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Source: National Post (Politics)

U.S. President Donald Trump’s message to Canadians on election day was simple: elect a leader who will surrender Canada’s sovereignty and allow it to become the 51st state.

But other than specifying that voters put a man in power, ruling out the Green Party’s Elizabeth May, Trump didn’t suggest who among the other four major party leaders would be best suited to acquiesce to his annexation desires.

“Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES,” Trump suggested in a Truth Social post Monday morning as polling stations were opening.

After again remarking on eliminating the “artificially drawn” border, Trump said Canada’s entrance into the union “WAS MEANT TO BE” and regurgitated his vow that the U.S. would no longer financially “subsidize” its northern neighbour.

“It makes no sense unless Canada is a State,” he ended.

Similar rhetoric and his imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods have significantly shaped the election, while also becoming an issue somewhat overshadowing inflation, housing, health care and other traditionally influential election-time topics.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney didn’t have a direct response to the president’s latest barb, but a video pinned to the top of his X profile deals specifically with the Trump threat with the heading: “This is Canada — and we decide what happens here.”

The Liberal Party of Canada reposted the same video, along with several others mentioning Trump specifically.

Last week, however, Carney admitted that the president

suggested the 51st state route during their first one-on-one call

, which seemed to contradict the earlier reports that Trump “respected Canada’s sovereignty” in public and private comments.

This came after Trump told TIME magazine he was

“really not trolling”

when it came to talk of annexing Canada.

In response to Trump’s post, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre shot back on X, telling him to “stay out of our election” and reminding him that Canada will remain “sovereign and independent.”

“Today Canadians can vote for change so we can strengthen our country, stand on our own two feet and stand up to America from a position of strength,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, at Pope Francis’ funeral Saturday, former U.S. president Joe Biden encountered Assembly of First Nations Chief Cincy Woodhouse Nepinak, who was part of the delegation.

In a brief clip, Biden is prompted to comment on Canada’s sovereignty.

“Of course it’s an independent country. It’s a great independent country. If I were to defect, I’m going to Canada,” he said before walking away.

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Left to right: Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh.

Today is

election day in Canada

. A new federal government will be chosen, but none of the party leaders fought the election he expected.

Jagmeet Singh

of the

NDP

, who for months seemed the main opposition to a looming Conservative majority, is now facing a wipeout in

seat count, even his own. He achieved some policy goals through his deal to prop up the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau through a third term that saw the collapse of its popular support, but he failed to turn that into votes for his own party. With his own seat in jeopardy, it looks grim for Singh’s own future as leader, though not perhaps for his legacy.

Mark Carney

has been toying with the

Liberal Party

for years, and Justin Trudeau’s resignation let him skip to the prime ministership without first winning an election. It could have been a recipe for a disaster of credibility with this politically untested central banker, but Donald Trump’s economic threats quickly transformed Carney from a long running Liberal daydream to the front runner in the polls.

Pierre Poilievre

presented himself and the

Conservative Party

as a government in waiting, led by a slightly prickly but detail oriented policy obsessive who wasn’t in it for the personal affection. His goal was common sense. Their foil was Justin Trudeau, leading a washed up, tired out Liberal Party, weak in his own caucus, and disliked by Canadians in general. But then, the volatility of Donald Trump’s trade war upended that tidy ballot question, and threatened to make this an election on sovereignty. A pivot might have come too late for Poilievre, and his real fight was against a reborn Liberal Party under Mark Carney, an accomplished central banker who managed to flip the narrative.

Read more about the three major party leaders in these profiles of the leaders.

New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh in Montreal, Canada, on April 3, 2025.

‘They’ve cratered’: For NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh this election is do or die

Under Jagmeet Singh, Canada’s New Democratic Party has successes its leftist supporters can be proud of.

A national dental care program, pharmacare and anti-replacement-worker legislation are all in line with the party’s social democratic vision of governance.

But they came about in a curious way, as the NDP’s policy reward in a tit-for-tat arrangement that kept the governing Liberal party in power well past the end of its popular support.

The supply and confidence deal that gave Liberals control of the parliamentary agenda, supported by NDP votes, did not benefit Singh’s party as much as it could have, political experts say. It dragged on beyond its purpose. It needed a time limit, an earlier exit clause. For the NDP, it looked like all give and no take.

Singh made this deal in 2022 but never fully capitalized on what he had, and now it might be too late, because he has become a “bit player” in this current campaign, said Tamara Small, professor of political science at the University of Guelph, whose research focuses on the use of digital technologies in politics.

“He’s in a tough position,” Small said. “This race is coming down to two parties and there’s really no space for him.”

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Liberal Leader Mark Carney during a rally at the Red and White Club in Calgary on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.

He saved the Liberal Party from oblivion. But can Mark Carney close the deal?

Now that Donald Trump has won two presidential votes, though he notoriously claims three, it is easy to forget how disorienting the Brexit referendum was to the political and economic establishment, and how similar a shock.

Brexit happened not long before the first Trump win in 2016, and it seemed to announce a new era. It took down a British prime minister who had argued, alongside the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, that leaving the European Union was a terrible idea for the U.K., tantamount to economic self sabotage, ginned up by a chaotic new populism that tugged on modern conservatism from the farther right.

