Canada PM Trudeau struggles, two weeks before election

GBNEWS24DESK//

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who has slipped in the polls and faced angry protesters on the campaign trail, with one even throwing stones at him — is struggling with less than two weeks to go before snap election, reports AFP.

When he called the September 20 elections a few weeks ago, the 49-year-old Liberal Party leader was in a far better position.

At that point, Trudeau was ahead of Conservative leader Erin O’Toole in opinion surveys and hoped to ride his handling of the coronavirus pandemic to a third term.

But since that August 15 announcement, his campaign has stagnated and his hopes of returning at the head of a majority government seem difficult to fulfill.

On Monday, Trudeau suffered a fresh indignity — as he was leaving an event in London, a city southwest of Toronto in Ontario province, he faced a crowd of protesters angry over proposed mandatory coronavirus vaccines and other crisis measures.

Someone threw what appeared to be a handful of gravel at him, television footage showed. No one was injured.

‘Yes, I felt some of that gravel,’ Trudeau confirmed Tuesday.

Some protesters ‘were practically foaming at the mouth, they were so mad at me,’ he said, adding: ‘It is absolutely unacceptable that people (would) be throwing things and endangering others at a political rally.’

The incident — which comes during a crucial campaign week with two scheduled debates that could tip the election scales — drew condemnation from Trudeau’s rivals, O’Toole and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh.

‘Political violence is never justified,’ O’Toole tweeted late Monday, while Singh said: ‘It is not acceptable to throw objects at anyone. Ever. No matter how angry you are. And, it’s never ok to try to intimidate people who don’t agree with you — or the media.’