• Trudeau announced Canada’s federal election today where he will be seeking to win a ­second term.
• Concerns over affordability, health care, climate change and ethics are at the fore.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada’s federal election today where he will be seeking to win a ­second term in the face of an ethics scandal that has turned what was once expected to be a cakewalk for the telegenic Liberal leader into a tougher-than-expected slog.

Trudea has asked Governor General Julie Payette, Queen Elizabeth II’s representative in Canada, to dissolve the country’s Parliament on Wednesday — the step that launches the formal campaign.

The Liberals this year have fallen back into a close race with Andrew Scheer’s opposition Conservative Party and face an uphill battle to hold on to their parliamentary majority. In Canada, minority governments rarely last longer than 18 months.

Concerns over affordability, health care, climate change and ethics are at the fore, Trudeau said his government has “spent the last four years making things better” and has “the record to prove it.”

FX implications: 

CAD is lower on the news as the uncertainty concerns investors. 

• USD/CAD climbs to daily highs above 1.3180 on oil sell-off