in World News ‘Trump Will Have a Big Smile on His Face’: Canada’s Conservatives Launch Campaign Against Trudeau Successor Mark Carney
by Frances Martel
Canadian Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre began his campaign against newly elected Liberal Party leader Mark Carney before he was formally elected by party elites on Sunday, declaring in remarks to supporters that Carney would fail in negotiations with American President Donald Trump because of his purported million-dollar personal entanglements in American business.
“Donald Trump will have a big smile on his face as he exploits all of Carney’s many conflicts to attack Canadian workers and Canadian jobs,” Poilievre proclaimed during a speech on Sunday.
Carney was chosen to replace outgoing radical leftist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a low-turnout election limited to Liberal Party members on Sunday evening, the first step in organizing general elections for members of Parliament. Carney is not a member of Parliament and has never held public office or won an election for anything before Sunday, but nonetheless crushed his opponents, running away with almost 86 percent of the vote. The results were especially embarrassing for former Deputy Prime Minister Chyrstia Freeland, whose betrayal of Trudeau in a fiery resignation letter in December is largely believed to have led to Trudeau’s announcement a month later that he would step down after a decade in power. Freeland came in second with eight percent support.
Following his victory on Sunday, Carney delivered a speech that alternated awkwardly from calling for change in his country to urging Canadians to vote for the party that has controlled the government for the past decade. He extensively praised Trudeau, congratulating him for having “combined strength and compassion every day as a fighter for Canada.
“You have led us through some of the hardest challenges that this nation has ever faced,” Carney said to Trudeau. “I pledge to you and to all Canadians that I will follow their example.”
Poilievre spoke before Carney, but anticipated his connections to Trudeau and used them as an argument against voting for him during remarks at an event in London, Ontario.
“After they’ve caused all this damage – a sneaky trick tonight, they’re going to try to get elected for a fourth term,” Poilievre said. “A fourth term by replacing Justin Trudeau with his economic adviser Mark Carney. Carney’s advice drove up taxes, housing costs, and food prices while he personally profited from moving billions of dollars and thousands of jobs out of Canada to the United States.”