We’re entering a critical phase of this election campaign as the leaders face-off in two debates and advance voting begins this weekend. The polls suggest the margin could be tightening somewhat between Mark Carney’s Liberals and Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. Could the debate shake things up?

On this episode of The Writ Podcast, the Pollster Panel is back to survey the current landscape, discuss the reliability of the polls and what they may or may not be missing, and how public opinion research will be used by all the political parties in this final stretch of the campaign.

Dan Arnold, chief strategy officer at Pollara, was director of research and advertising in Justin Trudeau’s prime minister's office and was the Liberals’ pollster during the last three federal election campaigns.

Andrew Enns is executive vice-president at Léger. He conducted polling for the Conservatives in Stephen Harper’s last three campaigns and has polled for provincial conservative parties across Canada.

James Valcke is director of research and strategy at Viewpoints Research, which has polled for the NDP in elections across the country. He has worked on various central campaigns, including Jack Layton's breakthrough 2011 election.

In addition to listening to this episode of The Writ Podcast in your inbox, at TheWrit.ca or on podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, you can also watch this episode on YouTube.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thewrit.ca/subscribe