Key points
- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says that Canadians face the most significant crisis of their lives.
- He called the instant elections for April 28 and requested a strong mandate of the Canadians.
- Carney also proposed to reduce the lowest income tax level at a percentage point.
The new Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, summoned the rapid elections for April 28, saying that he needed a strong mandate to deal with the threat represented by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who “wants to break us so that the United States can own us.”
The comments showed the extent to which the relations between the United States and Canada, two allies of a long time and the main commercial partners, have deteriorated since Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and threatened with .
Although the next election was not due until October 20, Carney hopes to capitalize on a notable recovery by her liberal party in the surveys since January, when Trump began to threaten Canada and former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau .
Being Carney had said he could work and respected Trump. On Sunday (local time), however, he adopted a more combative approach.
“We face the most significant crisis of our lives due to the unjustified commercial actions of President Trump and his threats to our sovereignty,” Carney told journalists after the general governor, the personal representative of King Charles, head of state of Canada, approved his request for an election.
“Our response should be to build a stronger economy and a safer Canada. President Trump states that Canada is not a real country. He wants to break us so that the United States can own us. We will not let that happen.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Carney’s comments.
Trump on March 6 delayed a wide rate of 25 percent on some Canadian goods for 30 days. Since then, it has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and threatened reciprocal tariffs on additional goods, including lactea and Canadian wood on April 2.
Placing the bases
“The survey suggests that the number one concern that Canadians have at this time are the possible negative consequences of Donald Trump and threatened tariffs,” said Nik Nanos, a chief data scientist and founder of Pollster Nanos Research.
Carney is “probably establishing the bases for something a little more strident on April 2,” Nanos said.
Carney, a former central banker without previous experience in the political or electoral campaign, captured the liberal leadership two weeks ago by convincing the members of the party that was the best person to face Trump.
Now he has five weeks to win the Canadians. On Sunday, Carney proposed to reduce the lowest income tax level at a percentage point.
The surveys suggest that the liberals, who have been in power since 2015 and followed the official opposition conservatives at the beginning of the year, are now slightly ahead of their rivals.
The conservatives have tried to portray Carney as an elitist who plans to continue the policy of the Trudeau era of high governmental expense. They also accuse him of being less clear about how he transferred his personal financial assets to blind trust.
Carney bristled last week when asked about the trust, and accused the journalist asking to participate in “conflicts and bad will.” The Espinosa reaction could give hope for the conservatives that Carney could stumble during what will be their first campaign.
The key to any victory will be a good performance in the predominantly French -speaking province of Quebec. Carney had problems at a press conference when he was asked to answer in French, first misunderstand the question and then answer in English.
The conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, on the other hand, speaks perfect French and is an experienced politician who has fought seven elections.
“What we should do is put Canada first for a change,” Pailievre said at a press conference on Sunday to launch his campaign, adding that his policies, including tax cuts and increased resources production, would bring back the investment back, helping Canada to be more self -supply and better equipped to resist Trump.
Laura Stephenson, a politics professor at the Western University of the Canadian city of London, said that Carney’s inexperience may not be so important given the Trump factor.
“I have the feeling that we are going to see a little more extended grace than what is generally given to politicians during this campaign,” he said.
An online survey of Angus Reid of 4,009 people published last week put the liberals in 42 percent public support and conservatives in 37 percent. Angus Reid said that the margin of error was around 1.5 percent, 19 times from 20.