So it fell to Carney, now Canada’s Prime Minister seeking his first election to public office, to use monetary policy to absorb those shocks. And he did. There were recriminations about him being a doomsayer, and accusations of being so unclear on interest rates that he got tagged with the “unreliable boyfriend” nickname in the financial press. But it could have been a lot worse. Doom was dodged.

Canada faces similar economic fears today, and similar imperatives to resolve volatile geopolitics with economic reality. These have transformed Carney from a long-running Liberal daydream to the front runner in the polls.

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Anaida Poilievre, right, has introduced her husband Pierre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, at every campaign rally since the federal election began.

Why Trudeau’s exit was the worst thing that ever happened to Pierre Poilievre

For a second, Mark Carney didn’t know where to look.

The English language debate had just ended. Carney had to look somewhere, he couldn’t just keep shuffling his papers. To his left, host Steve Paikin was walking toward Yves-François Blanchet to say happy birthday. If Carney turned that way, the final image of the leaders all together before this tight election would be him shaking hands with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

From Carney’s right came a friendly voice. His head swivelled like a bird looking for food. It made for a striking moment, this little formality, and Pierre Poilievre seemed the more natural for initiating it. Carney leapt at the opportunity, leaning in with a smile to talk in his ear, patting him warmly.

It was funny to imagine Poilievre and Justin Trudeau looking like that, after such a long animosity. Trudeau especially would look like he was faking nice, as no doubt he would be.

Other moments like this have humanized Poilievre in the eyes of voters. He has shown off his family and told personal stories, talking about being adopted from a teenaged mother, and about his own young daughter who has special needs. But to emotionally familiarize the man behind the politician never seemed like core strategy for the Conservative Party of Canada.

People don’t swoon over Poilievre. That’s the point. Many Canadians are frankly embarrassed about having once liked Trudeau so much, whose life they had known since his childhood.

So it seemed fine just to be the guy who identifies big problems and proposes workable solutions, a slightly prickly but detail oriented policy obsessive who isn’t in it for the personal affection. It’s an election, not a date. This seemed to be the Conservative attitude, and for a while, it looked to be a winner. Odds are you’re never having that beer with the prime minister anyway, so who cares whether you’d have fun or not. On the other hand, if you elect him, you’ll definitely pay his taxes. This was to be an election about economic priorities and common sense.

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Liberal Leader Mark Carney makes a stop in Saskatoon, Sask. on Sunday, April 27, 2025.

OTTAWA — In late March, Liberal Leader Mark Carney set foot for the first time in his Ottawa-area riding’s campaign office and began his speech to volunteers with a stark declaration: “This election is the most important election of our lifetime”.

Only time will tell if Carney and the many others — including

Conservatives

,

pollsters

,

unions

and even

former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien

— who argue that the ongoing federal election is the most important or consequential one in 81.6 years (the average life expectancy in Canada) are correct.

But a deep dive into journalism archives shows that Canada has had the “most important election” of a lifetime roughly once every decade going back to at least 1841. That is, according to someone.

That’s not to say there aren’t key issues at play as Canadians head to the ballot box on April 28. Canada is grappling with a historic tariff war with the U.S., its largest trade partner by far, while U.S. President Donald Trump has openly and repeatedly mused about annexing Canada.

A Leger poll published this week

suggests “tariffs, Trump and US aggression” is the top issue of the campaign for 35 per cent of respondents, followed by inflation and health care each at 22 per cent.

As the ongoing election campaign enters the home stretch, National Post dusted off some newspapers, plunged into digital archives and presents you with just some of the previous elections that were once declared to be the most consequential of a lifetime.

1841

Nearly 30 years before Canada became its own nation, it held

what a 1857 article in Hamilton’s The Weekly Spectator

billed as not only “the most important election that ever occurred” in the country, but also that “ever will occur again”.

There is a solid argument for at least the former part. In 1841, elections were held to form the First Parliament of the Province of Canada. It was the first ever election after the Act of Union that merged Upper and Lower Canada into a single Province of Canada, creating Canada’s first united legislative assembly.

1900

In early October 1900, former Ottawa mayor turned federal candidate Steward McLeod made a bold claim during a “most exhaustive address”: that the Nov. 7, 1900, federal election would be “the most important election since confederation” in 1867.

The federal candidate in Carleton district (now represented by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre) had one thing in mind. As a fierce advocate for building a canal that would link Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay, he promised that the project would be supported by “the great majority” of MPs on all sides of the House of Commons.

McLeod lost the election and

despite his advocacy for two decades

, the canal was never built.

1962

In April 1962, Liberal leader Lester B. Pearson stood in the auditorium of Queen Charlotte High School in Charlottetown, PEI, and delivered what a

Montreal Star

reporter billed “one of his best” speeches of the ongoing federal campaign.

“Claiming that this will be the most important election in Canadian peacetime history, Mr. Pearson said that it should be conducted ‘with the highest sense of public duty and morality’,”

wrote journalist Peter Desbarats

, though he did not explain why Pearson thought that.

If anything, the election is notable for being the first ever fought by the New Democrats under founder Tommy Douglas.

