WEDNESDAY RECAP: Poilievre gets rockstar treatment during packed rally in Brampton
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Follow the Toronto Sun’s live coverage of Canada’s 45th general election and tariff-related news, with contributions from Brian Lilley, Bryan Passifiume, Lorrie Goldstein and columnists Joe Warmington and Warren Kinsella, as well as contributions from the Sun’s editors and reporters covering the election ahead of the April 28 vote. Plus, you can find all of our election coverage here.
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WEDNESDAY RECAP: Poilievre gets rockstar treatment during packed rally in Brampton Back to video
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TORY LEADER’S RALLY FELT LIKE COMING-OUT PARTY FOR NEXT PM
It just doesn’t look like an election campaign that is trailing in the opinion polls — which the election industry is continually pushing.
If you were driving by Brampton’s Embassy Grand Convention Centre Wednesday night, it might have looked like a rock concert was going on.
There was nowhere to park and the crowds piling in were excited. It got louder after the thousands who jammed in started changing “bring it home, bring it home,” and continued with a rockstar-like reception at the end of the rally.
And by the time Pierre Poilievre took the stage after being introduced by his wife Anaida, it didn’t feel like a regular campaign stop, but more like people coming out to see Canada’s next prime minister.
POILIEVRE CAMPAIGN BUS ARRIVES IN BRAMPTON
Pierre Poilievre has arrived in Brampton for a rally, where our Joe Warmington will be on the scene.
You can follow the updates here.
ALBERTA RIGHT TO BE SKEPTICAL OF CARNEY’S ENERGY PLAN
Liberal Leader Mark Carney has a clear and appealing plan for Alberta’s oil and gas industry, the Calgary Herald’s Don Braid writes.
The vision he laid out Wednesday in Calgary could win him votes here, and everywhere in Canada. But, with good reason, many Albertans will ask — does he mean it?
Even if he does, can he get it past the Liberal caucus and cabinet that revelled in treating the Alberta industry like anthrax?
We’ll find out soon enough if the Liberals win. Premier Danielle Smith won’t buy his line, that’s for sure.
CARNEY PRAISES TRUMP’S ABOUT-FACE ON TARIFFS
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the United States’ decision to call a timeout on reciprocal tariffs is a “welcome reprieve” for Canada and the rest of the world.
The Liberal leader made the comments Wednesday evening after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs levied against a host of nations despite keeping a baseline 10% tariff in place.
There was, however, no change to the tariffs placed on Canada, which includes vehicles not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement as well as steel and aluminum imports.
Carney said the tariff turmoil signals a need for Canada to diversify its trading relationships, but also that he and Trump agreed the next prime minister “will commence negotiations (with Trump) on a new economic and security relationship immediately following the federal election.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who along with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has yet to comment on social media about the tariff pause, has responded to the tariffs with a plan to renegotiate the trade deal with the U.S. as quickly as possible, cut income and capital gains taxes and provide cash to businesses to keep workers employed during rocky economic times.
More on how the tariff pause affects Canada here.
CARNEY FALSELY CLAIMS CANADA HAS ARMS EMBARGO WITH ISRAEL
“I didn’t hear.”
That was Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s response Wednesday while walking back comments he made during a Tuesday evening rally where he falsely claimed Canada has an arms embargo with Israel, purportedly declaring Israel’s defence against Palestinian terrorism as “genocide.”
The controversy began with a heckler during Carney’s rally Tuesday in Calgary, who shouted that a “genocide” was happening in Palestine.
“Thank you, Diana,” Carney said to what sounded like a male heckler.
“I’m aware, it’s why we have an arms embargo.”
OUR EDITORIAL: CARNEY REVEALS HIS SNOBBY SIDE
Every day, in small ways and large, Liberal Leader Mark Carney betrays his contempt for those who don’t share his political views, our editorial department writes.
Recently, he took it upon himself to sneer at two premiers.
At a rally in Vancouver last weekend, Carney mocked Alberta’s Danielle Smith and Doug Ford from Ontario.
It was a smug sideswipe of two Conservative premiers who have worked tirelessly over the last few months to minimize the tariffs. You may not like their politics, but you can’t argue that they have been fighting for Canada. Ford, particularly, has demonstrated he’ll work across political lines to build consensus to save this country’s vital industries.
GOLDSTEIN: CARBON TAX PLAN MODERN DAY SNAKE OIL
Get ready for buyer’s remorse on carbon taxes if Mark Carney and the Liberals win the April 28 election.
The reason is the uncritical media reporting of Carney’s so-called plan to kill the consumer carbon tax and replace it with a better system.
