By Matina Stevis-Gridneff NYT News Service/Syndicate Stories
EDITORS NOTE: EDS: ADDS graf that starts "Poilievre conceded early Tuesday ..."; REVISES graf that starts "It has been dominated ..." to clarify.); (ART ADV: With photos.); (With: CANADA-ELECTION-EXPLAINER, CANADA-ELECTION-GUIDE, U.S.-CANADA-EXPLAINER, TRUMP-CANADA
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada won a new term Monday night, national broadcaster CBC/Radio Canada projected, a remarkable turnaround for his Liberal Party owed in large part to President Donald Trump's aggressive stance toward the country.
After midnight Eastern time, it was still unclear whether the Liberal Party would secure a majority of seats in the House of Commons or have to form a minority government. Preliminary results were likely to be available overnight Tuesday. A minority government would require support from other parties to pass legislation and would be weaker and less stable than a majority.
But the voters' decision sealed a stunning reversal 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 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down.
Poilievre conceded early Tuesday but said that he would remain as party leader. The Conservative caucus has the power to remove him from the post, which it did to the party's two previous leaders after it failed to form the government.
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 Trump and his relentless focus on Canada, America's closest ally and trading partner. Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods, pushing the country 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, a seasoned economist and policymaker who promoted himself as the anti-Trump candidate and centered his campaign on dealing with the United States, ultimately benefited from Trump's actions.
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 conveyed a measured, serious tone and defiance toward Trump's aggressive overtures, helping to 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.
Despite Monday's victory, the road ahead for Carney and his new government will be hard. For starters, he will need to 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.
Copyright 2025
This story was originally published April 28, 2025 at 10:41 PM.
