Polls favour Liberals, Justin Trudeau set to be next Canada PM
TORONTO: As voting began throughout Canada on Monday morning for federal Parliamentary elections, it appears increasingly likely that current Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s nearly decade-long tenure at the helm of the country’s affairs may well end when the final results are known on Tuesday.
The ruling Conservative Party has trailed the Liberal Party in every poll that has been conducted in recent days. According to the poll tracker of the CBC, the national broadcaster, over 37% of voters were leaning towards the Liberals, six points higher than the incumbent Tories, while the New Democratic Party, which in the summer had led such counts, has faded away to about 22% support.
If these numbers hold, 43-yearold Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau could become the 23thPrime Minister of the country. If he does succeed in occupying 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of the PM in Ottawa, the country’s capital, he will emulate his father Pierre Trudeau, who led the country for over 15 years between 1968 and 1984.
Rana Sarkar, an advisor to Trudeau said: “People are responding to Justin’s authenticity. People have a lot of comfort with him. The numbers at his rallies are astounding.”
In a rally in Edmonton in the province of Alberta on Sunday, Justin Trudeau focused on the message of Real Change which has been the slogan of his campaign, as he said: “Meeting with Canadians across the country, it is clear that they want real change now.”
However, the numbers from the polls as they stand suggest that no party may capture a majority of seats in the 338-member House of Commons, the Canadian equivalent of the Lok Sabha. A shaky minority government could mean another election before the new dispensation completes its four-year term.
Harper, in fact, came to power in 2006, leading such a minority government. That led to elections in 2008, with the Tories again falling short of a majority, before the 2011 elections finally gave Harper a majority mandate.