Carney kicks off campaign on East Coast with a rallying cry against Trump

From candidate to Liberal leader and then prime minister in the span of just a few short weeks, Mark Carney is a candidate once more.

The Liberal leader launched his first election campaign Sunday with an immediate promise to cut taxes for the middle class and a call for Canadians to unite to keep the country strong against the economic threats posed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Just nine days after he was sworn in as prime minister and two weeks after he secured a landslide victory in the Liberal leadership contest, Carney visited Gov. Gen. Mary Simon at Rideau Hall where he asked her to dissolve Parliament and call an election for April 28.

Carney said he needs a strong, “positive mandate” from Canadians to lead the country successfully through the battle against Trump’s trade war and threats of annexation.

“I’m asking for your vote so we can be Canada strong,” he said.

He added that Canada is over the shock of the “betrayal” by Trump, and now it’s time to act.

“President Trump claims that Canada isn’t a real country,” Carney said in the crisp cold air outside of Rideau Hall. “He wants to break us so America can own us. We will not let that happen.”

Just a few hours later, he had jetted off to a rally in St. John’s, N.L., where he was greeted by a boisterous crowd and a supporter waving a Canadian flag attached to a hockey stick.

Carney repeated his points on Trump from earlier in the day as he delivered his first speech of the campaign -- winning boos when he said Trump doesn’t believe Canada is a real country and cheers when he praised former premier Joey Smallwood.

“We are over the shock of that betrayal -- and it is a betrayal -- but we should never forget the lessons,” he said of Trump’s tariffs and musings about annexing Canada.

Flanked by several Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal candidates, including Joanne Thompson -- who said she hopes Carney wins a majority mandate -- Carney said he senses a strong desire for change among the public.

“Not just any type of change. They want positive change -- new positive leadership,” he said, seeking to strike a contrast in tone against his main opponent Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has railed against the Liberal government’s policies and said they left Canada broken.

Carney began the race in Ottawa by outlining his first promise: cutting the marginal tax rate for the lowest bracket by one percentage point. He said that would benefit a dual income family by up to $825 a year.

He also pointed to a series of promises made Friday at the conclusion of a meeting with the country’s premiers, where he said a Liberal government would move swiftly to build new domestic trade routes for energy and critical minerals, and add new supports for farmers and businesses affected by the trade war.

The Liberals come into this election in a dramatically stronger position than they were in when Carney launched his leadership bid in mid-January. At that time, most pollsters were predicting a massive Conservative majority government.

But Canadians have been flocking back to the Liberals, and most polls now have them tied with or even leading the Conservatives, putting a new spring back into the step of the party’s candidates, volunteers and staff.

Carney is, however, facing questions about his decision to run in the Ottawa riding of Nepean, which became vacant only after the Liberal party ousted MP Chandra Arya as its candidate last week.

The party has not clearly laid out exactly what Arya did that has prevented him from being a candidate.

Carney said it was a decision that was up to the green-light committee that screens candidates.

The Liberal party had also barred Arya from running for the party leadership, citing various rules violations. but never revealed details of what had happened that demanded his ouster.

Carney said he has been a “resident in the Ottawa area for almost 20 years,” with the exception of when he lived overseas in London, U.K. He added that he knows Nepean well.

Parliament had been scheduled to return on Monday. Had Carney held out any longer before making the election call, his governing party would have faced the threat of being voted down in just a matter of days by the opposition parties.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2025.