Canada votes in election shaken by Trump threats
Canada will hold an election on Monday following a campaign electrified by US President Donald Trump’s threats, with Prime Minister Mark Carney favoured to win after promising voters he has the experience to stand up to the United States.
A victory for Carney’s Liberal Party would mark one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history.
On January 6, the day former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his plans to resign, his Liberals trailed the Conservatives by more than 20 points in most polls, and Tory leader Pierre Poilievre looked certain to be Canada’s next premier.
Over the following weeks, Trump chaotically rolled out his trade war while repeatedly talking about absorbing Canada into the United States.
Outraged Canadians booed the American anthem at sporting events and cancelled US travel plans.
When Carney replaced the unpopular Trudeau on March 14, he anchored his message squarely on the Trump threat, claiming the US “wants to break us, so they can own us.”
The 60-year-old, who has never held elected office but led the central banks of Canada and Britain, assured voters his global financial experience made him the ideal candidate to defend Canada against Trump’s volatile tariff campaign.
“Pierre Poilievre has no plan to stand up to President Trump,” Carney said Friday.
“Unlike Pierre Poilievre, I’ve managed budgets before. I’ve managed economies before, I’ve managed crises before. This is a time for experience, not experiments,” he added.
Trump’s impact and the Trudeau-for-Carney swap unsettled Poilievre, a 45-year-old who has been in parliament for two decades.
But the Conservative leader has tried to keep attention on issues that drove anger towards the Liberals during Trudeau’s decade in power, particularly rising living costs.
“The trajectory we are on after this lost Liberal decade, were it to continue, would lead to more despair,” he said Thursday.
He has also criticised Trump, but blamed poor economic performance under the Liberals for leaving Canada vulnerable to US protectionism.
Analysts say his political style, notably his fondness for bombastic partisan attacks, has also hurt him with voters who may have been inclined to vote Tory, including women.
– Tightening race? –
