Canada’s Liberal Party won Monday’s national elections with voters giving a full term as prime minister to Mark Carney, according to the national broadcaster CBC/Radio Canada, choosing a seasoned economist and policymaker to guide their country through turbulent times.
The full results should be available later Monday or early Tuesday. But the voters’ decision sealed a stunning turnaround for the Liberal Party that just months ago seemed all but certain to lose to the Conservative Party, led by career politician Pierre Poilievre. Carney has been prime minister since March, when former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down.
The election has been remarkable in many ways, with candidates and many voters describing it as the most important vote in their lifetimes.
It has been dominated by President Donald Trump and his relentless focus on Canada, America’s closest ally and trading partner. Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods, pushing it toward a recession, and repeatedly threatened to annex it as the 51st state. Even as Canadians were heading to the polls Monday morning he repeated that desire, arguing on social media that it would bring economic and military benefits.
Carney, 60, who promoted himself as the anti-Trump candidate and centered his campaign around dealing with the United States, ultimately benefited from Trump’s stance.
Poilievre, 45, and the Conservatives had been dominating polls for years, building a platform against the Liberals and Trudeau around the argument that they had dragged Canada into prolonged economic malaise.
But they watched their double-digit lead rapidly evaporate after Trump’s aggressiveness toward Canada and Trudeau’s resignation.
Canadians heading to the polls were preoccupied both with the country’s relationship with its neighbor to the south and with the state of the economy at home. Affordability worries, primarily over housing, were top of mind, opinion surveys conducted before the election showed.
But Canada’s choice Monday also came as a kind of referendum against Trump and the way he has been treating America’s allies and its trading partners.
It’s the second major international election since Trump came to power, after Germany, and Canada’s handling of the rupture in the relationship with the United States is being closely watched around the world.
The election also highlighted that Trump’s brand of conservative politics can turn toxic for conservatives elsewhere if they are seen as being too aligned with his ideological and rhetorical style. Poilievre, who railed against “radical woke ideology,” pledged to defund Canada’s national broadcaster and said he would cut foreign aid, seemed to have lost centrist voters, preelection polls suggested.
For Carney, Monday’s victory marked an astonishing moment in his rapid rise in Canada’s political establishment since entering the race to replace Trudeau in January.
A political novice but policy-making veteran, Carney’s measured, serious tone and defiance toward Trump’s aggressive overtures helped sway voters who had been contemplating supporting the Conservatives, according to polls and some individual voters. And his politics as a pragmatist and a centrist seemed to better align with Canada’s mood after a decade of Trudeau’s progressive agenda.
There was ample evidence Monday that Carney’s personality and background had boosted the Liberals. He is a Harvard University- and Oxford-educated economist who served as governor of the Bank of Canada during the 2008 global financial crisis and the Bank of England during Brexit. He later went on to serve on corporate boards and became a leading voice on climate-conscious investment.
Poilievre and other critics tried to frame Carney as an out-of-touch elitist who had spent much of his adult life away from Canada and knew little about the country or its people.
They also attacked Carney for his experience working in China, which has meddled in Canada’s elections, and some of his policy proposals that they said would burden Canada’s public finances and make it harder for the country’s economy to thrive.
Trump administration launches race-based discrimination investigations against Harvard Law Review
Disability-rights arguments grow heated at Supreme Court, though sweeping ruling appears unlikely
Mexico and US reach deal on Rio Grande water sharing
FDA scrutiny of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine sparks uncertainty about other shots
Things to know about the US coal industry and proposed changes under the Trump administration
Despite Monday’s victory, the road ahead for Carney and his new government will be hard. For starters, he will need to actually engage with Trump and his unpredictable attitude toward Canada and discuss fraught issues, including trade and security.
And he will need to show voters that his economic policy credentials can truly be put to use to improve Canada’s slow economic growth and persistently high unemployment.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
