Tom Parkin: Andrew Scheer is pinned down with a Max Bernier problem. And Jagmeet Singh is finally freed to take on the struggling Liberals.
Two new confrontations were laid bare by Monday’s byelections. And how, in the months upcoming, political parties play out these pre-election challenges will frame the final showdown, which ends when Canadians head to the polls in October.
Laid bare by the Burnaby South results, Scheer’s strategic problem is that the People’s Party has him pinned. He needs to fight the far-right People’s Party by appealing to its far-right supporters. That’s tough to do without alienating mainstream conservatives. The stage for the other key fight was set on Monday as Singh’s win finally unpinned the NDP from its Burnaby South focus. Trudeau’s months of byelection delay kept Singh on the west coast, unable to continue his introduction in Quebec, a crucial battleground where he is not well known. But with his byelection test now won, Singh can make his critical pivot to Quebec to confront the Liberals.
The Trudeau Liberals are betting on the position that Quebecers, and Montrealers in particular, will excuse the PM’s effort to block a criminal prosecution because Trudeau says he was doing it to benefit Quebec. Singh and the NDP will try to pierce Trudeau’s veil of Quebec identity politics. Certainly, Liberals doing political favours for political friends remains an open sore in Montreal. So this skirmish will be fascinating to watch.
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