1979

Already nearly 50 years ago, a claim by any — or all, as in 1979 — federal party leader that an election was the most important  in Canadian history was considered

an “old cliche” by reporters

.

In early March, Pierre Trudeau, the “aging champion” of the Liberal Party

, said in an interview

that his battle with Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark “may be the most important Canadian election in our lifetime”.

Ironically, it would instead lead to one of the shortest-lived governments in Canadian history. Trudeau would lose the election to Clark, (briefly) ending 16 years of Liberal reign. Clark’s PCs campaigned on slogans such as “Let’s get Canada working again” and argued that it’s “Time for a Change”.

Sound familiar?

(This election would ultimately be listed as one of the

least important elections

in Canada in 2021 by Maclean’s).

1988

There are many similarities between the 1988 federal election and this year’s vote. In 1988, the single biggest issue of the campaign was Canada’s relationship with the United States and if the country should sign what would become the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It was the last election before 2025 in which Canada’s relationship with the U.S. was central to a federal election.

There was also much concern about national unity after the failure by Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government to secure the ratification of the Meech Lake Accord the previous year.

It was also a campaign in which Liberal candidates were legion in swearing that it would be “the most important election in our lifetime.”

One such candidate was Ralph Goodale

, who left Saskatchewan politics to run for the Liberals that year, a seat he would hold for the party until 2019. He argued the election was crucial because NAFTA threatened “the security and the future of our way of life”.

Two months after Goodale’s statement, Manitoba Liberal Leader Sharon Carstairs agreed that the Nov. 21 vote was the

most important of her lifetime

, citing concerns that NAFTA would cause a flood of Canadian-trained doctors to move to the U.S.

1997

The 1997 election is notable largely because it was the first federal campaign after Quebec’s failed 1995 referendum and for the fact it’s the first time five political parties (Liberal, Reform, Bloc Québécois, NDP and PC) were recognized in the House of Commons.

But that didn’t stop Alberta PC candidate Morris Flewwelling from taking out a large ad in the May 9, 1997, edition of the

Red Deer Advocate with a screaming headline

“THIS IS IT! The Most Important Election in Canada’s History. VOTE FLEWWELLING”.

Flewwelling was not elected as part of the PCs’ paltry 20-seat caucus but would dedicate his life to public service all the same. Later that year, he was invested with the

Order of Canada for his “stellar record

of community involvement” that included founding Alberta’s first alternative school.

He would later be elected thrice as mayor of Red Deer and be awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2014.

2021

The 2021 election, much like those of 1965 and 2008, is largely seen as a failed attempt by a governing party to convert their minority government into a majority.

For weeks after he called the snap election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

faced questions as to why

Canadians were going to the polls in the first place amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Trudeau was so convinced the election was necessary that on the day he launched his campaign, he breathlessly declared it as “

maybe the most important since 1945

and certainly in our lifetimes”. He called on Canadians to choose the next government that would guide the country out of the pandemic.

Months later, the House of Commons would return with nearly exactly the same composition.

The author of the 2021 Maclean’s list of least important elections, Jason Markusoff, said on Monday that

he could add this election to the list

in hindsight.

Bonus: 1946 Hamilton city council

Sometimes, the most important election in one’s life is much closer to home than Ottawa.

That was the case for Hamilton City Controller Nora-Frances Henderson and the 1946 Hamilton municipal election. The political situation was tense at the time due the recent bitter 86-day strike at the Stelco plant which had a

lasting impact on labour relations in the country

.

Henderson was one of the most vocal opponents of the strike, which had been deemed illegal by the federal government. So, on the eve of the Dec. 9 municipal election, she had a stark message for attendees of lecture organized by the Women’s Canadian Club.

“I have no hesitation in saying that this is the most important election we have known in our lifetime,” she’s reported as saying by The Hamilton Spectator.

“In effect, the people of Hamilton are going to the polls to decide whether they desire to live under the rule of law and order or under a government which can set the laws made aside on occasion.”

Henderson, a

“true trailblazer”

and the first women elected to politics in Hamilton, won her bid for re-election but quit politics the following year and passed away in 1949. That municipal election was likely the most important in her lifetime.

National Post

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Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said candidates singing and dancing ahead of a campaign event on Sunday morning isn't indicative of a lack of compassion for the fatal car attack that occurred the night before in Vancouver.

QUEBEC CITY — As Canadians from coast to coast mourned the

loss of at least 11 lives in a car attack in Vancouver

Sunday morning, Bloc Québécois candidates awaited their leader’s visit with singing and dancing in a festive atmosphere.

The scene took place at the Bloc Québécois’ Quebec—Centre riding headquarters, where leader Yves-François Blanchet was about to meet with candidates and volunteers in this battleground where they hope to win the seat of former Liberal cabinet minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

Led by Montmorency—Charlevoix candidate Caroline Desbiens, who sang traditional Quebec songs, a dozen Quebec volunteers and candidates, including Duclos’s opponent, Simon Bérubé, clapped and danced, some joining the singer.

“C’est décidé, le bleu du Québec nous appelle. Ooohhh c’est décidé, le bleu du Québec nous appelle,” sang Desbiens in one of the songs, which can be translated as “It’s decided, the blue of Quebec is calling us. Ooohhh it’s decided, the blue of Quebec is calling us”.

