OTTOWA (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau on Sunday is
expected to call snap elections for September 20 to seek a new mandate to steer
the nation's pandemic exit, much to the dismay of his rival parties.
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Trudeau and opposition leaders have been crisscrossing the country in recent
weeks, making election-style announcements in anticipation of an early vote.
On Sunday, the prime minister is due to visit Governor General Mary Simon at
10am local time to ask her to dissolve parliament, triggering a general
election that polling shows is likely to return his Liberals to power.
Despite rolling out massive pandemic aid, passing a federal budget and other
key legislation with opposition backing over the past year, Trudeau — in office
since 2015 — has lamented that parliament has become dysfunctional, with a
"level of obstructionism and toxicity in the House that is of real
concern."
Opposition leaders disagreed, while warning that it's too soon to be
charting a path out of the pandemic.
They note that COVID-19 infections are
once again surging nationwide, following a summer drop that resulted in most
public health restrictions being lifted.
All five parties currently holding seats in Parliament are gearing up for a
fierce battle at the ballot box.
"Justin Trudeau's planning an election in the middle of a pandemic
because he's focused on politics," tweeted Trudeau's main challenger,
Conservative leader Erin O'Toole.
"It's time we had a prime minister planning an economic recovery
focused on Canadians," he added. "We're ready."
Most Canadians approve of Trudeau's pandemic response, But if a fourth wave
of COVID-19 infections strikes during the campaign, it could hurt his backing.
"This was the only window of opportunity for him because with students'
return to school and universities in two weeks, Covid cases will inevitably go
up," Felix Mathieu, political science professor at the University of
Winnipeg, told AFP.
Trudeau's government "has already held for 18 months, which is the
average lifespan for a minority government," he added.
Despite rising
vaccination rates that are among the highest in the world —
with almost 62 percent of Canadians fully inoculated — nearly 1,000 new daily
Covid-19 cases have been reported across Canada recently.
A spike in hospitalizations led Alberta — the first Canadian province to
fully lift pandemic restrictions last month — to reintroduce coronavirus
testing and mandatory quarantines for infected persons on Friday.
In striking
distance
Trudeau was re-elected to office in 2019 but lost his majority in his second
term, amid scandals.
To regain a majority on September 20, the Liberals must win at least 170 of
the 338 seats in the House of Commons, up 15 seats from its current
standing.
According to a recent Abacus Data poll, the Liberals are in striking
distance of a majority, with 37 percent of support.
The Conservatives and the leftist New Democrat Party — which propped up the
Liberals until now and has seen an uptick in support — trail on 28 percent and
20 percent, respectively.
According to analysts, the Liberals have a good shot at winning a majority,
while "the chances that the Conservatives will come out in front, even
securing a minority government, are slim," said politics professor
Stephanie Chouinard at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario.
O'Toole, meanwhile, has struggled to find his footing since becoming leader
of the Conservatives in August 2020, as lockdowns and other public health
measures put glad-handing out of reach.
In March, he found himself painfully at odds with his rank-and-file after
telling a party convention that a robust plan to tackle climate change was
needed if the Conservatives ever hoped to unseat Trudeau.
Members instead voted
down a resolution that said "climate change is real”.
Campaigning is to last only 36 days, and is largely expected to revolve
around pandemic management, the government's broad emergency aid programs, and
a three-year $80.9 billion post-pandemic stimulus plan.
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