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Canada’s parliament dissolved, snap polls on Sept 20
The snap polls will proceed despite the country being at the beginning of a fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with all other major Federal parties opposing national polls under such circumstances.
Canada will have snap polls on September 20 over two years before the tenure of the ruling Liberal Party government was to end. Canada’s governor-general Mary Simon agreed to dissolve parliament following a request from the country’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau announced about the decision outside the governor-general’s residence at Rideau Hall in Ottawa following a nearly hour-long meeting with her.
As Trudeau announced the forthcoming election, he focused on the Covid-19 pandemic and his government’s efforts in meeting that challenge and that of vaccinations, a sign of how significant that issue may be in helping him secure a majority when the next House of Commons is constituted.
The process of starting the campaign, called dropping the writ in Canadian electoral parlance, commenced with the governor-general’s decision. The campaign period will be for the shortest permitted length - 36 days.
Trudeau arrived at Rideau Hall on Sunday morning, with his wife Sophie Gregoire and their three children.
The snap polls will proceed despite the country being at the beginning of a fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with all other major Federal parties opposing national polls under such circumstances. However, with Trudeau’s holding a lead in opinion surveys, he will seek to convert the present minority for his ruling Liberal Party into a majority.
The final results of the election, though, may not be available the same night as the date of voting, as Elections Canada expects mail-in ballots to surge, from 50,000 in 2019 to 5 million this year. It has already warned that the counting may take between two to five days beyond election day.
The Trudeau-led Liberal Party government is in a minority in the House of Commons, with 155 MPs, as against 119 for the principal opposition party, the Conservatives. When the last Federal elections were held in October 2019, the Liberals captured 157 seats, short of the 170 majority mark and also trailed the Conservatives in vote share, with 31.1% against 34.3%.
The election call will come as the coronavirus situation in the country worsens. On Friday, Canada’s chief public Health officer Dr Theresa Tam cautioned that the latest national seven-day moving average of 1,609 new cases reported daily, between August 6 and 12), marked an increase of 70% over the previous week. “Following the recent rise in cases, we are now seeing early signs of increases in severity trends,” she said.
