Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can closely study his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison's victory in 2019 elections as Ottawa and Sydney have the 'most similar electoral market' in the world, media reported on Saturday.
A news channel citing several political strategists said that Trudeau, Canada's scandal-afflicted Prime Minister, appears to take a much more cautious approach than the Australian Labor Party, which was defeated in the recent elections.
"Canada appears to have taken several lessons from the 2019 Australian election and Scott Morrison's victory. You can see this in how the centre-left government of Justin Trudeau and the centre-right Conservative party of Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer are positioning themselves," Canada political scientist Clifton van der Linden was quoted as saying.
Trudeau, 47, who won the 2015 election with a landslide victory, is facing a lot of pressure over a corruption scandal and other controversies.
A US-based magazine last month published the photograph, just one week into an election campaign scheduled for October 21, where Justin is seeking his second term.
Reacting to the controversy, Justin's opposition leaders condemned him for an act of 'open mockery' and 'racism' and called him 'unfit for rule'.
"Justin Trudeau's party appears to be taking a much more cautious approach than the Australian Labor Party did. They look to have borrowed from Bill Shorten's bad experience and want to avoid repeating history," said Liden.
Asserting that there are some quite obvious similarities, Linden on Saturday said, "That is largely because Australian and Canadian voters seem to have similar priorities."
While 'economy' was the top issue in Canada and Australia at the elections in 2015 and 2016 respectively, 'climate change and the environment' surged to the top by a significant margin in 2019 elections.
"Maybe that's a sign of the times, a global phenomenon or maybe it reflects unique similarities or parallels between our two countries," Linden said.
Meanwhile, a former political strategist for Trudeau, Amanda Alvaro, while quashing Linden's claims said, "I don't think that is coincidental."
Trudeau is seeking re-election in the 43rd general election scheduled to take place on October 21.
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