What he’s actually doing is a classic “bait and switch” manoeuvre — promising Canadians a less costly, more efficient carbon tax regime during the election, the unspoken part being that he will replace it with a more costly, less transparent system after April 28.
It’s similar to what the Justin Trudeau Liberals did during the 2019 election, saying before the vote that they would freeze their carbon tax, which started at $20 per tonne of industrial greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, then reached $50 per tonne in 2020.
LILLEY: CARNEY LESS THAN CLEAR ON PERSONAL TAXES
It’s a simple question: Where does Mark Carney pay his personal income taxes? He’s a man with three passports, business interests in the United States, offshore accounts in Bermuda, so asking where he files taxes is a valid question that should come with a simple answer.
Despite repeated attempts to get a clear answer from Carney’s campaign, there is little clarity on where the man who claims to be “all in for Canada” pays his personal income tax.
This week, both the Conservatives and the NDP rightly accused Carney of being a tax dodger based on his actions while working for Brookfield Asset Management.
We’ve all heard the stories now about how Carney backed the move to shift Brookfield’s head office from Toronto to New York City. While they said it was about getting better access to stock market listings, it also has tax implications for the company that will see them pay less tax in Canada and more in the U.S.
Read Lilley’s full column here.
TORIES RACKING UP UNION ENDORSEMENTS
Fourteen Canadian labour unions and organizations — including several police associations — have either endorsed or given their approval of the Poilievre Conservatives.
Among the latest came from Local 67 of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA), whose business manager during a Conservative rally in Hamilton late last month blamed the Liberals for Canada’s affordability and housing crisis.
“As union members, we care for those around us, and those who came before us,” said UA Local 67’s Nathan Bergstrand, a union who endorsed Democratic party candidate Kamala Harris in last year’s U.S. presidential election.
“We don’t need handouts — we need work, safe streets, a strong dollar, affordable homes and the freedom to responsibly own and use our legal firearms.”
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TURN CANADA INTO ‘ENERGY SUPERPOWER’: CARNEY
Liberal Leader Mark Carney promised a robust approach to disrupt Canada’s energy reliance on the U.S. and turn the country into a “leading energy superpower.”
The approach comes with three objectives: energy security, trade diversification and long-term competitiveness, the leader explained during a media briefing Wednesday morning in Calgary.
“As a nation, we’ve played it too safe by relying on the United States,” Carney said. “It’s time to realize our full potential.”
The remarks come in the midst of trade tensions with the U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on all new global tariffs, except for those on China, but Canada continues to reel from previous tariffs placed on aluminum, steel and the auto industry.
SINGH PROMISES FULL PHARMACARE COVERAGE
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced Wednesday his promise to deliver full public pharmacare within four years.
And he will begin the program with essential medicines first.
“It’s simple,” Singh said in a statement. “If your doctor gives you a prescription, you should be able to get it — full stop. That’s what real universal health care means — and that’s what New Democrats are fighting for.”
Those essential medicines would include about 100 of the most prescribed medications covering about half of all prescriptions in Canada.
The party said Singh’s vision for full medication coverage is under threat from politicians in Canada and pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has called the country’s lower drug prices “unfair.”
“Universal health care is something Canadians built together,” said Singh. “But it’s not complete until it includes the medication people need. This is our chance to finish the job — and protect what makes us proud to be Canadian.”
— Spiro Papuckoski
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LEDREW: CARNEY A MORE UNLIKEABLE VERSION OF TRUDEAU?
Are the Justin Trudeau enablers trying to pull another fast one on Canadians?
If you don’t know the answer to that question already, then read on.
Gerald Butts and Kate Telford have been the close advisers to Justin since they stopped advising former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty over 10 years ago (perhaps that experience with wasting taxpayers’ cash on useless energy projects helped whet their appetite to stop oil).
And as a result of that close association, Canadians have had to endure crippling taxes, making life unaffordable for many, in order to fulfill Justin’s dogma of weaning Canada off clean natural resources.
Read LeDrew’s full column here.
BARRETT WANTS CARNEY TO ‘COME CLEAN’
Ontario Conservative candidate Michael Barrett is calling for an investigation after Liberal Leader Mark Carney made a costly promise about heat pumps Tuesday on the campaign trail.
Barrett, who is running for re-election in Leeds-Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes, shared a letter he sent to the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying on social media Wednesday, alleging “serious” conflicts of interest, after Carney announced a promise to spend $1 billion on heat pumps.
