New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS): Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now in a tight race against Conservative Leader Erin OToole in the final stretch of a 36-day campaign that ends Monday.

If Canadians elect a minority government next week, Liberal or Conservative, Justin Trudeau loses, the Politico reported.

The Liberal Prime Minister gambled on an election he did not have to call. If the Conservatives win, he'll suffer the worst kind of bad beat. And if the Liberals scrape by, he'll still take heat for Canadians calling his bluff, the report said.

Trudeau's proposition that the election needed to happen now, two years early and in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, has drawn repeated scrutiny. His critics have blasted the campaign as an exercise to feed the prime minister's ego rather than an act of good governance, the report said.

E'ric Grenier, author of The Writ, said Trudeau's favourable trend lines started to turn as soon as the election was called in mid-August, the same day Afghanistan's capital Kabul fell.

People's voting intentions are unlikely to move solely because they're upset about the timing of the election, Grenier said. However, the perception that calling the election is in Trudeau's self-interest could influence how people vote, he said.

"I think that it raised the question of why are we doing this," he said.

This was supposed to be an election about policy, a referendum on the future of Canada, the prime minister said. But to many observers it seems more about Trudeau's ego and cynical vote-buying, Politico reported.

It's possible Trudeau could end up back where he started with a minority government. The results would again challenge the need for the C$600 million election and raise questions about his leadership and future prospects, the report said.