Trudeau Faces Fresh Election Hurdle After Consumer Worries Jump

By Erik Hertzberg

Canadians reported the sharpest one-week decline in confidence since the depth of the pandemic last year, another worry for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s struggling campaign for re-election.

The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index, a measure of sentiment based on household polling, fell 1.6 points to 62.6 last week. That’s the biggest weekly decline since April 2020. The index is down almost four points since hitting a record high in July.

Sentiment Falls

Canada consumer confidence pulls back on fading economic optimism

Source: Bloomberg Nanos

The weakening sentiment among households could undermine what has been a big advantage for Trudeau heading into the Sept. 20 election. For much of this year until now, Canadians have been been feeling good about the economy and their finances.

Already, Trudeau and his incumbent team have lost their lead in the polls to the main opposition Conservatives under Leader Erin O’Toole, who is running low-key campaign focused on the complete platform his party released out of the gates.

Trudeau, meanwhile, got off to a rocky start after seeking the dissolution of parliament on the day Kabul fell to the Taliban ahead of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. His campaign was also sideswiped by an inflation report that showed consumer prices increasing at the fastest pace in a decade.

full story at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-30/trudeau-faces-fresh-election-hurdle-after-consumer-worries-jump?sref=7iNjhqyV