How Donald Trump’s US policies fueled Mark Carney’s Liberal victory in Canada?

Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberal Party have scripted a remarkable victory in Canada’s federal election.

Carney's Liberals will have a minority government in Canada's next parliament after falling just short of the 172 needed for majority control, the country’s public broadcaster CBC said. Carney's party had 169 confirmed seats with two races left to call, a setback for the Liberals.

The results have, however, put the Liberals in a strong position to pass legislation, including measures to confront US President Donald Trump.

There were many factors that contributed to Carney’s victory. One major reason, as is being talked about by experts, is a big assistance from US President Donald Trump. Here is how.

Liberals win fourth election in a row

With the results, the Liberal Party has won a fourth consecutive election in Canada, giving a mandate to Carney after a campaign with a pledge to boost economic growth and stand up to US President Donald Trump in the global trade war.

Canada, earlier considered a close US ally, was among the first countries targeted by Trump’s tariffs with 25 per cent levy on Canadian-made cars. Worse, Trump, ever since he joined office in January, kept threatening Canada’s sovereignty and spoke of the proposal making it the “51st state” of the US.

In March, as Canada faced a trade war with the US and President Donald Trump's calls for it to become the 51st American state, Prime Minister Carney called a snap election, sending the country to the polls on April 28.

Turning Trump's aggressive stand to his favour

Experts say Carney successfully turned Trump’s aggressive stance on trade and Canadian sovereignty into a central campaign issue.

In the April 28 polls run-up, Carney positioned himself as the steady hand needed to confront external threats.

"Carney has been almost singularly focused on his neighbour, and this was reflected in his victory speech. After warning that the US wanted Canada's land and resources, Carney declared: "President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never ever happen," wrote Anthony Zurcher, BBC's North America correspondent, in a report on April 29.

This message resonated with voters concerned about national stability.

In his victory speech before supporters in Ottawa on April 29, Carney stressed the importance of Canadian unity in the face of the threats coming from Washington under President Trump.

“We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” Carnay said, reiterating his campaign remarks about the mutually beneficial system Canada and the US had shared since World War II had ended.

Trump's impact on the Canadian election can be gauged by the fact that at the beginning of the year, the country’s Conservatives had a 25-point lead over the Liberal government, and their leader, Pierre Poilievre, looked certain to be the country’s next prime minister.

A banker, a crisis-manager and a newbie

Carney, 60, was a political newcomer. He had never held office before. This would ideally mean to have undermined his candidacy in Canada, a report in Reuters said.

But, Carney leveraged his global reputation as a crisis-era central banker. He used his experience of leading the Bank of Canada and Bank of England during turbulent times to garner support among voters worried about economic uncertainty. Then his diplomatic handling of Trump’s anti-Canada rhetoric helped him carve an image as a capable leader, according to experts.

Until Trump's return to power in January, Pierre Poilievre's Conservative Party had held what looked like high and insurmountable ground in voter preference polls. This was despite general dissatisfaction with the state of the Canadian economy and almost a decade of Liberal government under then-leader Justin Trudeau.

Clearly, for Canadian voters, the election issue suddenly shifted from the economy and housing crisis to the question of how to keep Trump at bay.

The campaign saw a united wave against the US and President Trump, pushing undecided and left-leaning voters toward Carney. This year, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also helped consolidate support for the Liberals.

“Trump reprioritised what mattered to the voters in this election,” Terry Milewski, veteran Canadian journalist and political analyst, told The Indian Express.

Poilievre lost even his own seat in Ontario’s Carleton district to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy. Poilievre, once seen as the frontrunner, was hit hard by voter backlash to US President Donald Trump's tariff threats and annexation remarks.

Trudeau’s popularity was also declining.

“A Conservative victory in this election would have been viewed by many – in America and throughout the world – as a new sign that the Trump win last year was more than just a singular American event,” Zurcher wrote in BBC.