It was a sleepy start to the federal election campaign until the blackface controversy surrounding Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.
Now at the halfway point, a Mount Allison University Canadian politics professor notes how the Liberals and Conservatives remain almost tied in the public opinion polls.
Mario Levesque says new details about Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s early career in the insurance business may start to separate the two leading parties.
“What this is doing is testing the credibility of Andrew Scheer and the Conservative Party overall. So people are going to start to wonder if he’s not truthful about his background, what’s happening here? But people can say that equally about Justin Trudeau and the Liberals as well.”
Levesque says the blackface scandal hasn’t really hurt Trudeau and he calls it a minor speed bump in the campaign.
He believes the recent climate change marches may help the Green Party.
But Levesque says the Green platform may actually hold them back noting how a proposed robot tax on companies who replace workers with automation is quirky.
Scheer didn’t attend any of the climate change marches, but he doesn’t think that will hurt the Conservatives.
He adds the Conservatives seem to be having difficulty attracting new voters apart from their core base.
