Trudeau mounts strong challenge to Harper
Son of former PM leads polls as Canada casts ballots Monday
“Even with six in 10 people hating (Harper), the Conservatives could still win.”
John Wright, Canadian pollster
A young liberal leader with a famous pedigree in Canada, Justin Trudeau, threatens to upend nearly 10 years of conservative leadership under Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Canadians go to the polls Monday.
Harper, who has held power longer that most major Western leaders, hopes to capture a rare fourth term in the parliamentary elections and vanquish Canada’s perception as a solidly liberal nation. But polls show him trailing Liberal Party leader Trudeau, 43, the oldest of three sons of the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
Harper, 56, campaigned Saturday at a Conservative Party rally in Toronto promoted by the Ford family, including Rob Ford, the scandalized former mayor who made headlines because of his public drunkenness and for using crack cocaine. Harper later posed for a picture with Ford and his family that the ex-mayor later tweeted.
Harper campaigned on a promise of ensuring “stability, not risk” and made an issue of his rival’s youth, casting him as “just not ready” for higher office and addressing him by his first name during national debates. But Trudeau’s performances in those five face-offs received strong reviews, and his party has been surging at the polls.
Running a distant third in polls is the left-leaning New Democratic Party led by Thomas Mulcair, who has expressed a desire to work with Trudeau to form a government if no one achieves a majority in Monday’s vote.
Trudeau has campaigned on a platform of deficit spending to finance infrastructure improvements and to boost a lackluster economy, plus tax cuts for the middle class, higher taxes for the the wealthiest 1% and improved relations with the United States.
Harper’s hard-line stance in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry crude from Alberta to Texas has been frustrated by President Obama’s reluctance over the project. Trudeau is in favor of it but does not want it to interfere with ties to the United States
Canadian election rules add an element of uncertainty to Monday’s voting, allowing candidates to win parliamentary districts, or ridings as they are known in Canada, with merely a plurality instead of a majority of votes.
That makes it possible to win a majority of seats with only 37% of the popular vote, Canadian pollster John Wright told The New
York Times.
“Even with six in 10 people hating (Harper), the Conservatives could still win,” Wright said.
The young Trudeau, who is married and the father of three, has served in the Canadian Parliament since 2008.
His father, Pierre Trudeau, to most Americans was arguably the most famous Canadian leader who drew comparisons with John F. Kennedy when he was elected prime minister in 1968 and served until 1984 with a short interruption. The elder Trudeau had dated famous actresses, including Barbra Streisand, and married a 22-year-old woman when he was 51 while in office.