Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday called a snap federal election, emphasizing the urgent need to counter President Trump‘s confusion-inducing trade war.
The big picture: Trump’s anger-triggering tariffs and threats of making the close U.S. ally the 51st state have shaken up Canadian politics and bolstered a sense of nationalism, signaling changing fortunes for the recently unpopular Liberal leadership.
- Whoever emerges victorious from the April 28 election — which will pit the former central banker against Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre —will have to navigate the potentially massive economic and diplomatic damages of a deteriorating U.S.-Canada bond.
Driving the news: Speaking to reporters Sunday, Carney asked Canadians for a “strong, positive mandate to deal with President Trump.”
- “We are facing the most significant crisis of our lifetimes because of President Trump’s unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty,” he said, adding the Canadian response must include increased security and economic strength.
- “President Trump claims that Canada isn’t a real country,” he continued. “He wants to break us so America can own us. We will not let that happen.”
Catch up quick: After former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down in January, his party selected Carney, the former governor of the Banks of Canada and England, to take the reins.
- The election was slated to occur by Oct. 20, but the prime minister can call for it to occur earlier.
- In his first remarks as prime minister earlier this month, Carney shot down any notion that the U.S. would annex its northern neighbor, calling the threats from Trump “crazy.”
- Trump, in a Truth Social post earlier this month, wrote that “the only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.”
What we’re watching: Carney highlighted areas of his economic platform Sunday, proposing a strategy to help those who “will be hit hardest with these tariffs” that in part includes middle-class tax cuts.
- “We’re over the shock of the betrayal,” he said of Trump’s aggressive approach to Canada, “but we should never forget the lessons.”
Go deeper: Canadian leaders urge resolution amid energy trade war concerns