Trudeau appeals to voters in manufacturing sector ahead of election

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is targeting voters in Ontario’s struggling manufacturing heartland, billing his government’s NAFTA rescue mission as a critical victory that his NDP and Conservative rivals would abandon.

In the southwestern Ontario border city of Windsor, Trudeau is telling supporters that the hard-charging New Democrats would scrap the new North American trade deal if elected.

And he’s portraying Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives as enemies of the agreement who urged the Liberal government to give in to the demands of U.S. President Donald Trump and the forces of American protectionism.

Trudeau also says Scheer’s proposed $53 billion in cuts to services would undermine the economic benefits of the new NAFTA, which has yet to be ratified in either the U.S. or Canada.

As the campaign begins its final week, the Liberals – largely deadlocked with the Conservatives, polls suggest – find themselves fending off challenges on two political fronts.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who has been riding high in the polls since last week’s televised debates, has been laying out the conditions under which he’d be willing to work with the Liberals in a minority Parliament.

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