Canada’s Conservatives make gains weeks ahead of vote, polls show

Surveys show Conservatives with a slim lead over Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party as Canada readies for September 20 vote.

Canada’s federal Conservative Party has made recent gains compared with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, recent polls show, less than two weeks after Trudeau called an early election in a bid to get a parliamentary majority. The Conservatives, led by Erin O’Toole, were favoured by 33.3 percent of eligible voters, according to a tracking survey released on Saturday by Nanos Research that was conducted for CTV News and The Globe and Mail newspaper. The Liberal Party had 30.8 percent support, a difference just within the poll’s margin of error but which nevertheless reflects a steady swing away from the Liberals in recent days.