Facing Trump’s onslaught, Canada PM Carney calls snap elections

Ottawa: Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a snap election as his country faces US President Donald Trump’s onslaught, which has helped the ruling Liberal Party recover dramatically in polls.

Carney, on Sunday, set for April 28, the election that could reset Ottawa’s policies, both domestically and internationally, not only with the US but also with India whose ties were damaged during former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s tenure.

Polls indicate that the influence of the New Democratic Party (NDP) that influenced Trudeau’s policy towards India and favoured Khalistanis would be drastically cut in the aftermath of the election.

Framing it as a referendum on how best to deal with the US, Carney said, “We are facing the most significant crisis of our lifetimes because of President Trump’s unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty.”

“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,” he said.

The former banker without political experience will face Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre.

The Conservative Party led in polls in early January and ironically, Trump, who denigrated Trudeau as a “governor” and imposed 25 per cent tariffs, turned around the fortunes of the Liberal Party that now runs neck-to-neck with the Conservative Party.

Tongue in cheek, Trump said, “I got involved and totally changed the election.”

Canada Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Poll Tracker projects Carney’s Liberals winning 174 seats, up from 152, in the 343-member House of Commons giving it a majority by itself.

The tracker gives the Liberal Party a 60 per cent chance of forming government by itself.

In that scenario, it would no longer have to rely on the deleterious support of Jagmeet Singh-led NDP.

On January 6, the day Trudeau announced his resignation, the Conservative Party had a 24 per cent lead over the Liberal Party — 44.2 per cent to 20.1 per cent.

But as Trump increased pressure on Canada demanding it become a state of the US and launched his trade war, opinion in Canada swing towards the Liberals.

It now has 37.5 per cent projected support to Conservative’s 37.1; the NDP is an even bigger loser, its percentage plummeting from an impressive 19.3 in January to 11.6 now.

Poilievre is seen as ideologically close to Trump, raising questions about his ability to manage the confrontation with the US, the focus of the election moving from inflation and domestic issues to what could be an existential struggle for survival as an independent nation.

Alluding to this, Carney said the choice for Canadians is “a Canadian Trump or a government that unites the country and focuses on action in order to build a strong economy that works for all Canadians”.

He said Trump’s plan to take over Canada “is crazy”.

In contrast, Poilievre launching his campaign on Sunday said, “You can be respectful and firm, and I believe we have to be both.”

But he declared, “I will insist the President recognise the independence and sovereignty of Canada. I will insist that he stop tariffing our nation.”

He said his “Canada First” agenda “will strengthen our country so that we can be capable of standing on our own two feet and standing up to the Americans, where and when necessary”.

Carney has the unusual distinction of having been the governor of the central banks of both Britain and Canada, a pedigree that can give him an edge in dealing with trade war threat.

He is moving the Liberal Party to a more centrist position, scrapping planned increases in taxes on capital gains, and ending some carbon emission taxes.

Poilievre agenda calls for more deregulation and greater exploitation of natural resources and tax cuts, while criticising “wokeness” and recognising two genders — all of which echo Trump in some ways.

–IANS