theBreaker.news Podcast: BBQ season sees federal leaders jockeying for volunteers and donors

The House of Commons is adjourned for the summer.

Let barbecue season begin.

That means incumbents and hopefuls for the Oct. 21 federal election will spend July and August gnoshing and sipping with their donors and volunteers to prepare for the home stretch in September and October. It is a key time for organizing.

theBreaker.news Podcast host Bob Mackin welcomes back pollster Mario Canseco of Research Co to set the table for the busy summer that follows a rancorous House of Commons session, dominated by the SNC-Lavalin scandal that will continue to dog Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The session climaxed last week when the Liberals passed a motion to declare a climate change emergency one day and then approved the Trans Mountain pipeline the next.

Canseco says the NDP has to get Jagmeet Singh better known across the country. For the Conservatives, they’ll go steady on the economic front and continue to attack Trudeau for his litany of broken promises.

For Trudeau and the Liberals? “There is the advantage of incumbency,” Canseco said. “Somebody who has been there and has more experience than the rivals who are essentially running to replace him.”

Centre-left voters who backed Trudeau to get rid of the Harper Conservatives in 2015 have been repelled by the pipeline approval and the broken promise to reform the electoral system. The Conservatives are highlighting Trudeau’s scandals and failure to balance the budget by 2019.

Meanwhile, Trudeau is portraying himself as a better leader to deal with President Donald Trump. But Trudeau’s visit to the White House was overshadowed by Iran’s downing of an American drone.

Ultimately, Canseco said, the campaign will determine whether Trudeau's Liberal government is defeated like Paul Martin in 2006 or returned with a minority father Pierre's in 1972.

Listen to the full interview with Canseco. Plus commentaries and Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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