They then enthusiastically welcomed Blanchet in his final lap before election day. The room was filled with dozens of people, the majority of whom did not participate in the singing and dancing.

“It would be terrible, terrible, for anybody to imply in whatever way that our people lack compassion for those who suffer because we are the end of a campaign,” said Blanchet when asked about his people’s behaviour.

A 30-year-old man is believed to have been the driver of a black SUV that drove eastward into a pedestrian-only area along 43rd Avenue near Fraser Street in Vancouver during Lapu Lapu Day in Vancouver.

The authorities said the vehicle drove through a crowd where hundreds of people were attending the festival.

A victim lies near a food truck following the car ramming attack at a Filipino festival in Vancouver on Saturday. Eleven people have died and more than 20 were injured.

Blanchet’s daily remarks were only about the Vancouver attack. Exceptionally, he made his statement in both official languages.

“(I want) to address my sincere, heartfelt condolences to the people of British Columbia, members of families and friends of those who died, and also to the colleagues which were far too close to this drama,” he said, visibly emotional.

Responding to questions from the English-language media about the behaviour of his people and whether he found them respectful in the context, Blanchet said he was happy to see his people enthusiastic at the end of a campaign in a riding that the Bloc could win Monday evening.

“It does absolutely not mean that they lack compassion for people who suffer,” he said.

Questioned if that kind of behaviour had been in another part of the country while a tragedy of similar proportion had happened in Quebec, Blanchet said that “we might feel close and compassionate about the people of British Columbia, but of course we feel closer to next door here.”

Political parties and leaders were deeply shaken on Sunday morning, as their schedules were changed at the last minute following the attack.

Death toll in Vancouver ‘car ramming attack’ rises to 11 as parties recalibrate campaign plans

It is not the case for the Bloc Québécois. The campaign is proceeding as usual.

Blanchet said he had not considered changing his schedule, for example, to include a visit to a Filipino community, because he doesn’t “pretend to represent” and “do not offer to represent specifically the people of British Columbia”.

“(It) does not prevent me from having felt all the pain that comes with such a situation,” he said.

Blanchet rightfully underlined that other reporters have asked him questions about issues other than what happened in British Columbia and that he was entitled “to react and act on other things than the drama in British Columbia.”

No francophone reporters have asked about the atmosphere.

Blanchet is campaigning all day from Quebec City to Montreal’s region, stopping in four ridings along the way.

The Vancouver tragedy resonated in Quebec, where there is a vibrant Filipino community.

“The truck attack at a festival in Vancouver is devastating. My thoughts are with the families of the victims and with the entire Filipino and Vancouver community,” wrote Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante on social media.

“I am deeply saddened by the attack at a festival in Vancouver. My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. Quebec is with you,” also wrote Premier François Legault.

The tragedy has impacted the last full day of the federal election campaign as the Liberal Party cancelled big rallies in Calgary and Richmond.

Leader Mark Carney is scheduled to appear at a meet-and-greet in Saskatoon and Edmonton. Campaign officials are weighing with the authorities in BC about whether a stop in that province is appropriate.

Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made an impromptu visit to a Filipino church.

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atrepanier@postmedia.com

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A car ramming attack that killed nine people in Vancouver on Saturday evening stopped the federal election campaign in its tracks on its second-last day.

HAMILTON — Elections are like games of chess — extended exercises in emotion and reason aimed at persuading millions of people to vote for you, and not for your rival.

It is a serious business, but it is not life and death.

Sometimes, though, in the middle of these democratic contests, the fragility of life intrudes, violently and shockingly.

That was the case with the news that emerged from the Lapu Lapu Filipino festival in Vancouver on Saturday evening.

Vancouver Police have confirmed that nine people were killed and more than 20 injured, in what they describe as a car-ramming attack. One suspect is in custody, a 30-year-old male who the Vancouver Sun reported

appeared to be suffering from mental health issues

, and who was reportedly seen on video saying: “Sorry, sorry.” He is believed to have been acting alone.

On Saturday evening, a speeding SUV plowed into a pedestrian-only area in Vancouver during Lapu Lapu Day in Vancouver as the event was coming to a close, killing nine and injuring more than 20.

The news stopped the federal election campaign in its tracks on its second-last day.

This is a campaign that has been characterized by an absence of dramatic events, with polls hardly moving over the course of the campaign. However, the violence in Vancouver could yet provoke a late shift toward the Conservatives, who have claimed that a weak justice system is failing to deter people from breaking the law.

Parties recalibrate campaigns after Vancouver ‘car ramming attack’ kills nine

Mark Carney had been due to speak at a whistle-stop event for campaign workers in Hamilton, at 8 a.m. local time, before the tour headed to Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria.

The Hamilton event was cancelled and the departure for Saskatoon delayed as Carney was briefed by law enforcement officials, his national security adviser and the public safety minister, David McGuinty.

At 10 a.m., a sombre prime minister appeared before travelling reporters with a statement. Standing in front of four Canadian flags but with no campaign material on display, he said that he was “shocked and devastated” by the news. He said the government does not believe that there is any active threat to Canadians.

