VAUGHAN, ONT.—Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer brought his pitch on affordability issues to the GTA Wednesday, framing the upcoming federal election as a choice between the elites and everyone else.

Scheer told a crowd of a few hundred supporters in Vaughan Wednesday night that Canadians are feeling the pinch despite a strong economy, and made pledges on a number of pocketbook issues, aimed at improving voters’ financial feelings.

“We all know what the next 40 days are going to look like for the Liberals. Justin Trudeau is going to go across Canada telling you that you’ve never had it so good,” Scheer told the crowd.

“Maybe people in his world are feeling that way …, (but) everywhere I go, whether it’s in Vancouver or Winnipeg or here in the GTA, I keep hearing the same thing: Things just keep getting more and more expensive, people keep working harder and are just not getting ahead.”

It’s a well-trodden path for Canada’s Conservatives: casting an election as Liberal insiders and elites against the common folk.

But the message was well-timed on a day when the SNC-Lavalin affair once again hit the headlines.

Scheer started his election campaign by calling on Trudeau and the Liberals to cooperate with a potential police investigation into the scandal, after The Globe and Mail reported the RCMP were unable to interview witnesses fully under cabinet confidentiality rules.

One Conservative staffer quipped that it’s not particularly on brand for any government to start an election under the spectre of a potential police probe.

Scheer worked SNC-Lavalin into both his public rallies Wednesday, first in Trois-Rivières and later in Vaughan.

“Trudeau was elected in 2015 on a promise to be open, accountable, and transparent,” Scheer told a small crowd at his campaign’s official launch on the Trois-Rivières waterfront. “Now, just four years later, he begins his re-election campaign the subject of an RCMP criminal investigation.”

There is no indication that Trudeau is personally under criminal investigation, nor is there confirmation that the RCMP is formally investigating the pressuring of former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould by his office to consider a deal that would allow the Quebec construction giant to avoid criminal prosecution.

The RCMP’s National Division, which handles sensitive investigations, refused to comment on the matter Wednesday.

But the story allowed Scheer to push the narrative that, despite spending almost all their time talking about the middle class, the Liberals are more concerned with the wellbeing of well connected friends.

The Conservative campaign has yet to say much about how the Conservatives intend to ease Canadians’ economic concerns. On Wednesday, Scheer re-announced some smaller policy items: removing the GST on home heating bills, removing the tax from parental benefits, and issuing a general promise to both lower taxes and balance the budget — moves that all but guarantee a Conservative government would have to cut federal spending.

Scheer’s pledge to scrap the Liberals’ carbon levy drew one of the largest cheers from the Conservative faithful.

Those promises will be subject to greater scrutiny as the election campaign unfolds and the Conservatives release larger chunks of their platform.

But 40 days out from the election, the Conservatives appear to be running at least even with Trudeau’s Liberals. A Forum poll conducted Wednesday found that 36.3 per cent of respondents would support the Conservatives if an election were held today, compared to 32.4 per cent who’d vote Liberal. The two parties appear to be particularly close in the GTA, a region seen by both campaigns as crucial to their chances to win government on Oct. 21.

The Conservative campaign will stick in the GTA Thursday, with a morning photo-op scheduled before Scheer begins preparations for a leaders’ debate hosted by Macleans magazine Thursday evening. Scheer will return to Ottawa Friday. No events are scheduled for Saturday. Campaigning begins in earnest the next week.

In Trois Rivières, Scheer said that the Conservative government would not challenge Quebec’s controversial new secularism laws.

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Bill 21, introduced by Premier Francois Legault in March, bans certain public sector employees such as teachers and police officers from wearing religious symbols on the job.

When asked directly if he thought the law infringed on religious freedom, a cause Scheer has championed in the past, the Conservative leader did not answer directly.

“People who are against this bill right now are making that case directly in the courts. That is their right,” Scheer told reporters.

“For our part, we would not proceed with this type of initiative at the federal level …. We’re going to see what the courts say. I’ve always felt from the moment this bill was introduced, that it is not appropriate to be implemented at the federal level.”

The Conservative campaign is bullish on its chances to pick up seats in Quebec, and Scheer officially launched his 2019 election bid in Trois-Rivières. More than 100 people, including most of the Conservatives’ Quebec caucus and candidates, gathered in earnest on the Trois-Rivières waterfront to watch Scheer’s bus back in and his campaign kick off.

With a file from the Canadian Press.

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