Ottava: The principal opposition of the ruling Liberal Party in Canada, Conservative Party’s candidate Erin O’Toole for the first time is leading the campaign, in voter preference, according to a number of surveys.
The Conservative Party has made recent gains compared with incumbent PM Trudeau’s Liberals as per the recent poll predictions. This is less than two weeks after Trudeau called an early election in a bid to get a parliamentary majority.
Trudeau precipitated snap elections on August 15 in an attempt to convert his minority government into a majority, but as things stand, the Liberals may actually capture fewer seats in the new parliament than they did in 2019, the poll surveys indicate.
O’Toole was favoured by 33.3 percent of eligible voters, according to a tracking survey released on Saturday by Nanos Research that was conducted for CTV News and The Globe and Mail newspaper.The Liberal Party had 30.8 percent support, a difference just within the poll’s margin of error but which nevertheless reflects a steady swing away from the Liberals in recent days.
“What was a tie early this week, it looks like the Conservatives are now gaining the upper hand and there is definitely negative pressure on the Liberals right now,” Nik Nanos, founder and chief data scientist at Nanos Research, told CTV News on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Trudeau also faced an angry crowd of protesters on Sunday, which surrounded campaign buses and castigated Trudeau during a campaign even in Cambridge. He had to cancel his rally in Bolton, Ont., was cancelled due to security reasons from another angry crowd.