This is the first time as prime minister that Carney has had to respond to a tragedy like this and he appeared to be visibly affected.

“Last night, families lost sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives. And to them and to the many others who were injured, Filipinos and everyone in Vancouver, I would like to offer my deepest condolences,” he said.

A senior official for the Liberal campaign said the tour will continue but would “adjust in significant ways.”

The Conservatives indicated that they will continue with their campaign, ending with a rally in Pierre Poilievre’s own Ottawa-area riding of Carleton.

But all politicians are walking a tightrope. The attack plays into the Conservative narrative that the Liberals put criminals’ rights ahead of victims’ rights, and that the streets are less safe than they were 10 years ago.

But with so many details still unconfirmed, it would be an extremely rash politician who links events in Vancouver to federal government policy.

Carney’s task was to appear as a steady hand in a crisis. He appeared comfortable in that role, but will have to guard against appearing too partisan as he shifts back into campaign mode and wraps up the 2025 election.

jivison@criffel.ca

Twitter.com/IvisonJ

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On Saturday evening, a speeding SUV plowed into a pedestrian-only area in Vancouver during Lapu Lapu Day in Vancouver as the event was coming to a close, killing nine and injuring more than 20.

Police believe the suspect in a “car ramming attack” at a Vancouver Filipino community event that killed nine people and injured over 20 acted alone and that there is no “active threat” to Canadians, Prime Minister Mark Carney said as the final day of the federal election campaign began on a dark note.

Party leaders mourned the victims of

the tragedy at the Lapu Lapu street festival

in Vancouver on Saturday evening.

During a brief statement Sunday morning, Carney said that the 30-year-old suspect behind what Vancouver police have called a “car ramming attack” was in custody and that police believe the individual acted alone.

“Authorities have confirmed that one person is in custody, and it is believed that they acted alone,” Carney said. “Currently, we do not believe that there is any active threat to Canadians.”

“Last night, families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a son or a daughter. Those families are living every family’s nightmare,” he added, his eyes welling up with tears.

On Saturday evening, a speeding SUV plowed into a pedestrian-only area along 43rd Avenue near Fraser Street in Vancouver during Lapu Lapu Day in Vancouver as the event was coming to a close and many attendees lingered after a concert.

‘Bodies everywhere’: Multiple people killed, injured at Lapu Lapu Day in Vancouver

The vehicle was seen speeding past food trucks and striking a number of festival goers, killing nine and injuring over 20 others.

Vancouver police said shortly after the incident that the main suspect was held on site by bystanders until police arrived and that he was known to the service “in certain circumstances.”

A screenshot from a video taken immediately after the SUV drove through the crowded street.

“At this time, we are confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism,” the Vancouver Police Department wrote on social media.

The tragedy shook up the final day of the federal election campaign, with national parties reviewing their itineraries and messaging at the last minute to respond to the horrible attack.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who attended the Lapu Lapu festival Saturday and left minutes before the attack, told reporters that evening that he was shocked by the “death and destruction.”

“I just keep on picturing the kids’ faces. I keep on thinking about the kids that were just having such an amazing time, the joy, the incredible warmth of the people there,” he said.

“The horrible death and destruction that happened at an event like that is something I can’t comprehend, and I keep on playing through my mind.”

On social media, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wrote early Sunday that he was “

shocked by the horrific news.” His itinerary Sunday was changed at the last minute to include a stop at a Filipino church to speak to community members and make a public statement about the attack.

King Charles also issued a statement mourning victims of the “dreadful”

attack on X Sunday morning

.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to all those whole lives have been shattered by such a desperate tragedy and we send our deepest possibly sympathy at a most agonizing time for so many in Canada,” reads the statement signed “Charles R”.

More to come

.

National Post, with files from the Vancouver Sun

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Preston Manning, former leader of the Reform party speaks at a conference about the Reform party, Wednesday, March 22, 2023 in Ottawa.

Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, is banking on people’s fears about the desperate nature of our present situation. And he’s promising to save Canadians from the apocalypse heading our way, triggered, not by climate change, but by Donald Trump’s up-ending of world order.

A 2025 report released by the federal government’s in-house think tank — Policy Horizons Canada — reinforces Carney’s dystopian warnings, with dire predictions of disillusioned youth living in a country with rising inequality, inaccessible housing and a broken promise of meritocracy.

“The cheapest, quickest way to get public support for a public policy today is to scare the hell out of people,” says Preston Manning. That’s what these consultants to political parties will tell you, says the former leader of the Reform Party and a former leader of the Opposition.

This use of fear as a motivator, Preston asserts, has been the “Liberals’ modus operandi now for over 10 years.”

“There was fear in the pandemic,” he says, that motivated people to obey health guidance. “Fear of climate catastrophe is the fundamental motivator behind a lot of green initiatives,” he continues, “and now this fear of Trump.”

Consider Carney’s concluding remarks during the leaders’ debate, Preston says, with a shake of his head. “When asked to give a one-minute statement, he actually said Trump wants to take over your country, which is complete nonsense and not possible.” (Preston has a full legal explanation, for those who are interested.)

