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Prime Minister Mark Carney called Canada’s 45th federal election on Sunday and Canadians will be headed to the polls on April 28.
It’s been just two weeks since Carney won the Liberal Leadership vote and he was sworn in as Prime Minister on March 14.
https://twitter.com/MarkJCarney/status/1903846873368252429
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Speaking outside Rideau Hall, Carney said he is offering solutions instead of anger and division.
“It’s easy to be negative about everything when you’ve never built anything; when you’ve never had to make a payroll,” he said. “Negativity won’t win a trade war.”
Right out of the gate Carney promised a one point cut to the middle class tax rate and said an election is necessary to have a strong response to American economic threats.
The Liberal leader has not yet served as an MP, and he will seek election in the Ottawa riding of Nepean.
https://twitter.com/PierrePoilievre/status/1903835160447275104
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre launched his campaign an hour before Carney addressed media, saying he plans to restore the promise of Canada and tackle affordability issues that he blames on elites.
“Our nation is more divided than ever before, because the Liberal, radical, post-national, borderless and globalist ideology has weakened our nation,” Poilievre said in Gatineau, Que., overlooking Parliament Hill.
“Now, desperate for a fourth term, Liberals have replaced Justin Trudeau with his economic adviser and handpicked successor, Mark Carney.”
Poilievre said he will bring down the cost of living and fix the immigration system while having a strong military.
In a recent interview with right-wing American outlet Breitbart, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she asked the Trump administration to put tariffs on pause until after the election, and said she thinks Poilievre and the U.S. president are “very much in sync” on many issues and “doesn’t believe in any of the woke stuff.”
https://twitter.com/KenBoessenkool/status/1903675070134046862
The interview was dated March 8 but got cross-partisan attention in recent days, with former Conservative campaign adviser Ken Boessenkool saying on X that Smith “asked for foreign interference” and suggested it might be worth a movement to have her recalled as premier.
Asked about the Smith interview Sunday, Poilievre would not say whether her comments were appropriate, but pointed out that Trump recently said it would be easier to deal with a Liberal.
Leaders lean into patriotism
Leaders leaned into Canadian pride Sunday, with Carney saying Canadians can’t control Trump but they can shape their own destiny.
“We can give ourselves more than any foreign government can take away,” he said. “We’re over the shock of the betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons.”
Poilievre avoided his previous messaging that “Canada is broken” and instead focused on how the country allowed him to run for its highest office after being born to a single mom who put him up for adoption. He said he would make Canada “strong, self-reliant and sovereign.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh painted Canada’s social model as better than that of the U.S., and the result of deliberate policy choices.
“The things that we are most proud of as Canadians didn’t just happen,” he said.
“My parents chose Canada because they believed in the promise of a country where if you worked hard, you can build a good life. Where we look out for one another, and no one gets left behind,” Singh said.
Singh launched his campaign from a downtown Ottawa hotel, reiterating his party’s success in convincing the Liberals to enact national dental care and pharmacare programs.
He said Canadians are losing their jobs and blamed what he described as “Donald Trump’s illegal trade war.”
Canadians are losing their jobs and deserve a government that “has their backs,” he said.
The Green Party launched its campaign in Montreal with co-leader Elizabeth May saying her team is the only one standing up to fight climate change, after the Liberals suspended their consumer carbon levy.
‘We don’t make up our mind by checking the winds of popular views and polls,” May said. “We stand up for Canadians and for our planet based on what scientists tell us.”
At 34, co-leader Jonathan Pedneault is the youngest of the federal leaders, and will be the face of the party during the campaign, including taking part in the debates.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe also posted on social media shortly after the election announcement.
https://twitter.com/PremierScottMoe/status/1903855813032374536
As voting will take place earlier than scheduled it can be termed a snap election but Nathan Greenfield, North American correspondent for University World News, said that doesn’t mean the election process is different from any other.
“There is no legal definition of a snap election,” said Greenfield. “Since the fixed election date is every four years, if you call an election prior to that it’s considered a snap election.”
Like Carney, John Turner also won a Liberal leadership vote in 1984 without holding a seat in Parliament and called a federal election within nine days of his selection.
To trigger the election, Carney had to ask Governor General Mary Simon to dissolve Parliament.
