Spectre of Harper could whip up both Tories and Liberals

By Shachi Kurl, Executive Director

A year and a half ago, I opined in my first column for the Citizen that Justin Trudeau and the Liberals really just wanted to re-run the 2019 election against Stephen Harper. I know that you, kind readers, will permit me one wee moment of long-awaited gloat as I note the presence of the former prime minister in not one but two election ads this week.

The first, with the man himself stumping for his successor Andrew Scheer in a campaign video released on YouTube. The other, a new Liberal TV spot in which the party and its leader asks whether Canadians want to “keep moving forward … or go back to the politics of the Harper years.”

Here’s some bad news for Prime Minister Trudeau and company: many Canadians would like that very much indeed. New polling from the Angus Reid Institute shows the Conservative Party of Canada continues to lead all others in voter intention, 36 per cent to 32 per cent for the Liberals.

But here’s some bad news for Scheer and the Conservatives: that lead is slipping away, bit by bit, as the party fails to achieve the momentum it needs to grow its base and launch it into a position to form government. In the meantime, the Liberals are not only doggedly crawling closer to a tie with the CPC, they’re putting more daylight between themselves and the NDP and Greens, who are both seeing their support soften.

For the rest of this piece, please view it on the Ottawa Citizen’s site, where it was initially published.

Image – Peter J. Thompson/Postmedia


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