With less than one week to the federal election, I reach out to Preston at his Calgary home for a virtual tete-a-tete on the state of the nation. Sitting up tall with arms crossed, casually dressed in a green and blue plaid shirt, the April sunlight streaming through tall windows behind him, this is not a man beleaguered by his critics.

In early April, Preston unleashed the hounds with an op-ed warning Canadians that the election of another four years of a Liberal government could precipitate a national unity problem in Canada. B.C. Premier David Eby discounts the risk, calling it a “tired trope.” And journalist Andrew Coyne discredits the idea there is a real problem with secession, accusing Preston of threatening Canadians with a rubber knife held to their throats.

But Preston — the man who once told us “the West wants in” — isn’t backing down. If the Liberals are re-elected, he reiterates, the West may be motivated to find a way out of Confederation. What he’s recommending is a legitimate forum for disgruntled westerners to be able to express their anger.

Five years ago, both Preston and I participated on then-premier Jason Kenney’s Fair Deal Panel, touring Alberta, listening to people’s grievances as a way to defuse frustration and identify strategies to strengthen Alberta’s voice in Confederation.

To be clear, Preston’s present concerns about western disgruntlement aren’t confined to Alberta, or even to Alberta and Saskatchewan. “It goes into most of rural Manitoba and all of eastern and interior and northern B.C,” he says, “The only part of B.C. that’s not in sync with this is Vancouver and Victoria.”

In his early 80s, Preston has a legacy to consider. And not just his own. In 1935, his father, Ernest Manning, entered the realm of provincial politics as William Aberhart’s right-hand man, launching the Social Credit party to alleviate the suffering of Albertans during the Great Depression, truly desperate times.

“They didn’t have to convince people that things were bad,” Preston chortles, referring to his father and Aberhart. During the Depression, Alberta’s GDP dropped by 50 per cent, he explains; for reference, during the COVID pandemic, there was an eight per cent GDP contraction.

“Can you imagine a 50 per cent contraction of your economy?” Preston posits (and Saskatchewan was even worse, he notes). “Partly because the only major industry was agriculture and agriculture was hit, not just by financial collapse but by a drought at the same time.

“The only thing you could do was try to give (people) hope,” Preston reflects. “We can get out of this. We can fix it.”

Peddling hope is a tricky thing; something we talked about during our tenure on Alberta’s Fair Deal Panel. Until recently, Carney’s reputation has been staked to faith in humanity’s ability to fight climate change by going green. Now, those carbon tax policies have been set aside and Carney’s costed election platform promises Canadians catastrophe can be averted with public-sector investment to build out Canada at a scale commensurate with that of former U.S. president Joe Biden.

Preston visibly bristles: “The Liberals are deceptive in their use of language,” he asserts. “Carney’s not calling that ‘public spending,’ he’s calling it ‘public investment,’” Preston snickers, saying the Liberal leader is failing to take into account that some day those debts that are accumulated have to be paid, and the only way they can be paid is through increased taxation. “He’s severing the link between spending and deficits and debt by calling it ‘public investment,’” he adds, obviously agitated.

“You mentioned my father,” Preston reflects. One of the last times he went into the cabinet room in Edmonton with his father, Preston recalls, his dad said: “I think we should carve into the ceiling … a question, that is, ‘Is there somebody else out there who could do what we’re talking about in here?’ Not a bad question to ask,” Preston grins.

Preston has had a lifetime to observe politics — from a western Canadian vantage point — and he’s of the view “there is no region in North America that has had more experience with populism … than western Canada.” He no longer views the political spectrum as a left-to-right continuum; for him the axis is vertical, between “bottom-up democratic populists with their wild and woolly side, and parties dominated by aristocratic elites.

“When you carve up the West’s history this way, the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in Saskatchewan) and the Social Credit (in Alberta) are in the same quadrant,” he says. “They were both populist movements — one embraced democratic socialism, the other embraced something else — but what they had in common, and people that knew the politics of both parties at that time said, the people supporting Tommy Douglas (and the CCF) in Saskatchewan were exactly the same guys that were supporting Social Credit in Alberta.”

Noticing how talk of his father’s political era grounds Preston, I dare to probe a question few Canadian politicians risk talking about, at least in public, and that is the connection between populism and faith.

“All of these western populist movements had a spiritual dimension to them,” Preston acknowledges. “Riel might have been crazy at the end, but his rebellion was as much influenced by his Catholic upbringing as it was anything else.” And, he continues, “the movement to create the United Church, which was a bottom-up attempt to integrate things, occurred at exactly the same time as the farmers’ movement. Then in the Depression, you had Tommy Douglas, who was a Baptist minister,” and in Alberta, “Bible Bill” Aberhart.

In the U.S., it’s different — we agree — few would deny the spiritual dimension to Trump’s appeal. Whether or not something similar will happen in Canada, Preston doesn’t know, but he actually hopes it does. Ignoring the spiritual dimension, or putting it in some category where you can’t talk about it in relation to politics, he says, is a mistake.

Preston may be guilty of trying to scare the hell out of Canadians, with his talk of western alienation. But credit where credit is due: He also understands his responsibility, to create space for hope.

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Liberal candidate Nell Thomas' campaign photo, uploaded to her Facebook page.