Barrett alleged such an expenditure would benefit companies in the heat pump business, including Brookfield Infrastructure, which is the “flagship listed infrastructure company of Brookfield Asset Management.”
Carney was the chairman at Brookfield Asset Management before winning the Liberal leadership race last month. He has declined to answer whether he still possesses any financial interest in Brookfield and has repeatedly stated that he moved his assets into a “blind trust.”
Carney has maintained he followed all the rules governing politicians’ finances.
However, Barret claimed “it is conceivable that Mr. Carney might well benefit financially from the Liberals’ announced $1 billion heat pump program.”
Barrett wants Carney to “come clean” about any assets he still has so Canadians can “render judgment” on the Liberal leader’s potential conflicts of interest before voting on April 28.
— Spiro Papuckoski
TORIES PROMISE ‘BIGGEST CRIME CRACKDOWN’ IN HISTORY
Three strikes, and you’re out.
Adding another plank to his party’s tough-on-crime platform, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre unveiled a new “three strikes and you’re out” policy during a Wednesday morning campaign stop in Sault Ste. Marie.
“This is not happening only in our big cities, but in smaller cities like the Soo,” Poilievre said.
“Calls to police are up 7.8% since 2020, and residents have woken up to stories about multiple shootings in a single weekend, or news that police had raided an apartment finding drugs, fentanyl and other drugs,” he added.
BELL: CARNEY AIMS AT WINNING CALGARY SEATS — REALLY
They are nothing if not enthusiastic.
They line up at Calgary’s Red and White Club at McMahon Stadium to hoot and holler and whoop it up for Liberal Leader Mark Carney, the party’s new messiah.
Some give the press suggestions on what picture to paint of this rally in a city that has not been kind to the federal Liberals and where many Calgary ridings are routinely won in landslides.
NEPEAN CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE SAYS ELECTION SIGNS MISSING
The Conservative Party candidate for Nepean who is facing Liberal Leader Mark Carney at the ballot box says hundreds of her election signs have gone missing.
Barbara Bal also alleged the wooden stakes from her blue election signs were found on Carney’s red signs.
“No matter how many times they take my signs down, my hardworking team will always put them back up,” Bal wrote Tuesday night on social media site X. “This is the reality of a Conservative woman working hard for her community.”
Bal, who has served as a reserve member of the Royal Canadian Artillery for a decade and as a police officer for more than 25 years, said her campaign has already received multiple statements and video footage of these incidents.
Read more about this story here.
GUNTER: LIBS COULD NEVER DELIVER ON POLICIES STOLEN FROM CONSERVATIVES
Mark Carney is stealing Conservative campaign promises, which isn’t by itself a bad thing because theirs are better than his, writes columnist Lorne Gunter.
Gunter says promises such as lower taxes, less government and affordable housing are commendable. However, for every Conservative pledge that Carney plagiarizes, he adds a Liberal caveat that makes it unlikely a re-elected Liberal government will implement any of the good ideas he has copied off Pierre Poilievre’s campaign papers.
CARNEY TREADS FINE LINE ON CLIMATE
In his first speech after becoming prime minister last month, Mark Carney claimed he will make Canada a “superpower” in conventional and clean energy.
The conventional he mentions can be seen by some as a matter of course in a country where the energy sector is still dominated by oil and gas. This also shows the fine line that Carney needs to tread while going up against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre during the federal election while also fighting the trade war prompted by U.S. Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
NDP CALLS FOR BAN ON HOME PURCHASES BY FOREIGN BUYERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called for Canada’s temporary ban on foreign homebuyers to become permanent while campaigning in Vancouver on Tuesday.
“Homes should be for people to live in — not for investors to flip,” Singh said. “With Trump’s tariffs driving up costs, they see another chance to squeeze people. We won’t let them use a crisis to take over our housing system — again.”
A permanent foreign buyers ban would close existing loopholes, barring purchases by numbered companies or corporate proxies, Singh said, but would not apply to recreational properties like cottages or cabins.
An NDP candidate in Montreal feels the ban may help with the city’s housing crisis.
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WHERE THE FEDERAL PARTY LEADERS WILL BE TODAY
Two federal party leaders will take their campaigns to Saskatchewan today as the election race nears the halfway mark.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is slated to make an announcement and speak at the First Nations Summit in Vancouver, B.C., before making his way to Saskatoon, Sask., for a campaign event.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney is expected to make an announcement and meet with supporters and volunteers in Calgary, Alta., before heading to Saskatoon, where he will deliver remarks.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is set to hold a press conference in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., today as well as a rally in Brampton, Ont.
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