Trudeau off to rocky start in Canada's snap election campaign

OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stumbled out of the blocks in the first week of Canada's snap election campaign, with polls showing the race tightening and prospects for a majority weakening.

While most surveys still give his Liberals a small edge over the main opposition Conservative Party, the advantage has fallen to within the margin of error and one poll shows the Tories ahead.

Mr Trudeau called the election for Sept 20 on the premise that he needed a mandate to "finish" the job of tackling the Covid-19 crisis and plan for the post-pandemic recovery.

Instead, the Prime Minister has been harangued over what the opposition says is an unnecessary campaign, at a time when the country is being hit by a fourth wave of the coronavirus.

He is also facing criticism over a slow response to evacuating Canada's interpreters and other support staff from Afghanistan. And his campaign was sideswiped by an inflation report last week that showed consumer prices increasing at the fastest pace in a decade.

"The Liberals seemed to have limped out of the gates," Mr David Coletto, chief executive at polling company Abacus Data, said. The Liberals have the support of 34 per cent of voters compared to 30.3 per cent for the Conservatives and 19.8 per cent for the left-leaning New Democratic Party, according to national averages compiled by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Polling aggregator 338Canada, is giving Mr Trudeau a 22 per cent chance of winning a majority of seats, down from above 50 per cent at the start of the campaign.

The campaign has already turned negative, driven in large part by Mr Trudeau's party trying to paint the Conservatives as regressive, which is a tried-and-true strategy for the Liberals early in campaigns.

One wild card for Mr Trudeau is how the fourth wave of Covid-19 will affect the campaign. New daily cases have climbed to more than 2,000 in recent days for the first time since June.

Throughout the pandemic, Mr Trudeau's polling numbers have been strongest when virus concerns have been the most elevated because the Liberal government has had high marks on its handling of the pandemic.

However, rising case numbers may provide more fodder for the opposition to accuse Mr Trudeau of opportunism in calling the election, and could undermine household confidence.

BLOOMBERG