With 3 days left until election, O'Toole fixates on vote-splitters and deflects questions on his fate

With three days left in the 2021 federal election campaign and polling suggesting a Liberal win maybe the most likely outcome, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole was laser-focused on one message Friday: a vote for any party other than his is a vote for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

“There's a lot at stake in this election. Justin Trudeau wants you to stay at home on election day. He wants you to vote for smaller parties,” O’Toole said at a London, Ont. campaign stop on Friday afternoon.

He said that he knows Canadians are frustrated, but “if they allow that frustration to do anything other than vote Conservative, they're voting for Mr. Trudeau.”

Asked which parties he was referring to, O’Toole wouldn’t name names, though the party Conservatives are most likely to lose votes to is Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada.

“There are five parties [but] there's two choices, more of the same with Mr. Trudeau, or real change and ethical government with a plan with Canada's Conservatives,” he said. There are six main federal parties running slates of candidates in this election.