In a bid to wrest Whitby-Oshawa from the Progressive Conservatives, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Kathleen Wynne will headline a byelection campaign rally Tuesday, the Star has learned.

Liberal sources confirmed the appearance with local candidate Elizabeth Roy will take place in the evening — just two days before voters head to the polls in the riding formerly held by Conservative MPP Christine Elliott.

“The final push next week will be critical to our success on election day,” Roy said in a statement Friday. “This visit will provide a great morale boost.”

A number of Liberal MPPs, MPs and cabinet ministers have swung through the riding with Roy, hoping to build on Trudeau’s sweep in last October’s federal election that saw Whitby Liberal Celina Caesar-Chavannes edge Conservative incumbent and former mayor Pat Perkins.

Perkins held the riding for former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives after the untimely 2014 death of MP Jim Flaherty, who was Elliott’s husband and previously served as MPP and finance minister at Queen’s Park and in Ottawa.

Rival parties dismissed the Trudeau rally as a gimmick by the Liberals.

“This is yet another distraction from their own record,” Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said in a statement.

“The Ontario Liberals don’t want to talk about Ontario’s skyrocketing hydro rates, cuts to frontline health care services, or the loss of over 350,000 manufacturing jobs.”

The campaign for NDP candidate Niki Lundquist said “bringing Justin Trudeau is a pretty transparent attempt to try and distract from the fact that more than 80 per cent of Ontarians are against the selloff of Hydro One.”

In this race, Roy is also facing off against fellow Durham Region councillor Lorne Coe for the Conservatives and Stacey Leadbetter is running for the Green Party, among 10 candidates in total.

With the departure of Elliott, who was soundly defeated in the Conservative leadership race last year by Patrick Brown and resigned her seat in August, Liberals feel they have a chance to win the riding.

Roy said earlier this week that Conservative turnout will be a “wild card” in the vote with the popular Elliott no longer in the picture.

Coe, who was nominated as the party’s candidate by Elliott, told the Star he’s confident, given anger from voters about Liberal plans to sell off 60 per cent of Hydro One.

“What I’m hearing at the door is the main issues are high electricity rates and the health care cuts and the effect that has had on families . . . it really resonates.”

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Polls have suggested the campaign is a two-way race with the Conservatives holding a narrowing lead over the Liberals.

Elliott has kept a low profile during the campaign. She has been hired by the Liberal government as the first patient ombudsman for the Ministry of Health.

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