LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA

LEADER JUSTIN TRUDEAU FOUNDED 1867 SITTING MPS 177

Heading into the election, the Liberals will change tactics from their last run. With Trudeau’s trust quotient at a low ebb, they’ll shift focus away from his image and run largely on their legislative record of the last five years. The Liberals won the last election, in large part, because of huge support from young and first-time voters – one study showed that 45 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 25 voted Liberal, compared to 25 per cent for the NDP and 20 per cent for the Conservatives. Seniors, many of them long-time Tory loyalists, jumped on board as well.

Much of the government’s first-term legislative direction skewed toward millennials – middle-class tax cuts, legalized marijuana, carbon tax and realized a gender-balanced cabinet – all played well with young families and progressively minded supporters. They’ll likely announce similar measures if they want to capture the fickle younger voter.

A big positive for Trudeau is that he has history on his side. Only twice in 42 federal elections have majority governments been voted out of office after serving only one term – in 1878, Liberal PM Alexander Mackenzie’s majority government fell to John A. Macdonald’s Conservatives and, in 1935, Conservative PM R.B. Bennett lost his majority to Liberal Mackenzie King.

THE ECONOMY

During their time in power, the Liberals have chosen to loosen the purse strings to support their costly spending programs. Trudeau has wildly overshot on campaign promises that his government would run short-term deficits of less than $10 billion a year and eventually balance the budget by 2019. They missed by $20 billion.

However, a strong economy and a historically robust job market will take some of the sting out of the fact that he’s s missing his fiscal targets. In June, ne, Canada’s jobless rate was around 5.5 5 per cent, the lowest in 40 years.

Will the pipeline expansion lose him the support of environmentalists?