WHITBY, Ontario - Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau, trying to retain power after scandals dimmed his
image, on Friday said he was fighting for every vote in an
election next week and conceded his main rival could win.
Polls show Trudeau's Liberals are locked in a tie with the
opposition Conservatives ahead of the vote on Monday and will
not capture enough seats for a majority. That would leave them
in a weakened position, reliant on smaller parties to govern.
Trudeau has spent much of the campaign in Ontario, Canada's
most populous province, which accounts for 108 of the 338 seats
in the House of Commons. The Liberals hold 76 of those seats and
need to retain them to stand a chance of winning.
"I'm not taking any vote for granted. I know Canadians are
reflecting on the kind of future they want," he told reporters
in the town of Whitby east of Toronto.
"There is a chance there could be a Conservative government
and that would mean cuts," he said.
The Liberals' experience in Whitby underlines the challenges
facing Trudeau. Liberal legislator Celina Caesar-Chavannes used
to hold the Whitby seat but quit in March after what she said
was a clash with Trudeau over his leadership style.
Her departure came shortly after two prominent female
cabinet ministers resigned following a scandal over what they
saw as inappropriate pressure from Trudeau to drop a corruption
trial against a construction firm.
The affair damaged Trudeau's credentials as a feminist. This
is important, since women voters heavily favoured him in the 2015
election that brought him to power.
Trudeau side-stepped a question on whether the experience of
Caesar-Chavannes would hurt the Liberals in Whitby.
A Nanos Research poll for the Globe and Mail and CTV
released on Friday put the Conservatives on 31.6% public support
and the Liberals on 31.5%. The left-leaning New Democrats were
on 19.0%.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is calling for a majority
government to stop what he says would be a coalition between the
Liberals and the New Democrats.
Such a government would hike taxes while slashing payments
to the provinces to cover health care costs, he said on Friday.
"Those claims are entirely untrue. It is unfortunate that
the Conservatives keep having to make up attacks against us,"
said Trudeau. In recent weeks the Conservatives have run ads
accusing the Liberals of planning to legalize hard drugs.