Canada's Trudeau, seeking to revive campaign, attacks rival in debate

By David Ljunggren and Kelsey Johnson

 

Liberal leader and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives to the French televised debate at TVA in Montreal, Quebec, Canada October 2, 2019. REUTERS/Andrej Ivanov

 

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, trying to revive his election campaign after the emergence of embarrassing photos, on Wednesday used a televised debate to accuse his main rival of seeking to reopen the debate on abortion.

 

Polls suggest Trudeau's left-leaning Liberals could lose power to the opposition Conservatives of Andrew Scheer on Oct 21 amid voter unhappiness with images of Trudeau in blackface as well as a number of other scandals.

 

Trudeau, speaking during a French-language debate in the province of Quebec, suggested Scheer would be open to reviving the debate on abortion. There are few restrictions on abortion in Canada and the Conservatives have traditionally steered clear of the topic, fearing they could alienate progressive voters.

 

"Do you - as a party leader, as a father and a husband -believe women should have a choice?" Trudeau asked Scheer, who repeated his position that he would not reopen the debate if he became prime minister.

 

The other two leaders in the debate hosted by private channel TVA - Jagmeet Singh of the left-leaning New Democrats and Yves-Francois Blanchet of the separatist Bloc Quebecois - also pressed Scheer on the issue.

 

"We are seeing that three of us are aligned on values, the values of Quebecers, and we have a fourth, a Conservative party that is not aligned ... on the rights of women," said Trudeau.

 

The exchange was the first between the leaders of the major parties since the blackface photos emerged last month, causing Trudeau him enormous embarrassment and temporarily derailing his campaign to retain power in the Oct 21 vote.

 

French is the predominant language in Quebec, Canada's second most populous province, which accounts for 78 of the 338 seats in the federal House of Commons.

 

The Liberals had been confident of adding to the 40 Quebec seats they won in 2015 but now face a challenge from the Conservatives as well as the Bloc, which wants independence for the province of 8.4 million.

 

Trudeau skated carefully when pressed about a Quebec law banning public employees from wearing religious symbols, saying while he opposed the measure he would not move to challenge it for the time being.

 

The leaders will hold a English-language debate on Oct 7 and another French-language session on Oct 10.

 

(Reporting by David Ljunggren. Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-10-03

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4 hours ago, webfact said:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, trying to revive his election campaign after the emergence of embarrassing photos, on Wednesday used a televised debate to accuse his main rival of seeking to reopen the debate on abortion.

The purpose of this post is to make Americans feel envious (see below).

 

First, I will forgo too much comment on the election as I am here and not in Canada to see it happen, but... I still maintain that the Tories aren't going to get a majority (even if they manage a minority, as some believe) due to structural reasons. In order to get a majority, the Tories need to sweep/win big in three regions, then get a scattering of seats from the Maritimes and elsewhere; they are not doing that now. They may sweep the West, but they aren't going to sweep/win big in Ontario or Quebec.

 

Stay tuned.

 

As above, the purpose of this post is to make Americans feel envious.

 

Imagine, my fellow North Americans, the sheer joy of a 5-6 week election; yes, it begins AND ends in under two months. Two Months!

 

Imagine, my fellow North Americans, the sheer joy of an election where the issue of abortion is not front and center, but rather (emptily!) threatening to open a discussion on it is. 

 

Imagine, my fellow North Americans, the sheer joy of an election with strict spending limits on campaign financing.

 

Imagine, my fellow North Americans, the sheer joy of people not talking about the second amendment.

 

Imagine, my fellow North Americans, the sheer joy of an election where gay issues aren't terribly important as they have been mostly solved and sorted.

 

Imagine, my fellow North Americans, the sheer joy of an election where gerrymandering is limited (if present at all) so that your vote can actually makes a difference.

 

Imagine, my fellow North Americans, the sheer joy of the next leader of Canada, whoever that might be, having to stand in the House of Commons and be questioned directly and regularly by the opposition party.