OTTAWA — Liberal candidate Nell Thomas has apologized for comments she has reportedly made on social media that cast doubt on her views about the elderly population and new mothers.

Thomas, a family physician running for office in the riding of Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes,

posted a video Saturday

in which she said that “negative messages” on social media had been circulating about comments she made in the past that were “taken out of context.”

“However, I recognize that, regardless of context, some of my words may have hurt people and for that I am truly sorry,” she said.

Asked by National Post, Thomas’ team did not immediately clarify which of her comments she was referring to, nor did she or her campaign specify which ones had been taken out of context.

Thomas’ X account has been deleted, meaning the newspaper is unable to independently confirm those tweets.

One screengrab circulating on social media shows Thomas, commenting on the “elderly demographic” on May 11, 2024, reportedly wrote that Canada must “stop keeping ancients alive so long.”

Another screengrab of a post on X, dated April 12, 2023, shows Thomas reportedly criticizing women bearing children.

“Imagine my thoughts when assessing a pregnant patient. I telepathically advise the fetus to sue the owner of the uterus while exiting it to this world. Of necessity, a mother must be a climate change denier,” reads the post.

While Thomas did not specifically reference those posts in her apology video, she insisted that she is a “person of strong morality.”

“I am a physician who cares for patients of all ages across every stage of life including end-of-life journeys. I help people find dignity, relieve suffering, and seeking peace when existence becomes too heavy to bear,” she said.

“I am also a lifelong environmentalist who cares deeply about the future we are leaving for our children. There is nothing more meaningful to me than caring for moms and their babies. I love the life force that drives us to create new generations,” she added.

Thomas was less apologetic when talking about fossil fuel companies, which she blames for the climate crisis and the resulting eco-anxiety that many couples face when thinking of having children.

“If I could, I would take legal action against the oil and gas companies that knew many decades ago, a hundred years ago, the price we would eventually pay for our dependence on fossil fuels,” she said in her video.

“It is devastating that because of their greed, many people feel forced to wrestle with difficult questions about the future, including whether or not to have children, whether to bring children into a world facing such challenges.”

Other surprising posts reportedly written by Thomas include criticizing agriculture as “a thing of the past” and saying eliminating meat from people’s diets will soon be essential for parts of planet Earth to “remain habitable.”

Thomas

told a local newspaper that she is “Green at heart”

and only joined the Liberals recently because she wanted to vote for Mark Carney as leader. She said she has voted for all parties in the past, even incumbent Conservative MP Jamie Schmale.

National Post

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Canada's former Prime Minister Jean Chretien waves as he speaks at a Liberal party event. (Photo by Dave Chan / AFP)

OTTAWA — At age 91, Jean Chrétien is still on the road, campaigning for his party.

The former prime minister says he has travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario to ask voters to re-elect the Liberals for a fourth mandate.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Chrétien was in downtown Ottawa beating the drums for incumbent MP Yasir Naqvi, with dozens of soaked supporters hanging on to every word.

“I will tell you how I became a Liberal,” he started by saying.

As a student, he said he went with his classmates to visit the premier of Quebec at the time, Maurice Duplessis, who attended the same boys’ school as him in Trois-Rivières.

When it was his turn to meet Duplessis, he said the premier shook his hand and asked for his name. He said Duplessis correctly guessed Chrétien was from Shawinigan.

“Your father was Willie Chrétien,” said Duplessis.

“Yes, Mr. Duplessis,” nodded Chrétien.

“Your grandfather was François Chrétien, mayor of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès,” said Duplessis. Chrétien said he acquiesced once more.

“’You’re a

maudit Rouge

. You’re a goddamned Red’, he said,” recounted Chrétien.

“I’m still a Red, I’m still a Liberal, and I’m still winning the election.”

Chrétien, who won three consecutive majority governments between 1993 and 2003, is now confident Liberal Leader Mark Carney will be able to match his past victories.

“Monday is going to be a Liberal sunshine day,” Chrétien told the wet crowd.

He noted that only a few months ago, observers were predicting a crushing defeat for the Liberals. Chrétien joked he was afraid he would have to buy flowers for the occasion.

“Now, I will use the flowers anyway on Monday to celebrate the majority government of the Liberal party,” he said.

Carney has been careful to not use the word “majority,” but his foreign affairs minister

Melanie Joly clearly called for a majority government

during a rally last week in Quebec.

Carney has instead been asking for a “strong” or a “clear” mandate from voters.

Speaking to National Post, Chrétien said he first realized his party could rise back from the ashes during the leadership convention that saw Carney become leader.

“He was the man of the occasion,” he said. “Just the fact that he got 86 per cent of the vote was an indication that people who had the right to vote realized that he was their person.”

Chrétien was a guest speaker at the convention and was already noticing that Canadians were becoming more united in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats.

On Saturday, Chrétien said that sentiment persisted during his travels out east.

“I’m very happy with the mood that I’ve discovered,” he said. “We have never been so united. We should say thank you to Mr. Trump.”

Like he did during the leadership convention, Chrétien joked that he wanted to propose Trump for the Order of Canada for the services rendered to the country.

“But I was told that I would fail,” he said. “We don’t give the Order of Canada to someone who has a criminal record.”

