The leaders of Canada's opposition parties criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for calling parliamentary elections during a pandemic, speaking Wednesday night during their second debate of the campaign.
Trudeau called the vote last month hoping to win a majority of seats in Parliament, but polls indicate his Liberal Party could lose power to the Conservatives in the September, 20 elections. Trudeau's Liberal Party has 34 per cent support, while the Conservative Party has 32 per cent. 60 per cent of voters have indicated that the country shouldn't have an election.
A section of people seem to be mad at Trudeau. As he was leaving an event in London, a city southwest of Toronto in Ontario province, he faced a crowd protesting proposed mandatory coronavirus vaccines and other crisis measures. Someone threw a handful of gravel at him.
Even though the Liberals are focussing on topics like abortion, private health care and gun control, Toole hasn't taken the bait.
Trudeau had hoped that his successful vaccination strategy had made Canadian voters grateful. He was also banking on his main opponent, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, to be somewhere between unpopular and unknown.
“We invested enough money to put us at the top of the list in the world,” Trudeau said in French. Trudeau was referring to the fact that Canada is now one of the most fully vaccinated countries in the world, with more than 77 per cent of Canadians 12 years and older having gotten coronavirus shots.
Canada, however, is in the fourth wave of infections driven by the delta variant and by those who remain unvaccinated.
A spirited Trudeau defended his identity as a Quebecer in a heated exchange with the Bloc Qubcois' Yves-Franois Blanchet, who leads a party that believes Quebec should be its own nation separate from Canada.
Blanchet asked Trudeau why he feels he can tell Quebec what to do and think.
“I am a Quebecer,” Trudeau said. “I am proud of being a Quebecer.”
The only reason you called an election was a selfish reason, to obtain more power, Jagmeet Singh, leader of the leftist New Democrat party, said to Trudeau. Canada is due for federal elections in 2023. but, if Trudeau waited it out, Canadians may tire out having a government prone to scandals at its helm.
Singh's party propped up Trudeau's Liberal party on most issues during the last sessions of Parliament. The Liberals, in the 2019 elections, did not have a majority of seats in the House of Commons and had to rely on Singh's party to pass legislation.
Trudeau, with this election, hopes to regain a Liberal majority. If Trudeau manages that, he will exceed his father Pierre Trudeau's 15 years in office.
While his government's handling of the pandemic is being viewed to be done well by 50 per cent of Canadians and about a quarter of them feel that the government handled the pandemic badly.
The IMF expects the economy to grow by 6.3 per cent this year. Even then, it seems that Trudeau is taking a risk by calling for snap elections. Trudeau said that Canada is at a 'pivotal' moment. Trudeau's party, the Liberal Party of Canada's lack of majority has proved to be a hindrance in his governance.
Most of the time, Trudeau has the backing of other parties in his coalition to bring about change, like he gained cross-party support for pandemic aid to households and businesses worth nearly 20 per cent of GDP, an Economist report reads.
The party promises to make child care available to families for C$10 (USD 7.8) a day within five years. The Trudeau government in June passed a law enshrining the goal of reducing Canada’s net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2050. Trudeau has also promised more aid to cope with the after-effects of the pandemic-- offering subsidies for wages and rents for tourism businesses.
The Trudeau-led liberal government also wants to make vaccines mandatory for federal workers and passengers on trains and planes. The proposition has been called 'tyrannical' by Conservatives. Mr Toole's supporters include anti-vaxxers. Conservatives also oppose the Trudeau-led government's plan to raise the price of carbon from C$40 (USD 31) a tonne to C$170 (USD 133.97) by 2030. These two factors could easily derail Trudeau's plans to stay in power to implement them.