Parliament was prorogued until March 24 at the request of Justin Trudeau on Jan. 6, at the same time he announced his resignation as prime minister once the new Liberal leader was chosen.
The federal election call Sunday means the House of Commons won’t return to work Monday as scheduled.
“… the government becomes a caretaker government,” said Greenfield about the election call.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre speaks with reporters during a news conference on Jan. 9, 2025 in Ottawa. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)
Flurry of announcements in recent days
Greenfield said there are a couple things that Carney has to do to keep the momentum the Liberal party has seen since the leadership vote.
“I think he has to keep up looking strong and being strong against the United States,” Greenfield said.
“He has to be able to make it clear to Canadians what his plans are in terms of continuing to fight against tariffs.”
He said Poilievre, whose lead in opinion polls appears to have shrunk significantly, has a tough road ahead of him.
“He built for two and a half years his campaign against Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax,” Greenfield said. “(Now you have to) remove Justin Trudeau, and you remove the carbon tax from the equation,” Greenfield said.
Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister on March 14, 2025. (The Canadian Press)
An order-in-council signed by Carney on March 15 will end the consumer carbon levy on April 1, a move that has been welcomed by Saskatchewan truckers.
The Liberal government has made a flurry of announcements in recent days.
Carney emerged from a meeting with premiers in Ottawa on Friday with an agreement to develop a national trade corridor to better move energy and critical minerals.
Carney also said on Friday his government won’t move ahead with a hike to the inclusion rate on capital gains that was first pitched by the Liberals in the federal budget last year.
On Saturday, the Liberals announced that as of May, all eligible Canadians will be able to apply for the party’s cornerstone dental care program. The program was launched initially for seniors in December 2023 and has been expanded in phases to cover children and people with disabilities.
The federal Conservatives have not said whether they would keep funding the program, which was the product of a supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and the NDP.
Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu also announced funding will be continued through 2026 for Jordan’s Principle, which attempts to ensure First Nations children have equal access to government services.
The Conservatives have also announced a number of policy proposals this week.
Poilievre has pledged a boost in training and employment for workers in the skilled trades. The plan would see the federal government offer apprenticeship grants of up to $4,000 and work with provinces to harmonize health and safety regulations to allow tradespeople to work anywhere in Canada.
He has also made promises in recent days about pre-approved construction permits for major resource or energy projects as well as better access to northern Ontario’s lucrative Ring of Fire region.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. (The Canadian Press)
Greenfield said Singh has a big task ahead of him to form a government, adding he thought there was no statistical chance of the NDP forming a government.
“ … besides making the NDP position clear on Canadian sovereignty and continuing to support the social programs … where you would find the votes to form a majority government?”
The NDP hosted media on Friday for the launch of its campaign headquarters in Ottawa and unveiled its slogan for the upcoming race: “In it for you.” It’s the same slogan the party used in the 2019 federal election.
Campaign director Jennifer Howard told reporters the NDP will differentiate itself from the Liberals and Conservatives by presenting itself as the party that looks out for the interests of ordinary Canadians.
President Donald Trump departs after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on Feb. 22, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Jose Luis Magana)
Trade war a pivotal election issue
Greenfield sees the trade war with the United States as a pivotal election issue, after U.S President Donald Trump imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on imports from Canada and a 10-per-cent levy on Canadian energy on March 4 and 25-per-cent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on March 12.
“This (election) is one where I think a lot is at stake,” said Greenfield. “Whoever is prime minister is going to be in a very difficult situation … it is quite conceivable that our standard of living will dip because of the American tariffs.”
Jim Farney, director of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at University of Regina, said it’s more than just the issues that makes this election one of the most important ones in the last 25 years.
“When you take a look back in policy terms, there was a lot of … core economic health stuff, there was a lot of continuity,” said Farney. “I think we’ll have a choice between quite different visions of the Canadian future.”
Farney said he doesn’t think the Liberals or the NDP will be able to grab more than one or two seats in Saskatchewan.
“One (seat) in Regina, maybe one in Saskatoon,” he said. “Outside of those two urban ridings, I really struggle to see what they (Liberals and NDP) can do at all.”
— with files from CKOM’s Will Mandzuk and Canadian Press
