Justin Trudeau calls-in general elections two years ahead of time

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for a quick summer general election as Canada enters its pandemic fourth wave. The general election comes as polls show that his minority Liberal government is looking to form a majority.

The 49-year-old Liberal leader says, "Canadians must vote as we finish the fight against Covid-19".

Canadians are going into elections on September 20, some two years ahead of schedule.

On Sunday, Mr Trudeau visited the Canadian Governor General Mary Simon - the Queen's representative, the Head of State of Canada - and asked her to dissolve the Parliament.

The leader of the Central Liberals said that a general election was necessary so that voters had a voice on the way forward in a "pivotal moment".

In October 2019, voters handed him a minority, meaning he had to rely on opposition parties to help him pass his agenda.

Opposition parties have criticized the Liberals for calling a five-week-long campaign during the pandemic the latest wave of "political gains".

"Politically, I do not really know if this would have been a better time for this government," said Abacus Data CEO David Coletto. "The mood of the public is good at the moment."

The pollster says about 46% of Canadians in their recent polls say they believe the country is heading in the right direction - the highest it has been in about five years.

The worldwide coronavirus pandemic will surely dominate the campaign, as it has much to do with Mr Trudeau's second term. Over 25,000 Canadians died at Covid, but the country fared better than others, such as the United States. However, his record of the pandemic was mixed.

It was slowly closing its borders. The military has to be sent to some nursing homes to contain outbreaks. Turning off the initial vaccination was slow, with Mr Trudeau raising questions about the lack of vaccination violence.

The government was quick to get pandemic relief spending out the door, although it lifted record levels of debt to do so.

As the country enters another pandemic wave, it seems for the moment that life is slowly returning to normal.

Fatality remain below the last winter peak. Vaccination supplies have grown rapidly and now Canada has one of the highest vaccination standards in the world. The economy is showing signs of recovery and the provinces are cautiously reopening.

"This crisis was in some ways positive for [Mr. Trudeau], politically," said Drew Fagan, a professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

But he says the question is whether "there is enough momentum there" to "get him from a fairly healthy minority government to a slim majority government".

Canada has a fixed election date law and the next vote was scheduled for October 2023. But minority governments, which are not uncommon in the country, tend to be about two years old.

They can be defeated if they lose a vote of confidence in the House of Commons. The votes are usually on important pieces of legislation such as the federal budget.

Or like what happened on Sunday, a prime minister may ask the governor-general to formally open the chamber - a request rarely rejected.

In 2019, months of political scandals, a harsh first term and a bumpy campaign where old photos of him came out in the black face, all took on the popularity of the Prime Minister. The Liberals won 157 seats, 13 shy of a majority in the 338-seat House of Commons and he lost the popular vote.

It was also a sharp turnaround in 2015, when he entered to the office as a politically fresh face and led his party to an astonishing 184-seat victory.