(CNN) — Australians delivered a surprise election result on Saturday; not because of who won but by the scale of the victory.
It marks a strong recovery for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his center-left Labor party, which had been slumping in the polls earlier this year, and follows a similar swing away from conservatives in Canada in the early months of the second US presidency of Donald Trump.
As the final seats are allocated and the center-right Liberal Party surveys the damage – including the loss of its leader, Peter Dutton, from parliament – here are five takeaways.
‘Trump effect’ boosts another left-leaning government
Albanese’s defeat of Dutton mirrors the outcome of Canada’s federal election last week, where the once-struggling left-leaning Liberal Party soared to victory thanks to a Trump-inspired popularity boost.
In a remarkable political rebound, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals bested Pierre Poilievre’s Conservativesafter Trump’s tariffs and threats to annex its neighbor changed the fortunes of the governing party, which had …