Trudeau addresses his father's unpopular legacies in Alberta, Quebec

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau addresses supporters during a rally in Edmonton, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. (Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

VANCOUVER -- One day away from potentially following in his father's footsteps to the Prime Minister's Office, Justin Trudeau sought to make amends with voters angered by his dad's policies.

The Liberal leader spent the last day of the campaign -- and the anniversary of his father's birthday -- appealing to the deepest blue pockets of the country: conservative Alberta and nationalist Quebec.

He campaigned Sunday in Calgary, on what would have been Pierre Elliott Trudeau's 96th birthday, with a message he hoped would reassure Albertans.

Trudeau went right to the heart of a long-running Liberal burden: the national energy program.

"I will never use western resources to try and buy eastern votes," he said after delivering a speech to supporters who packed a banquet hall in the city.

"I am focused on bringing this country together and I believe that Albertans, like all Canadians, need a government that is focused on pulling people together."

With polls suggesting his party has the momentum heading into Monday's election, Trudeau stopped in Alberta to make a pitch to voters in a place that has long been unfriendly turf for Liberals.

Alberta is Canada's Conservative heartland and hasn't had a Liberal MP since Anne McLellan lost her Edmonton seat in 2006.

Calgary, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's adopted hometown, has been even more unkind to his party -- it hasn't elected a Liberal since 1968. That year, Pat Mahoney captured a seat amid Pierre Trudeau's majority mandate victory amid the so-called Trudeaumania.

The younger Trudeau, however, is mindful of some of the baggage his family name carries in that part of the country, ever since his father created the National Energy Program in the 1980s.

Trudeau said he first tried to ease some of the deep-rooted distrust Albertans have for Liberals when he visited Calgary a few years ago during his run for the Liberal leadership.

"I was very clear ... in saying that it was an error to pit one part of the country against another with a program like my father's program," said Trudeau, who also held a rally earlier Sunday in Edmonton.

Trudeau's swing Sunday through Alberta had another goal: wooing Quebecers who have yet to forgive his father for constitutional conflicts and his battles against Quebec nationalism.

The Liberal leader urged Quebecers to once again become an active participant in the national fold. He called on them to support his team rather than a party likely to find itself warming the opposition benches.

"I'm saying this from here, in Alberta, that Albertans like all Canadians need us Quebecers," Trudeau said in French during his Edmonton speech, which also drew a large crowd.

"Canada needs Quebecers to re-engage. ... It is time to unite Quebecers, Albertans, Canadians. It is time to unite to defeat Stephen Harper."

Trudeau's visits to ridings in Quebec during the campaign's final week attracted much smaller crowds than his stops in the Maritimes, Ontario, Manitoba and even Alberta. In Edmonton and Calgary, his rallies drew large, chanting throngs of supporters.

Later Sunday, Trudeau held rallies in the British Columbia cities of Surrey and North Vancouver, a community that also holds a special family connection.

He told the crowd how his mother grew up in the area, which his grandfather James Sinclair represented in the House of Commons for 18 years as a Liberal MP.

Trudeau explained how he shares his grandfather's love for knocking on doors, meeting people and taking the time to listen.

"I'm not sure if love of campaigning has any kind of genetic component, but if it does I can trace my passion for it straight back to grandpa," Trudeau said during that final rally in North Vancouver.

His campaign had clearly been on the offensive over the last week, during which it has made stops in ridings held by the Conservatives and NDP in the last Parliament.

Any kind of breakthrough in Alberta on Monday would be significant for the Liberals.

Party supporter Sheila Genaille waited amid a group of supporters in Edmonton who crowded around Trudeau's bus, hoping for a chance to shake his hand as he left the venue following his speech.

She dismissed the idea that all Albertans are conservative-minded.

"We're not -- there's a diversity of people here," said Genaille.

"But things do change. I mean, look at provincially. Who would've thought we would have (NDP Leader) Rachel Notley sitting at the helm as a premier?

"So, anything's possible."