OTTAWA (Kashmir English): Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney Sunday called a snap election for April 28, saying he needed a strong mandate to deal with the US President Donald Trump’s threats of annexation.
He cited the scale of threats saying, he [Trump] “wants to break us so America can own us.”
Tariffs on Canada
The comments showed the extent to which relations between the two neighbours, two long-time allies and major trading partners, have deteriorated since Trump took office and imposed tariffs on Canada. He also threatened to annex Canada as the 51st state.
Although the next election was not due until October 20, Carney is hoping to capitalize on a remarkable recovery by his Liberal party in the polls since January, when president Trump began threatening Canada and former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation.
Carney has had a different view about Trump when he sworn in as prime minister on March 14, as he said that he could work with respected Trump. On Sunday, however, he took a more combative approach.
“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 told reporters after the Governor General – the personal representative of King Charles, Canada’s head of state – approved his request for an election.
“Our response must be to build a strong economy and a more secure Canada. 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.”
Carney, a former two-time central banker had no previous political or election campaign experience. However, he succeeded in persuading the party members that he was the best person to tackle Trump and captured the Liberal leadership two weeks ago.
Carney now has five weeks to win over Canadians. The Liberals have been in power since 2015 and badly trailed the official opposition Conservatives at the start of the year, but polls suggest that they are now slightly ahead of their rivals.
“We moved from an election where people wanted change to an election that’s really much more about leadership,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs.
“The ability of the Conservatives to attack the Liberals has been greatly diminished, because people are focused on the here and now and the near-term future, not on what happened over the last 10 years,” he said by phone.
