Canada's Trudeau sets sights on fourth election fight with Cabinet refresh
By Steve Scherer
OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made massive changes to his cabinet last week in a move political analysts say is more theater than substance, but the Liberal leader's close advisers say it shows his determination to seek a fourth election victory.
With a string of recent polls showing the left-leaning Liberals trailing their right-of-center Conservative rivals after almost eight years in power, Trudeau changed or shifted three-quarters of his cabinet.
A cost-of-living crisis, a sharp rise in interest rates, and a chronic housing shortage have given the opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre ammunition to attack Trudeau, accusing him of feeding price increases with profligate government spending, calling it «Justin-flation.»
Poilievre's blows are leaving a mark. An Abacus Data survey published on Wednesday showing a 38% to 28% lead in public support for the Conservatives, enough to ensure their victory were an election held now. Other polls have shown a more narrow difference between the two parties.
«There's huge fatigue with this government,» said Frank Graves, president of EKOS Research polling company. With the shuffle, «they're trying to make it look new, even though it's not,» he said.
Trudeau described the shake-up as a way to build up his core economic team in response to cost-of-living challenges that Canadians have grappled with for more than two years.
But with the influential Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is also deputy prime minister, keeping her job, some analysts are questioning the real impact of the changes.
«I don't sense any change of direction. Given that the main players — the finance minister and the prime minister — are signaling that
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