MONTREAL—As Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s logo-plastered buses crawled down Hwy. 20 in a two-day swing through Quebec, a pickup truck passenger gave the campaign convoy the middle finger.

It could have been a partisan salute.

Or it may have been frustration with the traffic jam despite the fact that Trudeau has directed billions to Quebec infrastructure, for new roads, bridges, a subway extension and a tramway.

Whatever prompted the man’s irritation at the sight of the big red Trudeau-branded buses, it felt like a classic end to a first week where no real national election narrative took hold, candidates for three parties were turfed for nastiness, and the campaigns had yet to find their stride.

In Trudeau’s case, his campaign media bus literally crashed into the Liberal leader’s plane.

There was no lack of enthusiasm in local candidates’ offices or at partisan rallies as Trudeau ran through seven Opposition-held ridings in B.C., Alberta and Quebec.

Still, a senior Quebec organizer said frankly there is no real “definitive” ballot box question that has formed yet in the minds of voters.

It’s not for lack of trying. Trudeau has attempted to plant doubt about the Conservatives.

But it took three days before the Liberal leader even mentioned his main rival’s name.

“People are saying why do I keep talking about the Stephen Harper approach. Well the fact is, Andrew Scheer himself has picked the Stephen Harper approach and everyone remembers what that is. It’s cuts; it’s austerity,” Trudeau told volunteers in Longueil.

Nevertheless, Liberals believe they have strong chances to make inroads into ridings across Canada where the NDP vote appears weak, especially in Quebec.

Trudeau planned to hit a popular cowboy-style festival in St-Tite, the largest western festival in Eastern Canada on Saturday.

On Friday night, Trudeau’s rally highlighted high hopes for star Quebec recruit, environmental activist Steven Guilbeault, running in the riding of Laurier Sainte-Marie, once held by former BQ leader Gilles Duceppe, where NDP incumbent Hélène Laverdière is stepping down.

Trudeau rolled into a cavernous art space and former shipyard, on his red campaign bus, to cheers from 1,200 Liberals. It was an old Conservative campaign gimmick Stephen Harper often used.

For the first time this week, Trudeau suggested, in in his stump speech, that the Conservatives would roll back abortion rights, as other countries are doing. To raucous cheers, Trudeau said the Liberal government would always protect a woman’s right to choose.

Speaking of the campaign, the senior Quebec organizer, who spoke only on background, said nothing can be taken for granted. No one should assume the NDP vote is collapsing, and the Liberal campaign believes as many as 60-70 per cent of Quebecers are unaligned, with voters watching campaigns, leaders and their messaging closely.

So Trudeau walked a fine line between respecting Quebecers and defending the Canadian Charter of Rights when he campaigned Friday in the NDP-held riding of Trois-Rivières, a region where the new provincial ban on religious symbols is popular.

Pressed by reporters, Trudeau admitted the federal government may step in at a future point in a court challenge of a law he views as discriminatory — a move that could inflame passions anew in a province where he needs to make gains.

“We’re not going to close the door on intervening at a later date because I think it would be irresponsible for a federal government to close the door to intervention ever on a matter that does touch fundamental freedoms.”

Bill 21 bans public servants from wearing or displaying symbols of their religious beliefs — such as hijabs, kippahs, turbans or crosses.

It was enacted by Premier François Legault after more than a decade of debate around secularism in government, and what reasonable accommodations should be.

Legault has already warned Trudeau, and all federal leaders, to stay out of the debate in Quebec “forever.”

Though the law has broad support in the province, it is being challenged as discriminatory in a Quebec court by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

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The CCLA says “it violates religious freedoms and disproportionately impacts people who may already be marginalized, including Muslim women who wear head scarves as part of their faith and identity, Sikhs who wear a turban, and Orthodox Jewish men who wear a kippa.”

Trudeau’s NDP opponent Jagmeet Singh, who wears a turban and the kirpan or small dagger emblematic of his Sikh faith, voiced strong objections to a law he says would affect him directly.

Trudeau has been forceful in public about defending women’s equality and reproductive rights.

But on Bill 21 and its impact on the religious and gender rights of minorities most affected, Trudeau has adopted a more measured tone, defending what he says is his well-known commitment to fundamental rights and freedoms.

“I don’t think in a free society we should be legitimizing or permitting discrimination against anyone. I will always stand up for individual rights and freedoms. In this case Quebecers themselves are contesting this law before the courts. They’re in fact defending and using the Charter the way it’s meant to be used.”

“We have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms so that citizens can challenge laws brought in by different orders of government in court to protect their fundamental rights and freedoms,” he said.

Trudeau said for now, he is staying on the sidelines of the court challenge.

Flanked by his local candidate Valerie Renaud-Martin, Trudeau said Quebec voters know he will “always stand up” for fundamental rights.

Later Renaud-Martin, who is in a contest here against a popular ex-mayor running for the Conservatives and an NDP incumbent, said she supports the prime minister’s position. She said it is not an issue that voters raise with her at the door.

That may be because until now, Trudeau has been very careful to say he is only “watching closely” and has no intention “at this time” to intervene in the lower Quebec courts.

University of Ottawa professor Carissima Mathen said the federal government “doesn’t really have any legal rights at issue” so it would be unusual for it to intervene.

“I think this is much more of a political question for the government than a legal question. It’s about how they want to position themselves,” she said.

“The provincial government, the federal government, they’re equal with respect to how they interact with their respective populations. And the federal government has never been recognized as having some kind of superordinate obligation to police the relationship between the provinces and their populations.”

Mathen added there is a “federalism angle” to the Liberals staying out of it.

“Do you want the federal government really getting in the mix every time there’s a challenge to provincial legislation? Do you want the federal government to be saddled with that extra role?

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