 

I could go on, but that would be cruel.

 

Imagine, my American cousins, how much nicer your life would be...

 

 

 

 

(Er... Sorry. Just reading about Trump and... well... er... ahem)

 

 

“Attacks rival with debate.”

 

SoyboyTrudeau must have given him a scratching of a lifetime.

Is it any coincidence that EVERY Canadian I have ever met in Pattaya despises this man ? Must be great to leave Canada to go and fight for ISIS, behead western soldiers, then return to Canada for a $10.5 million handout ????

19 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

Is it any coincidence that EVERY Canadian I have ever met in Pattaya despises this man ? Must be great to leave Canada to go and fight for ISIS, behead western soldiers, then return to Canada for a $10.5 million handout ????

So based on your experience, we should expect Trudeau to get 0 votes? 

The really funny thing is that they want to change to the same system as here lol

 

Mister Nice Hair Trudeau still has lots of support in Quebec, and Ontario, and unfortunately for the rest of us Canadians, that is where the majority of seats are. I for one wished

that Quebec would have separated back in the 70s. I am from Alberta and hope that the PC party gets in even with a minority. I would like to see Mr. Black Face go back

to being an obscure teacher at a private school. Even his supposed friends who accepted his 29 year old Aladdin costume, were just brown nosed buddies. Shame on Justin and on his blind supporters.

Geezer

 

Trudeau is the worse prime minister Canada has ever had.He has done nothing good for Canada but has very much managed to divide the country give tax payer dollars to other causes and special interest outside the country.His majority supporters are the immigrant population in Toronto,mississauga and Brampton ont where his immigration and refugee policies has made natural Canadians a minority therefore ensuring his re-election because he is nice to immigrants 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 3, 2019 at 7:44 PM, Stargrazer9889 said:

Mister Nice Hair Trudeau still has lots of support in Quebec, and Ontario, and unfortunately for the rest of us Canadians, that is where the majority of seats are. I for one wished

that Quebec would have separated back in the 70s. I am from Alberta and hope that the PC party gets in even with a minority. I would like to see Mr. Black Face go back

to being an obscure teacher at a private school. Even his supposed friends who accepted his 29 year old Aladdin costume, were just brown nosed buddies. Shame on Justin and on his blind supporters.

Geezer

 

Another clueless State of Albertan with brain rot from reading the Calgary Sun one time too often. To set you straight there is no federal PC party. It did  exist at one time, and I'm sure you voted for it repeatedly, but it folded due to extreme corruption. Didnt those garbage yellow dog PostMedia newspapers in the State of Alberta tell you about the brown paper bags full of cash from lobbyists? Lying Andy will carry 3 provinces. All outside the big 3, so he is toast. 4 MORE YEARS!!!!

On October 4, 2019 at 7:48 AM, cbc said:

Trudeau is the worse prime minister Canada has ever had.He has done nothing good for Canada but has very much managed to divide the country give tax payer dollars to other causes and special interest outside the country.His majority supporters are the immigrant population in Toronto,mississauga and Brampton ont where his immigration and refugee policies has made natural Canadians a minority therefore ensuring his re-election because he is nice to immigrants 

Fact is unemployment is at an all time low rate, the markets are at record levels. Under Trudeau.

Rob Ford and the PC party in Ontario, cut backs in health care, cutbacks in education, etc etc etc. Ford had to relax his issues as he had his popularity go to an all time low level.

PC party- cutback all over, lack of nurses etc, cut backs on teachers, funding across the board. Remember why the PCs party was ousted??????? People are sick of their <deleted>.

liberals to me are the lesser of the 2 evils.

no one will please 100 percent all the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of Trudeau's promises and policies are going to cost Canadians BIG. Average family will pay over $1,000 more in taxes on things like home heating by any hydrocarbon (oil,natural gas, propane), additional gasoline tax will be about $.31 per litre - absolutely insane! He refuses to support export pipelines, and Canadian oil and gas is the cheapest in the world.