Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power.
Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade.
“We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year.
Photo: Reuters
“We will win this trade war and build the strongest economy in the G7,” he said.
Carney’s Liberals secured control of Canada’s parliament, but might fall just short of a majority. That would require making deals with smaller parties, but still marks an extraordinary comeback for the Liberals, who at the start of the year looked headed for an electoral wipeout.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote, but Trump’s attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.
Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister just last month, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.
Poilievre fell short of becoming prime minister, but his party was on track to form a strong opposition.
He conceded defeat yesterday and promised to work with the Liberals to counter Trump.
“We will always put Canada first,” Poilievre told supporters in Canada’s capital. “Conservatives will work with the prime minister and all parties with the common goal of defending Canada’s interests and getting a new trade deal that puts these tariffs behind us, while protecting our sovereignty.”
When the Liberal win was announced, cheers of joy erupted at the Ottawa venue where Liberal supporters were watching the results.
“I’m happy in the sense that we’ve got somebody that can speak to Mr Trump on his level,” Dorothy Goubault, 72, said. “Mr Trump is a businessperson. Mr Carney is a businessperson, and I think they can both relate.”
Before Trudeau resigned, Trump had mocked him, calling the prime minister “governor” as he urged Canada to become the 51st US state.
Goubault said she expects that mockery to stop.
“It’s not the governor anymore, it’s the prime minister of Canada, and it’s not the 51st state anymore, it’s: ‘We are Canada.’”
Liberal lawmaker and a member of Carney’s Cabinet, Steven Guilbeault, tied the outcome to Trump.
“The numerous attacks by President Trump on the Canadian economy, but not just the economy, on our sovereignty and our very identity, have really mobilized Canadians, and I think they saw in Prime Minister Carney someone who has experience on the world stage, someone who has experience with the economy,” he told CBC.
Carney led the Bank of Canada through the 2008-2009 financial crisis and headed the Bank of England through the turmoil surrounding the 2016 Brexit vote.
Trudeau’s departure was crucial to the Liberal win, which capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history. On Jan. 6, the day Trudeau announced he would resign, the Conservatives led the Liberals by more than 20 points in most polls, as public anger over soaring costs mounted after Trudeau’s decade in power. Carney distanced himself from Trudeau throughout the campaign.
He said the former prime minister did not focus enough on growing Canada’s economy and scrapped a controversial Trudeau tax on carbon emissions that left many voters seething.
For Poilievre, a 45-year-old who has been in parliament for two decades, the outcome marks a stinging defeat. He was criticized for the at-times muted anger he directed toward Trump, but said he wanted to keep the focus on domestic concerns.
He tried to persuade voters that Carney would simply offer a continuation of the failed Liberal governance, an argument that fell short.
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