Our website data suggests Australians don't care to read a lot about Canada.

In fact, you probably only clicked on this piece because you are interested in what's going to happen to Justin Trudeau, the country's famous yet scandal-afflicted Prime Minister, when he goes to the polls for a general election on Tuesday morning, Australian time. (There's more on that from Canada's version of Antony Green at the bottom of this piece.)

But Australian voters should probably give this tight race more than a cursory glance.

Leading political strategists on the left and right say Canada and Australia have the most similar electoral markets in the world.

They've long swapped notes about their successes and failures.

It means some of the policy proposals being aired right now could soon be headed to a campaign near you.

"Canada appears to have taken several lessons from the 2019 Australian election and Scott Morrison's victory," Canadian political scientist Clifton van der Linden said.

Scott Morrison won the election in May despite most polls showing Bill Shorten ahead. ( ABC: Marco Catalano )

"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.

"There are some quite obvious similarities."

That's largely because Australian and Canadian voters seem to have similar priorities.

Mr van der Linden founded Vote Compass, an interactive election tool that allows participants to match their views with the policies of the major parties.

He's run it in conjunction with the ABC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during three federal elections in each country.

This year, more than 1.4 million people responded in both nations and the results give you a sense of the concerns in common.

Interestingly, at the elections in 2015 and 2016, the economy was the top issue in Canada and Australia.

But in 2019, climate change and the environment surged to the top by a significant margin.

Other topics like immigration, government accountability and housing affordability are all the front of voters' minds too.

"Maybe that's a sign of the times, a global phenomenon or maybe it reflects unique similarities or parallels between our two countries," Mr Van der Linden said.

"When we talk about climate change, we have to stress those figures don't necessarily indicate what policies people might support or what way they will vote, just that it's a top concern."

Similar concerns have led to similar electoral strategies

Those common concerns do appear to have led to some fairly similar electoral strategies.

Canadian Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer (right) is trying to beat incumbent Justin Trudeau. ( Reuters: Sean Kilpatrick )

For example, Mr Scheer is campaigning hard to scrap the country's federal carbon tax, which was imposed on four provinces that hadn't put a price on carbon pollution.

His campaign director, Hamish Marshall, knows former Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane, who helped Tony Abbott win office on a similar platform in 2013.

"I don't think that's coincidental," said Amanda Alvaro, a former political strategist for Mr Trudeau.

"There's been a conservative, populist movement across the globe. They've been very effective at learning from each other and I think progressives actually need to get better at building those close alliances."

Mr Scheer is also marketing himself as an average — some Australians might say daggy — dad.

Like Scott Morrison in May, he's made himself a small target and focused heavily on reducing the cost of living in suburban areas.

"Philosophically and ideologically, Mr Scheer and Mr Morrison are really very similar," said Rachel Curran, a one-time policy director to former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper.

"If Andrew Scheer is elected, I think you'd see our two nations work closely together on a lot more issues at a global level."

On the centre-left, many think Mr Trudeau's advisors learned from Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten's stunning election loss too.

The Canadian Government is putting fewer ambitious or precise plans forward, particularly when it comes to tax.

"Justin Trudeau's party appears to be taking a much more cautious approach than the Australian Labor Party did," Mr van der Linden said.

"They look to have borrowed from Bill Shorten's bad experience and want to avoid repeating history.

"There's much less detail on some policies."

Justin Trudeau's scandals put him on a knife edge

Mr Trudeau apologised when this photo of him in blackface for a costume party in 2001 emerged in the final weeks of his re-election bid. ( Supplied: Time )

For all those similarities, it's worth emphasising the notable differences between the Australian and Canadian elections too.

First, unlike Mr Trudeau, Mr Shorten never appeared likely to get an endorsement from someone as famous as Barack Obama.

The former US president's words this week are particularly useful for the Canadian Prime Minister, given he's been grappling with a blackface scandal.

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There's also no Down Under equivalent of Quebec, a largely French-speaking province, and the electoral system in Canada is different too.

Voting is not compulsory and there are more parties, which in the past has led to much bigger swings.

"Here you can have one party go from 15 to 30 per cent between one election and the next," said Eric Grenier, a polling analyst with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

"That's one big difference with Australia, where it always comes down to two parties."

He runs a poll tracker, which shows the national race is on a knife's edge with Mr Trudeau's Liberals and Mr Scheer's Conservatives stuck below 33 per cent support.

Canada's scandal-hit Prime Minister is neck and neck in the polls with Andrew Scheer. ( Reuters: Candace Elliott )

But the Liberals do appear to be performing better in the most important provinces, giving the Government a slight edge.

"Quebec and Ontario, [and] Toronto have a lot of seats," Mr Grenier said.

"So, if Mr Trudeau's party can win as many seats as the local polls suggest they can, then they should be able to win the most seats and try to form at least a minority government."

"The greater Toronto area is always key in Canadian elections, if one party is able to win a majority then they are usually in a good position."

But his statements come with a caveat.

The polls would only need to be out by a couple of percentage points to cause a surprise.

Canadian pundits are wary of making big predictions, particularly given recent election results in Western countries.

"It reflects the pattern we've seen in a number of elections, like the US presidential election, like the Australian election," Mr Grenier said.

"The polls don't need to be off by much to completely change the outcome.

"It's not that common in Canada that two parties are going to end up within a couple of points of each other, so that's what makes this unpredictable at a seat by seat level."