Mark Carney speaks to overflow crowd at Richmond, B.C. rally
Crowds show up to hear Carney speak about the measures he's taken since becoming Liberal leader — and issue some now familiar hockey analogies
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Heidi Gabruch didn’t seem too fazed Monday night as she stood at the back of a long line of people hoping to attend Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s rally in a Richmond hotel ballroom.
“If I get in, that’s great, I get to see Mark Carney,” said Gabruch, who drove in from North Delta. “If it fills up and they run out of room, that’s actually good news: People want to hear what Mark Carney has to say.”
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Mark Carney speaks to overflow crowd at Richmond, B.C. rally Back to video
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When Carney appeared, the room erupted in cheers and chants of his name.
“Who’s ready to stand up for Canada with me to help the Liberal party win the most consequential of elections?” Carney said, to a roar of those in attendance.
Before speaking in Richmond, Carney had pledged to conserve nature and biodiversity, including at least 10 new national parks and marine conservation areas, and 15 new urban parks.
On Tuesday, he announced a housing plan “using Canadian solutions, such as softwood lumber and mass timber, to build a stronger Canada.”
But for many in the crowd at the Richmond rally, the main issue was which party leader is the best choice to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump.
“My biggest concern is keeping the Conservatives at bay and Poilievre out of the position” of prime minister, said Anne Midzain, a lifelong federal NDP’ voter until she placed a strategic vote for the Liberals in the Fraser Valley when Justin Trudeau took over Liberal leadership in 2015.
She’s voted Liberal federally since then.
“I came to see what I’d feel when I heard Carney’s words in person, and what I heard was a sense of trust and calm,” Midzain said. “The depth of the man, he’s not always given as much credit as I believe he’s due in terms of his depth and integrity. I just wanted to feel it and I felt it tonight, I was really happy.”
The lineup to get into Carney’s rally stretched hundreds of metres, snaking its way around the huge parking lot outside a Richmond hotel near the airport.
It wasn’t on the scale of a rally held at the same time by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in Nisku, an industrial-park hamlet outside Edmonton, that attracted an estimated 15,000. About 1,200 people packed into the Richmond ballroom and another 300 into an adjacent overflow room.
“I’m here to see the man,” said Dave Sotvedt as he waited far back in line to see Carney. “I didn’t know much about Mark Carney other than he was the bank governor for two G7 countries.”
He said he doesn’t trust Pierre Poilievre.
“And (Justin) Trudeau clearly had to go. I like Carney’s passion, intelligence, humility and humour.”
Several in attendance also used the word “existential” to describe this election.
While Canadians don’t directly vote for the prime minister, party leaders’ personalities are often part of voters’ deliberations when deciding for whom to cast their ballot.
This time around, voters seem to be weighing the integrity, mettle and character of the Liberal and Conservative leaders extra specially, said Stewart Prest, a professor of political science at UBC.
“Personality matters, there’s that sense of a leader whose temperament you’re comfortable with, and I think that matters in this particular election,” Prest said.
“Everything is getting forced through a single lens: How would this leader measure up against the threat posed by Donald Trump, tariffs, and American talk of annexation?
“To effectively defend the country, that seems like that’s what a majority of the country is clearly looking for.”
The focus on that particular issue tends to drown out some of the other things we would normally be talking about in an election, Prest said.
When voters do think about other issues, they’re more likely to be critical of the Liberals, he added.
“I think it is fascinating to see how we are focused on this, this defining issue, this kind of existential question, given that it does speak to the independence of the country, the sovereignty of the country as a whole.
“That’s not to say other issues have disappeared, or that they don’t matter, but it seems like the volume has just been turned down on those considerations.”
Both Richmond federal ridings were held by Liberals, and poll aggregating site 338Canada projects Liberal Wilson Miao is likely to retain his seat in Richmond Centre-Marpole, with Richmond East-Steveston leaning toward retaining Parm Bains.
Political scientists think Monday’s choice of rally venue was more to do with convenience than in shoring up votes in Richmond’s two ridings.
“My bet is that proximity to the airport is the critical thing,” said Richard Johnston, professor emeritus of political science at UBC whose expertise is Canadian elections.
“I expect (Carney) will be back, and with a longer time frame.”
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