Polls show voters are unhappy that Justin Trudeau called the vote during the fourth wave of the pandemic. (File)
Hamilton:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the face of a possible defeat in a swift election on September 20, defended his decision to call early elections on Friday and said his main rival would undermine the fight against COVID-19 .
Trudeau, who leads a minority liberal government that needs opposition support to pass legislation, hoped Canadians would reward their treatment of the coronavirus pandemic with a majority in the House of Commons.
But polls show voters are dissatisfied with the fact that 49-year-old Trudeau, who has held power for six years, called the vote during a fourth wave of pandemic. Polls show Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, 48, has a slight advantage over the Liberal leader.
Asked if he regretted the election call, Trudeau told reporters in Hamilton, Ontario, “Absolutely not … What we see is a very clear contrast between all the different parties about how we should move forward as a country.”
Attacked daily by rivals for bringing Canadians to the polls this month, Trudeau has struggled to steer the campaign toward political issues. He is running out of time.
On Friday, a day after an inconclusive debate from leaders, Trudeau criticized O’Toole for arguing that COVID-19 vaccines are a personal choice and should not be forced.
Unlike the Conservative leader, Trudeau is demanding that his fellow Liberal candidates be inoculated against the virus and last month his center-left government introduced vaccine mandates for domestic travel.
“It is better and faster to defend the rights of those who choose not to get vaccinated than the rights of their wife and children to be safe from COVID-19,” Trudeau said.
Liberals are competing for the same center-left electorate as Jagmeet Singh’s younger New Democrats. Trudeau, adopting tactics he used in the 2019 election, said O’Toole could become prime minister if the progressive vote splits.
“The choice is clear in this election. Don’t let Jagmeet Singh tell you that there is no difference between a liberal government or a conservative government,” he said.
In earlier statements, Singh told reporters that “there is no need to choose between two parties who are arguing about who is worse … better is possible.”
The final stretch of the campaign kicked off after Statistics Canada reported that the national unemployment rate fell to 7.1% in August, the lowest during the pandemic.
“We have now regained 95% of the jobs lost during the COVID recession,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said, speaking alongside Trudeau.
A poll of 1,200 voters by Nanos Research on Thursday showed Conservatives with 33.3% support and Liberals with 31.3%. Left-wing New Democrats had 19.2%.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)