Mark Carney says Liberal campaign staff who planted phoney buttons have been reassigned

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OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Mark Carney said Monday it was “unacceptable” for his party’s campaign staffers to plant fake buttons at a conservative conference in Ottawa last week — a move the Conservatives say imitated American-style political tactics.

As first reported by CBC News over the weekend, Liberal war room staffers told a reporter they planted the buttons at the Canada Strong and Free conference last week.

Some of the buttons sported the slogan “Stop the Steal” — a reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss and subsequent protests to overturn it — while others showed the crossed-out name of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s campaign manager Jenni Byrne, with the name of Kory Teneycke placed under it.

Teneycke, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s campaign manager, has been a vocal critic of Byrne’s handling of Poilievre’s campaign.

When asked during a press conference in Dorval, Que. whether the staffers’ actions undermined trust in the Liberal party, Carney called the incident “totally unacceptable,” said he’d been unaware of it and offered an “unreserved” apology.

He said the people responsible have been “reassigned within the campaign” from opposition research to another area he did not disclose.

Carney’s campaign has largely focused on Trump’s threats to Canada and on painting Poilievre as less equipped to deal with the president.

In a statement, Conservative party spokesperson Simon Jefferies said the Liberal party has “been caught red-handed importing American-style politics into Canada.”

“The Carney Liberals are even willing to stoke election denial and jeopardize national unity in order to distract from the misery of the last decade of Liberal government,” his statement says.

“Of course Mark Carney won’t fire those responsible. From the top down, Carney’s entire campaign has been based on pushing those very same divisive attacks on their fellow Canadians.”

As the campaign enters its fourth week, parties are trying to make their final pitches to voters.

Both the Liberals and Conservatives had to drop a handful of candidates over the first few weeks of the campaign, while the NDP’s campaign has been largely free of candidate controversies.

The campaign team for Conservative candidate Greg Kung, who is running in the Ottawa-area riding of Kanata, recently delivered flyers to households with a printed sticky note covering Poilievre’s face.

“Let’s chat about the change our community needs!” the flyer says.

Kung’s campaign told The Canadian Press the placement of the sticky note was “not intentional” and they “are meant to go anywhere.”

In an email about the note’s placement, Jefferies said, “It’s a post-it note. I wouldn’t read anything into it.”

Other candidates have reported their signs have been tampered with. Nepean Conservative candidate Barbara Bal said in an online post that a police report “has been filed” about the theft and vandalism of some of her election signs.

In a video posted to social media last week, Bal claimed Liberals are removing her signs and placing their own on her wooden stakes.

“It is a deliberate attempt to silence a voice and disrupt the democratic process,” Bal said. “This is unacceptable and unethical. Nepean deserves better.”

This report by Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press, was first published April 14, 2025