Even if Prime Minister Mark Carney secures a slim majority through more floor-crossings and upcoming byelection wins, the governing Liberals could still call an early election this year in an effort to obtain a stronger mandate to deal with challenges such as the ongoing trade war with the United States, say pollsters.
“The longer they wait for an election, the less control that they might have over what the election’s about,” said Nik Nanos, chief data scientist for Nanos Research, in an interview with The Hill Times. “The reality is, if there’s an election this year, it’ll be about free trade because we have the July 1 date where the negotiations [for the renewal of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement] are supposed to start.”
