OTTAWA—With that new-campaign-bus smell still fresh, federal party leaders are heading out for Day 2 of the 43rd general election.
The excitement had been palpable on Sept. 11 with all parties eager to get going on convincing Canadians their path is the right one to choose come the Oct. 21 vote.
And all framed the campaign as one that will feature both direct promises to help Canadians, but also be about bigger picture issues.
“Canadians have an important choice to make—will we go back to the failed policies of the past or will we continue to move forward?” Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said.
Trudeau is to continue campaigning in British Columbia this morning, where there is a four−way fight among the major parties.
First, he will be in Victoria for an announcement before heading to Kamloops for an event with Terry Lake, the Liberal candidate for the riding.
Later in the day, he is expected to take part in a rally in Edmonton, which has two Liberal MPs.
While he picked “Choose Forward” as his campaign slogan, Trudeau began it forced to look back on a past controversy, the SNC−Lavalin affair. It was given fresh life by a Globe and Mail report that the RCMP’s inquiries into potential obstruction of justice have been limited by the shroud of cabinet confidences.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is campaigning under the banner of it being “Time for You to Get Ahead” but despite the scandals plaguing the Liberals, his party can’t seem to get ahead of them in the polls just yet.
He was not fazed by that on Sept. 11.
“This whole scandal isn’t about moving poll numbers. This is about showing to Canadians that Justin Trudeau has lost the moral authority to govern,” he said.
Scheer will seek to move the dial later today. He is to appear at the first of several planned leaders’ debates, this one hosted by Maclean’s and CityTV in Toronto.
Trudeau has declined to appear, leaving Scheer to face off against Green leader Elizabeth May and the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh.
Singh begins his day in his political birthplace of Brampton, Ont., a city just northwest of Toronto where he cut his teeth as a provincial politician and that’s now home to five federal ridings. He is to make an announcement alongside local NDP candidates.
Scheer has a brief morning stop at the Toronto office of a charity that supports families with children who have been diagnosed with serious illnesses. Both the New Democrat and Conservative leaders are to spend the rest of the day preparing for the debate.
May, who began her campaign Sept. 11 in Victoria, only has the debate on her public schedule.
