Canadian Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau wore a bulletproof vest at a campaign event in Mississauga, Ontario, in what some are calling an “unprecedented” move.
Mr Trudeau was seen wearing the bulletproof vest underneath his suit on Saturday while being escorted by uniformed officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) VIP protective policing unit, Canadian broadcaster CBC reports.
Two RCMP sources spoke to the broadcaster saying that Trudeau wearing a bulletproof vest was “unprecedented” in Canadian politics along with having the RCMP tactical unit on full display, rather than working in plainclothes in the background of the event.
The tactical officers were seen wearing backpacks that are said to have contained both weapons and rolled up ballistic shields of a similar type to those used to protect Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during an attempted drone attack last year.
While Trudeau acknowledged on Sunday that there had been a threat prior to the event, he did not reveal the extent of the risk or any specifics.
Political violence during the 2019 Canadian election campaign has been mostly limited. One of the few isolated incidents were tensions and brief clashes between far-left Antifa activists and others occurring at a rally for populist People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier in Hamilton, Ontario.
With the two official election debates, in English and in French, now over, the candidates are sprinting for the finish. Recent polling suggests Trudeau’s Liberals could be losing valuable ground in Quebec to the separatist Bloc Québécois.
The surge in popularity for the Bloc and its leader Yves-François Blanchet come after strong debate performances in both French and English.
Scott Reid, the former advisor to Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, commented on the performance saying: “In Quebec, you see the Bloc Québécois coming on like gangbusters. Between TVA and the two commissioned debates, I think Blanchet probably had the best performance of all six leaders.”
Meanwhile, left-wing New Democrat Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh has said that he would be open to the possibility of forming a ruling coalition with Trudeau and the Liberals in order to prevent a Conservative government.
Polling website 338 Canada puts the Tories at a 50.4 per cent chance of winning the most seats in the election, but only a 9.8 per cent chance of forming a majority government. The Liberals have just a 13.7 per cent chance of forming a new majority in the House of Commons.
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