Trudeau’s Troubled Path to Canada’s Sept. 20 Snap Election

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s campaign for a third term has not gone according to script. The Sept. 20 snap election, Canada’s second in less than two years, was to be an easy victory for him. Instead, it’s turned into a squeaker. Polls suggest Trudeau’s Liberal Party is barely ahead of the Conservatives, having perhaps misjudged the public mood.

Trudeau’s government has had to lean on opposition parties to get laws passed ever since the Liberals lost their majority in the House of Commons in 2019. The opposition has also had control of House committees since then, and it has used that power to ramp up investigations of the Trudeau government. In choosing to call the election on Aug. 15, Trudeau and his advisers thought they saw an opening to win back a majority. The Conservative Party’s new leader was relatively unknown and wasn’t polling well. Trudeau’s incumbent Liberals, by contrast, had reason to think they would be credited with a successful recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.