Canadians will head to the polls Monday to decide whether to extend the Liberal Party’s decade-long hold on power or shift control to the Conservatives, with the choice between Prime Minister Mark Carney and opposition leader Pierre Poilievre.
Poilievre, a populist known for his Trump-like style, focused much of his campaign on the legacy of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose popularity waned after a decade in office amid rising food and housing costs and an influx of immigration.
“He appeals to the same sense of grievance,” Canadian historian Robert Bothwell said of Poilievre. “It’s like Trump standing there saying, ‘I am your retribution.’”
Foreign policy has not played such a prominent role in a Canadian election since 1988, when free trade with the United States was the central issue. Both Carney and Poilievre pledged to push for faster renegotiation of the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement to bring stability to both economies.
President Trump, on Election Day, suggested with a social media post that he was effectively on the ballot. Trump repeated his claim that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state and asserted that the United States subsidizes Canada. “It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!,” Trump wrote.
Though Trump had mostly softened his talk of Canada becoming the 51st state during the campaign, he revived the idea last week, claiming Canada “would cease to exist as a country” without U.S. purchases of its goods. He insisted he was serious about the annexation idea.
In response, Carney urged voters to give him a strong mandate to confront Trump’s threats to Canadian sovereignty.
“President Trump has some obsessive ideas, and that is one,” Carney said. “It’s not a joke. It’s his very strong desire to make this happen. It’s one of the reasons why this crisis is so serious.”
