​Yikes! The Federal Election Is into the home stretch.

We are indeed into the home stretch for the April 28 election. The troubled gut of this blog writer is saying that the race has tightened, even though the latest polls show a seven-point lead for the Liberals, and they could be headed to form a majority government.

Why? Oh why, would we suggest this? Poilievre is loosening up at the podium, has done away with his Canada First slogan in favour of a large, simple red Maple Leaf, and is holding huge Trump-style rallies like the one on Monday which 10,000 to 15,000 Monday attended in the Tory stronghold of Alberta. PP, as some call him, is now concentrating more on the danger to the country of Donald Trump’s tariffs, and less on associating Liberal Leader Mark Carney with the dreaded consumer carbon tax.

With a major recent rally of about 2,000 supporters in Fredericton, Poilievre has shown that he still has appeal in the more rural and English parts of New Brunswick even though he no longer has Justin Trudeau to blame for all the country’s ills. As PP reminds voters at every opportunity, electing the Liberals to a fourth consecutive term in office, is too much to swallow.

​A body of discontent is still out there, which Poilievre is working very hard to tap into. Even die-hard Liberals would have to agree that Poilievre really wants to be Prime Minister and is prepared to work very hard to be elected to the top job.

Other than when doing his Prime Ministerial duties fighting Trump and his tariffs, Liberal Leader Mark Carney does not give the impression of working terribly hard and putting in long campaign days for the party-political side of his job.

He may be committing a cardinal political error in appearing to coast to the finish line. Canadians want him to show them that he wants the popular mandate for the top political job and is fighting very hard for it.

Still, Poilievre has serious weak points. Shachi Kurl, the President of the Angus Reid Institute says that her polling finds that Poilievre is not making great “inroads in his own personal favourability among women.”

To bring this sentiment down to its most simple terms. Some supporters of the Against the Flow blog say they find Poilievre “creepy.”

On the positive side for Carney and the Liberals, the Bloc Quebecois is running scared in Quebec. Polls suggest the Bloc is close to 18 per cent behind the Liberals in the seat-rich province (with seventy-eight seats).

Quebecois are especially fearful that Trump’s tariffs, notably the 25 per cent levy on aluminum, could cripple that lucrative industry in the Saguenay region of the province.

Meanwhile, the Liberals are benefitting the most from the poor showing in the polls for the NDP, running at about nine per cent nationally. New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh has abandoned his effort to become Prime Minister and is wisely concentrating on individual NDP ridings, including his own in Burnaby Central.

Liberal Leader Carney may be new to politics, but he has been very savvy in how he has been handling the news media in this campaign. Firstly, he has allowed the media to pay their own way and travel with him on his campaign plane. This has given reporters casual time to get to know him. Secondly, after his campaign speeches he has been very open to taking questions, including taking questions in French from the francophone press. His French is still halting, but his effort is appreciated by francophones.

From day one of his leadership, Poilievre has shunned the press, effectively treating reporters like Trump did in his campaign last fall, dismissing the work of the traditional media as “fake” news.” He has always relied heavily on the factually unaccountable social media.

Poilievre has severely limited reporters’ questions and by-and-large has not allowed supplementary questions which good reporters love to ferret out the real news. Even at his large rallies, journalists have been fenced-in to prevent them from questioning those attending. This gives an antiseptic atmosphere to the rallies as opposed to encouraging participation rather than just “listening to the master.”

A couple of policy areas that have been given little attention by the political parties have been climate change and arts and culture. Despite having a long-held interest in reducing greenhouse gases, Carney has downplayed climate change perhaps because Poilievre has made such a signature issue of the consumer gas tax.

Like Donald Trump, Poilievre has never expressed a concern about climate change, and like his role-model south of the border has never acknowledged that this problem even exists.

As for arts and culture, the party leader who has been the most passionate about this policy area has been Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet. This reflects the imperative placed on this area by Quebecois and Acadian citizens of the country.

Liberal Leader Carney has promised a commendable annual $150-million increase in funding to CBC/Radio Canada. He promises this funding would be statutory, that is it could only be altered by an act of Parliament, not just by a Cabinet decision.

Poilievre has long been on record as favoring “defunding” the CBC, while increasing funding for Radio Canada. This suggestion backfired on PP on both sides of the Canadian linguistic divide.

Overall, the federal election campaign has lacked what used to be known as Snap, Crackle and Pop – fierce, knock ‘em down debate.
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At this stage, Mark Carney would be wise to put on his running shoes to bring home an election victory which is his if he shows he really wants it.