Canada election polls: Who is running for Canadian Prime Minister? Candidates revealed
By KAISHA LANGTON - The Express
CANADIANS will head to the polls next month to have their say about the country’s political future. But who are the contenders for Canadian Prime Minister?
The Canadian 2019 federal election to decide the members of the House of Commons to the 43rd Canadian Parliament will take place on October 21. On this date, Canadians around the country will vote to decide whether to give the incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s party a second term in office. There are three other candidates for Prime Minister from the leading parties. But who are the candidates in this year’s race?
Last week the PM and his competitors launched their election campaigns, with Mr Trudeau hoping for a second term in office after being elected in November 2015.
An election is being held in Canada in accordance with the fixed-date election system in the country which mandated that Mr Trudeau legally trigger an election by September 15.
So who are the candidates for Canadian Prime Minister?
Justin Trudeau: Liberal Party of Canada
Justin Trudeau is the 23rd Candian PM, having led since 2015, and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, a role he has held since 2013.
He is the second-youngest PM, after the Joe Clark, who was the 16th Canadian prime minister.
Mr Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, was the 15th Candian prime minister ruling from April 1968 to June 1979, and March 1980 to June 1984.
Mr Trudeau won the leadership of the Liberal Party in April 2013 and led his party to victory in the 2015 federal election, moving the third-placed Liberals from 36 seats to 184 seats, the largest-ever numerical increase by a party in a federal election.
This election will be a referendum on the 47-year-old and his governance over Canada.
He has kept a number of key promises such as legalising recreational cannabis to bringing in a means-tested child benefit programme.
But he has also failed to follow through on some major commitments such as a pledge to overhaul Canada’s electoral system and a vow to balance the budget this year.
His political term in office has seen him lose some of his political “shine” after he has fallen into hot water following a few scandals.
These include Mr Trudeau being found to have broken federal ethics rules by taking a tropical vacation to the island owned by the Aga Khan, the philanthropist and spiritual leader, in 2016.
Followed by a disastrous overseas trip to India, concluding in controversy when an alleged Canadian Sikh separatist was invited to official events.
But despite these errors, the PM maintains he is the best option for Canada, especially those who want a progressive government, however, he cannot campaign as an outsider on the promise of change any longer.
Andrew Scheer: Conservative Party of Canada
Andrew Scheer is the MP for the riding of Regina - Qu’Appelle and the leader of the Conservative Party and official opposition.
He was first elected as an MP aged 25 in 2004 and has been re-elected three times since then.
He became the Speaker of the House of Commons aged 32, making him the youngest Speaker in the chamber’s history, a role he held until December 2015 when he was succeeded by Geoff Regan.
The 40-year-old was elected Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in May 2017.
Mr Scheer has described himself as focused on economic development, fiscal restraint, and reducing inefficiencies in government.
He is a strong opponent of the federal carbon tax and has said he wants to balance the federal budget within two years of forming a government, as well as opening up the airline industry to foreign competition.
Mr Scheer currently has the best chance of unseating Mr Trudeau, but he is still relatively unknown across the country having won the party leader by a minor lead in 2017.
Jagmeet Singh - New Democratic Party
Jagmeet Singh is a Candian lawyer and politician, who was elected as the MP for Burnaby South in February this year and as the New Democratic Party Leader in 2017.
Upon his election, Mr Singh became the first person from a visible minority group to lead a major Canadian federal political party on a permanent basis and the second overall after the Bloc Québécois’s former interim leader Vivian Barbot.
Ideologically, Mr Singh identifies as both a progressive and a social democrat, advocating for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour (£9.09), decriminalising personal possession of all drugs and supports eliminating several tax deductions available to the highest-income earners.
The New Democratic Party has never held power and is currently the third place party in Canada’s Parliament, holding 40 of 338 seats in the House of Commons.
A quarter of its MPs who won seats in the 2015 election have either resigned or announced they are not running again in October.
The New Democratic Party made historic gains in the 2011 general election and were catapulted into the Official Opposition position, only to lose almost a million votes, mostly to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, four years later.
Elizabeth May - Green Party of Canada
Elizabeth May is the leader of the Green Party of Canada and the MP for Saanich, Gulf Islands, positions she has held since 2006 and 2011 respectively.
She is an environmentalist, author, activist, and lawyer, who founded and served as the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada from 1989 to 2006.
Ms May was born in Hartford, Connecticut and immigrated to Canada with her family as a teenager.
She attended St. Francis Xavier University, graduated from Dalhousie University with a law degree in 1983, and later studied theology at the University of Ottawa.
The 65-year-old has worked on several environmental policies such as the negotiation of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer.
Ms May ran for leadership of the Green Party of Canada, winning on the first ballot with 66 percent of the vote and in 2011, she became the first member of the Green Party of Canada to be elected as a Member of Parliament, defeating Conservative cabinet minister Gary Lunn with 46 percent of the vote in the Saanich–Gulf Islands riding.
In the Federal election on October 19, 2015, she was re-elected with 54 percent of the vote.
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