Parties focus on key battlegrounds in tight Canadian election

FILE PHOTO: Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole leaves an election campaign visit to Canada Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada September 5, 2021. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/MONTREAL (Reuters) - Canada's federal election race is so close that even a few swing districts on the western Prairies, a region usually hostile to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals, may be key to his hopes to stay in power, analysts say.

Trudeau, 49, called an election for Sept. 20 two years early, gambling that the country's successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign would help him hold the 155 seats he currently holds and pick up 15 more, which would allow him to govern without opposition support in the 338-seat House of Commons.