New Delhi: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asked Governor General Julie Payette to dissolve the Canadian Parliament and start the 40-day election campaign. The Canadian 2019 federal elections are scheduled to be held on 21 October.
After a prolonged honeymoon period, Trudeau’s government was riddled by a series of diplomatic disasters and a major corruption scandal. This had also resulted in Trudeau’s approval ratings to drastically plummet. Now, his Liberal Party is set to face-off the Conservative Party in a tight electoral race.
Rise of Trudeau
When he entered mainstream politics in 2007, Trudeau was considered a political lightweight. Following a carefully curated political branding campaign, Trudeau, however, delivered a stunning electoral victory for his Liberal Party in 2015.
From a mere 36 seats in 2011, the Liberal Party had managed to increase its seat share to 184 in the 338-member House of Commons. This was the largest increase in seat share in Canada’s electoral history.
Campaigning on a liberal-progressive agenda, Trudeau had managed to deliver on some of his promises. His cabinet included a large number of women and people from racial minorities. He also legalised recreational cannabis and accepted Syrian refugees into Canada.
Trudeau’s starkly liberal image also worked for global audiences, especially at a time when populist-authoritarian leaders were rising across the globe. In turn, this image was used domestically to further prop up Trudeau’s popularity in Canada.
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Failed diplomacy, corruption
The Liberal Party leader’s troubles began in early 2018.
“Trudeau was ridiculed for a diplomatically awkward trip to India…His government has weathered a turbulent relationship with President Donald Trump and has found itself embroiled in diplomatic disputes with Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and China,” notes an article in The Washington Post.
By the end of 2018, Trudeau’s government was accused of a corruption scam – the SNC-Lavalin scandal. The Prime Minister’s Office was accused of interfering in the “due processes”.
This political crisis was further exacerbated when several of Trudeau’s cabinet members and bureaucrats resigned from the government — either in protest or because of ethical obligations.
In yet another major blow, a federal ethics watchdog recently accused Trudeau’s government of breaking the conflict of interest law.
Over the past couple of years, Trudeau’s liberal-progressive image has also been tarnished by some of his policies – such as signing of the “keystone pipeline project” and scrapping electoral reforms.
As a consequence, Trudeau’s approval ratings fell from a staggering 65 per cent in 2016 to 32 per cent in July this year.
Who all are in the race
Trudeau would be heading his Liberal Party campaign. The 40-year-old Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is Trudeau’s key competitor. He was formerly the youngest Member of Parliament to become speaker of the House of Commons. He took charge of the Conservative Party in 2017.
Scheer is little known outside of politics and managed to defeat all his Conservative Party rivals before taking charge in 2017. He has cast himself as a moderate and pledged to balance the federal budget within five years, scrap Trudeau’s federal carbon tax for a cap on carbon for large emitters, and increase federal transfers to the provinces for health care and social programs”, according to a report in The Washington Post.
On the left of Trudeau’s Liberal Party, there are the New Democrats and the Green Party headed by Jagmeet Singh and Elizabeth May respectively.
These two parties trail the Liberals and the Conservatives according to recent opinion polls.
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Best wishes to tories. Long live free market Capitalism.