Canada Vote Frontrunner Falters but Race too Close to Call

New polling showed the former frontrunner in Canada's legislative elections could finish third over its opposition to a popular ban on the veil, as political leaders squared off in a final debate Friday.

The race is still too close to call, however, with the rivals also sparring over taxes, trade negotiations, the Syrian refugee crisis, air strikes against the Islamic State group and upcoming Paris climate talks. Canada goes to the polls on October 19.

Thomas Mulcair's New Democrats jumped into the lead at the start of the race in July and held it through most of the campaign.

The party that toiled in the shadows for decades appeared set to actually unseat Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and govern for the first time in its history.

But support in its Quebec stronghold collapsed in the last weeks over the New Democrats' opposition to a niqab ban introduced by the Tories.

Justin Trudeau's Liberals, meanwhile, surged nationwide as voters looked for an alternative vehicle for change after nine years of Harper rule.

Leger and Nanos Research polls show the Liberals now in front with 32-34 percent support, followed by the Tories with 30-32 percent and the New Democrats at 26 percent.

Friday's debate offered Mulcair another chance to sell Quebec voters on the party's position on the veil.

The New Democrats have called the veil, which covers all of a woman's face except the eyes, a "symbol of oppression," but defended a woman's right to wear whatever she wants.

"It's an issue that makes a lot of people uneasy and I understand that. It makes me uneasy too," Mulcair said.

"But the courts have ruled and it's no longer about what we like or don't like."

A Conservative government policy, introduced in 2011, prohibited wearing the niqab during citizenship ceremonies. But last month a court struck down the ban.

Harper has appealed the decision to the Supreme Court and said that if re-elected his Tories would make it the law.

"We're an open society that espouses gender equality and showing one's face during a citizenship ceremony reflects our values," Harper said.

More than 80 percent of Canadians agree with the Tory position.

Earlier, Defense Minister Jason Kenney said: "This practice of face covering reflects a misogynistic view of women which is grounded in a medieval, tribal culture."

Like the New Democrats, the Liberals oppose the veil ban, but had little support in Quebec -- where the ban is most popular -- to lose.

"When we see a woman wearing a niqab in Quebec, I think we should extend a hand and encourage her to integrate into society, we should help her to feel welcome in Canada," Trudeau said.

"We must also respect this woman's choice and demonstrate that our society defends individual rights."

Meanwhile, the unexpected return from the dead of the separatist Bloc Quebecois has split the key French-Canadian vote.

The Bloc had been reduced to four seats -- one short of official party status in parliament -- in the last ballot in 2011.

But leader Gilles Duceppe came out of retirement to try to revive the party's fortunes by hammering an anti-veil message.

"This is a fundamental issue for 93 percent of Quebecers," said Duceppe, calling for more restrictions on the garment.

Mulcair retorted that only two women out of 680,000 recent immigrants to Canada have wanted to wear the niqab while taking their citizenship oath.

"It's not by taking away a woman's rights... that you'll be able to help her, in the name of God," he said.