Mark Carney has emerged victorious in Canada’s federal election – setting him up for a clash with Donald Trump amid his tariffs and constant threats of an invasion.
The former Bank of England governor defeated Conservative Party rival Pierre Poilievre overnight in a shock turnaround for his Liberal Party, who had trailed by 25 points in the polls as recently as February. In his victory speech this morning, Carney accused Trump of “trying to break” Canada – and he will now likely have the mandate to lead his country through an unprecedented period of tension with its southern neighbour, with the US President having repeatedly called Canada the “51st state” and threatened to annex its territory.
Carney’s victory will be seen as a stand of defiance by Canadians against Donald Trump following his repeated threats against the country.
Pierre Poilievre – who had attempted to emulate the ‘MAGA’ movement in Canada – saw his comfortable poll lead dramatically collapse after Trump signed three executive orders in February imposing 25% tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada.
This excluded oil and energy exports, which received a lower 10% tariff.
The Liberals had made the country’s resistance to American pressure a core message of their campaign, with Mark Carney repeatedly emphasising his rival’s apparent weakness on the Trump issue while touting the slogan “Canada strong”.
The departure of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister following nearly a decade in power, and Carney’s decision to call an early election just days after coming to power, also gave the Liberals a sudden poll boost, with voters having deemed the party the most capable of going toe-to-toe with Trump.
He hasn’t yet commented on the outcome – but in a bizarre post on his Truth Social platform yesterday, Donald Trump suggested that Canadians should vote for him to make Canada the United States’ 51st state.
He wrote: “Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminium, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, with ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America,” Trump said on Monday, seeming to refer to himself as the candidate.
“America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!”
At a rally in Ottawa this morning following Poilievre’s concession, Mark Carney told cheering supporters: “As I’ve been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,”
“These are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never – that will never, ever happen. But we also must recognise the reality that our world has fundamentally changed.”
He finished the speech by saying Canada would stay “united” while being placed in the “crosshairs of Donald Trump.”
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