Miles Morrisseau
ICT
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has called for a nationwide “snap election” just nine days after taking over leadership of the country amid threats of an escalating tariff war and annexation by the United States.
With the election set for April 28, the campaigns are already heating up with rhetoric aimed largely at U.S. President Donald Trump and the tariffs involving Canada’s biggest trading partner.
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“We are facing the most significant crisis of our lifetimes because of President Trump’s unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty,” Carney, the leader of the nation’s Liberal Party, told reporters after meeting on Sunday, March 23, with Governor-General Mary Simon, the King of England’s official representative to Canada.
“Our response must be to build a strong economy and a more secure Canada,” Carney said. “President Trump claims that Canada isn’t a real country. He wants to break us so America can own us. We will not let that happen. We’re over the shock of the betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons. We have to look out for ourselves. We have to look out for each other.”
Conservative Party leader and Carney’s main opposition in this race, Pierre Poilievre, also took a hard line against President Trump and threats to Canadian sovereignty.
“Put Canada first for a change with a new conservative government,” he said, “that will axe taxes, honor hard work, build homes, cut taxes, lock up criminals, secure our borders, unleash resources to bring home our jobs and stand up to Donald Trump from a position of strength.”
Despite the fact that the Liberal Party got a boost in the polls following Trump’s calls to annex Canada and threats to cripple the economy with tariffs, Poilievre has made Trump a key part of his campaign.
“I know a lot of people are worried, angry and anxious and with good reason as a result of the president’s unacceptable threats against our country,” Poilievre said. “You worry about your job and the sovereignty of our nation, and you’re angry at the feeling of betrayal that these unacceptable words and tariffs have made us all experience. I share your anger and I share the worry for our future.”
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak issued a statement Sunday urging both parties to commit to First Nations priorities.
“The well-being, and the future, of First Nations and Canada are intertwined,” Woodhouse Nepinak said. “We must work together and support one another, as we navigate a rapidly changing global landscape. I call on every federal party to include First Nations priorities in their platform. The decisions the next government and the next Parliament will make will be critical for First Nations and everyone who shares these lands.”
She, too, offered a nod to the international upheaval.
“First Nations are an integral part of the economic fabric of this country,” she said. “Canada and First Nations can prosper together if we work together. When there are national discussions about trade relations, pipelines, national energy corridors, or becoming an energy superpower, First Nations must be at the table. Working together for our mutual benefit and support is the essence of the special relationship between First Nations and the Crown.”
‘Our country needed to take action’
Carney stepped into the highest office in the country without gaining a single vote from the people. He was elected to head the Liberal Party after then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — facing low polling numbers and open revolt by his own cabinet members — announced he was stepping down after nearly 10 years in power.
Carney’s short time in power is an expression of the unique peculiarities of Canada’s parliamentary system, which allows an unelected person to become prime minister, and for the prime minister to call an election independently without the approval or support of his or her own party, let alone the House of Commons or the Senate.
On the morning of Sunday, March 23, Carney went to Rideau Hall to meet with the Governor-General Simon to ask for Parliament to be dissolved. Simon, Inuk, was appointed the governor-general by Trudeau in 2021.
Following his meeting with Simon, Carney spoke to reporters and gave his pitch on why he ran for the party leadership and the role of prime minister. Carney, 60, a former central banker, has never been elected to office and has not held a seat in Parliament.
“I was putting up my hand to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada,” he said. “And I was doing that because I knew our country needed to take action. We needed to act to fix our economy. We needed to act to fight the Americans. We needed to act to deal with Donald Trump’s tariffs.”
Only registered members of the Liberal Party voted for the new party leader. Carney won with nearly 86 percent on the first vote, making him the prime minister-designate. When Trudeau officially stepped down on March 14, he assumed the prime minister’s seat.
Educated at Harvard and Oxford universities, Carney has been among the world’s economic elite for most of his career, beginning with Goldman Sachs in 1988, where he worked in a variety of roles for 15 years.
He was governor of the Bank of Canada for six years, from 2007-2013, and followed that with seven years as the governor of the Bank of England.
He served as finance advisor to the British Prime Minister from 2020 until he recently declared his candidacy for the Liberal leadership. He also quit roles as chair and head of transition investing for Bloomfield Investment Group and as a United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Change and Finance.
Sovereignty in the north is another campaign issue that has been expressed by both the prime minister and the opposition leader. Carney took a trip to Iqaluit, Nunavut, to meet with northern leaders and commit to investing in the far north.
“It’s time to accelerate defense spending and expand the Canadian Armed Forces’ Arctic presence to keep our North strong and free,” Carney posted to X, formerly Twitter.
‘Cost of living’ concerns
Poilievre, 45, was elected to Parliament in 2004, representing the riding of Carleton, Ontario, and was elected the Conservative Party leader in 2022.
He served in several parliamentary roles under Prime Minister Stephen Harper and then began serving concurrently as minister of employment and social development and minister for democratic reform..
He has largely focused on economic issues, including the cost of living in Canada.
Canada has more than a dozen registered political parties but has essentially been a two-party system with power swinging back and forth between the Liberal and Conservative leadership.
The third party is the Bloc Québécois, which had 32 seats in the current government but only within the province of Quebec. The New Democratic Party is in fourth place with 24 votes, and the Green Party has two seats. Other parties on the ballot could include the Rhinoceros Party, Marijuana Party, Communist Party and The People’s Party of Canada.
Bloc Québécois is led by Yves-Francois Blanchet, who was elected to the leadership role in 2019. The Bloc has members only in the Province of Quebec and for the first part of its existence focused heavily on Quebec sovereignty. It is unclear whether Trump’s annexation threats will have any impact on the election in a province that exports more than 70 percent of its goods to the U.S.
Jagmeet Singh is the leader of the New Democratic Party and has held that position since 2017. Despite his party sitting in fourth place in the House power structure, Singh had significant influence in Trudeau’s government, which was a minority and needed support to pass legislation or even to stay in power. The NDP has consistently lost seats since Singh has been their leader, however, moving from a perennial third place to fourth place.
The Green Party has two seats in the House but is required to secure at least 12 seats in order to achieve official party status.
Indigenous members of Parliament
There are a number of Indigenous members of Parliament who will be seeking re-election during the upcoming snap election.
Lori Idlout, Inuk, is a member of the NDP and has been the federal representative for the riding of Nunavut since 2021.
Jamie Battiste, Mi’kmaw, Eskastoni First Nation, is a Liberal Party member elected to Parliament in 2019 as the representative for the Sidney-Victoria riding in Nova Scotia. Battiste put his name forward as a possible replacement for Trudeau, but was defeated by Carney along with five other challengers.
Blake Desjarlais, Fishing Lake Métis Settlement, in Alberta, is an NDP member and has served as the member of Parliament for the riding of Edmonton-Griesbach since 2021. Desjarlais is the only Indigenous member of Parliament in the province of Alberta, which has been staunchly conservative for years.
Leah Gazan, Wood Mountain Lakota Nation, also NDP, has served as a member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre since 2019. Gazan achieved an historic first when the House of Commons gave unanimous consent to Gazan’s motion recognizing residential schools as an act of genocide in 2022, the first recognition of a genocide committed in Canada. In 2023, she received unanimous consent for a motion to recognize the ongoing genocide of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit Individuals as a Canada-wide emergency.
Randy Boissonault will not be running in this election. Boissonault claimed Indigenous identity and served as employment minister in the Trudeau cabinet. He stepped down in December 2024 after admitting that he was not Indigenous.
Other Indigenous candidates are also likely to throw their hats into the ring.
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