Prime Minister Mark Carney will ask the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and call a federal election this Sunday, Radio-Canada has learned.
The election campaign will kick off barely a week after Carney was sworn in as prime minister and appointed his cabinet.
Carney’s trip to Rideau Hall to speak to Gov. Gen. Mary Simon will come a day before MPs were scheduled to return after Parliament was prorogued on Jan. 6.
An election campaign is expected to last between 36 and 50 days. Election day remains to be confirmed, but voters are expected to cast their ballots on either April 28 or May 5, according to sources that spoke with Radio-Canada.
Carney is making the call against a backdrop of public opinion polls that have placed the Liberal Party just out front in the coming contest.
According to CBC’s Poll Tracker, the Liberals led by Carney are leading with 37.7 per cent, compared to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives who stand just below that at 37.4 per cent support.
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While close in the popular vote, the Liberal voter base is spread more evenly across the country, which gives them a distinct advantage in the number of seats they could win over the Conservatives who have concentrated support in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The CBC Poll Tracker suggests that if a vote were to take place now, the Liberals could secure 176 seats to the Conservatives 133.
