Trudeau (Washington Insider Magazine) -Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced snap elections for Sept. 20 after asking Governor General Mary Simon to dissolve parliament and call pre-term elections. The vote was originally scheduled for October 2023.
Simon is the United Kingdom’s representative to Canada since it is a part of the nation’s commonwealth.
“The decisions your government makes right now will define the future your kids and grandkids will grow up in,” Trudeau told reporters after a meeting with Simon, according to BBC News. “So in this pivotal, consequential moment, who wouldn’t want a say?”
“Canadians need to choose how we finish the fight against Covid-19,” he added
Currently, Trudeau holds a minority in the government.
Since his election in 2019, he has had to rely on coalitions with opposition parties to pass anything on his agenda. In calling for general elections now and the dissolution of his parliament, the prime minister is betting that he will win a majority government over his handling of the pandemic.
While nothing is guaranteed, public opinion polls show that 46 percent of the country believes that they are headed in the right direction, the highest number of people who have believed so in five years. Recent polling also places Trudeau at the cusp of winning the majority he is aspiring for. In 2019, after a number of political scandals, Trudeau lost the majority he held previously in Parliament, winning only 157 seats, 13 shy of a majority in the 338 seat House of Common.
The leader of the New Democratic party, Jagmeet Singh, sent a letter to Mary Simon asking her to reconsider.
“It’s not the right time to have an election,” Singh said earlier this week. “People might say ‘that’s what governments do … I don’t think that’s what governments do when you’re in the middle of a pandemic.”
While it is possible that the New Democratic Party will gain seats, the leader of the Conservative opposition group, Erin O’Toole has tried to postpone the reelection, worried that he might lose several races.
“Canadians are worried about a fourth wave of Covid-19,” he said in a video released on Twitter. “Now is not the time for an election. We can all wait and go to the polls when it’s safe.”
Parties have five weeks to campaign, the shortest campaign cycle allowed under federal law.