Chrétien had kind words for Carney, whom he described as the epitome of the Canadian dream.

In his speech, he described him as the son of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories — “a lot deeper than Shawinigan” — who went on to serve as governor of two central banks.

“Imagine, the Brits came to take a Canadian from Fort Smith to become the governor of the bank,” he said.

“And suddenly, he is available to us.”

After the speech, Chrétien complimented Carney on his campaign to reporters.

“He’s done well for somebody who is in politics for the first time. He did very well, he kept his calm, he did not make mistakes — or very small mistakes,” he said.

“You guys, you are just looking for that at times, but it is your job like I do my job.”

Carney notably apologized to candidate and gun-control activist Nathalie Provost for mispronouncing her last name and for naming the wrong university where she was shot.

And this week, Carney admitted that

Trump talked about the 51st state during their call last month

, despite saying publicly that the president had “respected Canada’s sovereignty.”

Chrétien was asked if Justin Trudeau made the right choice by announcing he would be stepping down as leader.

“It was the right decision for him to make, and it turned out to be very good,” he said.

“It was change that was very timely.”

After campaigning for the Liberals in four different provinces, Chrétien said he is ready to relax a bit. But he promised Naqvi he would be back in future elections should he need him.

“I will come back to support you when I will be 100.”

National Post

calevesque@postmedia.com

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The $34-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project started carrying crude oil from Alberta to the B.C. coast on May 1, 2024.

Two of Canada’s most prominent business and former political leaders are urging the next government to make national unity a top priority.

Former New Brunswick premier and ambassador to the U.S. Frank McKenna championed the nation-building Energy East pipeline. Gary Mar, formerly Alberta’s intergovernmental relations minister and representative in Washington, now president of the Canada West Foundation.

Both joined columnist Tasha Kheiriddin on Thursday for a live discussion about national unity and the federal election.

McKenna suggested to National Post that Mark Carney, if elected, should spend a lot of time out west to heal the wounds of division.

Western political representation

Looking at the source of Western Canada’s discontent, Mar pointed to the region’s association with the economic power linked to natural resource development.

However, McKenna pointed to a long history of high-level representation from Alberta in particular: “Alberta has enjoyed a lot of respect at the national level,” he said.

Still, McKenna firmly acknowledged that sensitivity to western concerns continue: “I hope and pray that when (the election) is all over that the pain points, the points of stress will be worked out. That we will have national leaders, the premiers included, that will work on assuaging some of these issues.”

Power focused in central Canada

Mar noted a shift in national politics has given rise to the present sense of western alienation. Past prime ministers, such as Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien and Stephen Harper “had national visions” leading to “legitimacy as a national government, because you represented the whole country,” he said. This resulted in inevitable, but acceptable compromises.

Today, he said leadership is more equivalent to “followership,” and “vote maximization for the sake of power” — pushing politics to where the majority sits — in central Canada.

Potential unifying role of pipelines

Looking to cross-country energy pipelines as a source of wealth, McKenna expressed dismay that a national understanding of their importance has yet to be reached.

“In the last 10 years, we have lost $60-80 billion dollars in Canadian wealth to the United States of America because we have not been able to get the appropriate economic rents for our resource. Any Canadian, properly instructed, would say that’s not acceptable.”

The reason Canadians feel Donald Trump has a grip around our collective throat, says McKenna, is because of a trade discrepancy with the U.S., which derives from the natural resources we send south, even though Americans exploit them and “turn (them) into other jobs.”

The lesson, he said, is to maintain a close relationship with the U.S., while cementing relationships around the world that will enable Canada to maximize the benefits of our resources.

McKenna believes pipelines have the possibility to unify Canadians the way railway and highway systems have done previously. “All have been tough to do and taken a lot of political capital,” he said, before pointing to several oil and liquified natural gas projects, including a potential LNG project in Quebec touted by Liberal cabinet minister Melanie Joly during a recent speech in Montreal, as potential unifiers.

The kind of energy corridor that has been promoted by both the Liberals and Conservatives, and was approved by the premiers in a meeting before the election was called “would truly be nation-building,” McKenna said.

A vision broader than climate targets

Both Mar and McKenna agreed that environmental concerns are valid, but they also advocated a broader vision than simply aiming to meet climate accord targets.

Quebec has the ability to be more environmentally sensitive with its emphasis on hydropower and Alberta more carbon-focused due to oil, said McKenna, but he would like to see a prime minister who can say “we can be both.”

Alberta, he noted “has more scientists working on clean technology than anywhere else in the world.” The Trump crisis has given Canada an “opportunity to do things we could never have done under ordinary circumstances.”

Turning back to western alienation and national support for western fossil fuels, McKenna felt assured that Pierre Poilievre is ready to move forward given his vocal track record.

Meanwhile, he pointed out that Carney was chairman of Brookfield Properties (a major player in the pipeline industry), as McKenna is now. He quoted Carney: “Pipelines going through the United States and Ontario are a national security issue for us” and building them requires one approach, not the federal and provincial governments working separately.

“If he is the prime minister after the election, I would like him to spend a lot of time in the west and listen to people because the concerns genuine, and I think they are in the national interest.”

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