Canadians go to the polls Sept 20
TORONTO
Canadians are going to the polls on September 20, two years short of expectation. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement after he led members of his family on a consultation visit with the new Governor General Mary Simon. There he secured her permission to prorogue parliament and announce early elections endings months of speculation that his minority federal government might want cash in on favourable popularity ratings.
Opponents, especially the Conservative Party are angry with Trudeau’s Liberals accusing them of calling an election on the verge of a fourth wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. However, for a short lateness in the arrival of vaccines, the Trudeau government paid in advance for vaccines. While vaccination took off rather late, it ran effectively, placing the country among the top list to vaccinate its citizens.
During the heat of the pandemic, the Liberals embarked on a slew of programmes to cushion the effect of the countrywide lockdown. Those projects cost Canada more than it had and now the nation is deeper in debts but the palliatives have increased government ratings at the polls.
Five political parties are scheduled for the polls with the Liberals leading in opinion polls followed by the Conservative Party whose leader. Erin O’Toole concedes it would be a straight race between his party and Trudeau’s. The conservatives hope to secure a comfortable rating with their party’s five-point programme that hopes to balance the books and open the road for a debt-free nation. Experts say this is a mere campaign promise that would be difficult to attain given global economic dynamics.
Trudeau’s coalition partner, the NDP led by Jagmeet Singh is expected to make a good showing as well as the most popular party in Trudeau’s Quebec province, the Bloc Quebecois led by YvesFrancois Blanchet. Its leader and potential candidates rallied with LGBTQ people at their recent Pride Parade in Montreal.
Also in the race are the Green Party of Canada led by Annamie Paul, a woman of colour and leader whose leadership has been recently challenged by her own members. Ms Paul attended a rally in Toronto.
Campaigns started in earnest on Sunday with Trudeau attending functions in Montreal. He defended his reasons for calling the polls early: “As much as we’ve done over the past many, many months, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us…You deserve a say, because this is your moment.”
Trudeau always argued that he needs a strong government to complete his economic recovery programmes.
However experts, including Dr Theresa Tam Canada’s chief public health officer has warned that Canada may be starring at a fourth wave with the Delta and Lamda variants of the coronavirus taking its hold on the country.
To form a majority government, a party needs 170 of the 338 seat House of Commons. Before dissolution, the Liberals had only 155, the conservatives 119, Bloc Quebecois 32, NDP 24 and two for the Green Party. Canada had five independents and a vacant seat.
At the polls, the Liberals are leading with 35.6% with the conservatives taking a second at 28.8 per cent. The NDP comes third at 19.3% while the Bloc, Greens and others have 6.6, 4.8 and 4.9 per cent in statistics published by CBC News.