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Canadians Vote in Tight Election as Trudeau Hopes to Cling to Power

Agence France-Presse

   OTTAWA - Canadians began voting in a general election Monday, with
   surveys predicting a minority government as Prime Minister Justin
   Trudeau's Liberal Party risks losing its majority or even being kicked
   out of office.

   The Liberals and the Conservatives, led by Andrew Scheer, could be set
   for a near dead heat with pundits calling it one Canada's closest
   elections ever.

   Polls opened at 1100 GMT in the provinces of Labrador and Newfoundland,
   in eastern Canada, the first of the country's six time zones. Polls
   will remain open in far western British Columbia until 0200 GMT
   Tuesday, although the first results are expected starting at 2300 GMT.

   Some 27.4 million Canadians are eligible to elect 338 members of
   parliament after a tense and sometimes bitter election campaign.

   Campaigning ended as it began some 40 days earlier, with polls showing
   a near perfect equilibrium.

   Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives -- the parties that have led
   Canada since Confederation in 1867 -- is forecast to win enough support
   to secure an absolute majority of seats in parliament.

   Faded golden boy

   At final campaign stops in westernmost British Columbia on Sunday,
   former golden boy Trudeau made an emotional appeal to voters to enable
   him to build on the achievements of his first term.

   He warned against Scheer's pledged rollback of environmental
   protections including a federal carbon tax that discourages the use of
   large amounts of fossil fuels.

   "We need a strong, progressive government that will unite Canadians and
   fight climate change -- not a progressive opposition," Trudeau told a
   rally in a suburb of Vancouver after whistle-stops in Ontario, Manitoba
   and Alberta.

   "We need to unite as citizens. We need to unite as a planet."

   After winning in a 2015 landslide -- in a repeat of the wave of support
   that in 1968 carried his late father Pierre to power -- Trudeau's star
   has dimmed while in office.

   His image has been tainted by ethics lapses in the handling of the
   bribery prosecution of an engineering giant, while his campaign was
   rocked by the emergence of old photographs of him in blackface make-up.

   Surging social democrats and resuscitated Quebec separatists have also
   chipped away at Liberal support.

   Main parties both struggle

   If Trudeau hangs on, it will be because Scheer has struggled to win
   over Canadians with his bland minivan-driving dad persona and a
   throwback to the thrifty policies of past Tory administrations.

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