed behind in a number of seats.

U.S. President Donald Trump, whose relationship with Trudeau has been testy at times, tweeted his congratulations "on a wonderful and hard fought victory".

Minority governments in Canada rarely last more than 2 and a half years.