A new poll shows Canada’s federal election race tightening and the prospects for a majority Liberal government weakening.
While most surveys still give Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals a small lead over the main opposition Conservative Party, the advantage has fallen to within the margin of error and one poll shows the Conservatives are now ahead.
The Liberals have the support of 34% of voters compared to 30.3% for the Conservatives and 19.8% for the socialist New Democratic Party, according to national averages compiled by polling aggregator 338Canada.
The Liberals now have a 22% chance of winning a majority of seats in Parliament, down from above 50% at the start of the campaign.
Trudeau called the current election for September 20 on the premise that he needs a mandate to “finish the job” of tackling the COVID-19 crisis and plan for a post-pandemic recovery.
But the prime minister has been heavily criticized for what the opposition says is an unnecessary election at a time when the country is being hit by a fourth wave of the pandemic.
Trudeau is also facing criticism over a slow response to evacuating Canadians from Afghanistan. And his campaign has been hurt by an inflation report last week that showed consumer prices increasing at the fastest pace in a decade.
There are signs that Canadians are beginning to worry about the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19. Last week, the Canadian Confidence Index fell to its lowest level since early May of this year.