MONTREAL—Against the expectations of many — including some of his own strategists — Stephen Harper has thrown the niqab issue back into the mix of the last stretch of the election campaign.

With a deal to create a free trade zone across the Pacific Rim in hand the assumption was that the Conservatives would want to shift the election conversation away from identity politics and back to the more central theme of the economy.

Instead, in a CBC interview on Tuesday, Harper breathed new life in the niqab discussion, suggesting a re-elected Conservative government might follow Quebec’s example and ban the face-covering veil across the federal workplace.

That comment predictably stole the show from the just-negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Harper had raised the possibility of imposing a niqab ban on federal civil servants and those that they provide services to on a stop in Quebec last week and — in passing — on the set of the last French-language leaders debate on Friday.

But Tuesday’s CBC interview marked the first time he was as explicit on English-language national television on both the pursuit by the Conservatives of a niqab ban for the purpose of taking the oath of citizenship and the notion that the prohibition might be expanded.

It could be argued that Harper was just answering questions. But he is a seasoned politician. He could have limited his remarks to the ongoing government efforts to have Muslim women unveil their faces to take the oath, the better to focus on his trade deal.

He had to have known that his niqab answer would stir the pot.

On Wednesday in Saskatoon, Harper pushed the envelope a bit further, calling the Quebec plan for a comprehensive niqab ban a “responsible” one.

By all indications, the Conservatives believe there is still political capital to be gained from a culture war over the niqab. But as they expand the front of that war from Quebec to the rest of Canada, they are also shifting targets.

Their latest French-language ads take Justin Trudeau to task for opposing a niqab ban.

In contrast with NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, who has taken a hit over his opposition to a veil ban in Quebec, Trudeau, who shares the same position, has so far emerged unscathed.

He picked up a major editorial endorsement from La Presse this week. It is the first time since 2000 that the Montreal daily explicitly endorsed the Liberals in a federal election.

Some polls have Trudeau in the lead in Ontario. Most have the Conservatives and the Liberals neck-to-neck nationally.

Going in the last two weeks of the campaign, Harper strategists may have hoped that the Liberal leader would join Mulcair on the TPP barricades.

Harper could then have spent the last stretch defending the projected benefits of his trade agreement against all comers. He could have counted on a chorus of pro-TPP constituencies to echo his message. Except that the Liberal leader has declined to come out against the trade deal.

Raising the niqab stakes in an effort to drag Trudeau down is not a risk-free strategy.

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The widespread support for the removal of face-covering veils for the taking of the citizenship oath is steeped in symbolism. Banning women who wear the niqab from working in the federal civil service and from receiving government services unless they unveil could be widely seen as a different proposition.

In the immediate aftermath of Harper’s CBC interview, some observers mistakenly suggested the Conservative leader was stealing a page from the Parti Québécois’ securalism charter. In fact, it is Liberal Premier Philippe Couillard’s example that Harper might follow.

The PQ would have imposed a secular dress code on anyone working in Quebec’s public sector. Its proposed ban would have applied among other religious garments to the Jewish kippa the Muslim hijab and the Sikh turban. Like Harper, the Quebec Liberals are focusing on face-covering veils in their bill.

But if the Conservative leader’s statements had some otherwise well-informed pundits initially confused, more than a few voters — particularly in the cultural communities that will determine the outcome of the crucial suburban vote later on Oct. 19 — could understandably feel less than clear about the extent of Harper’s actual intentions.

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