WEDNESDAY RECAP: Trump reinserts himself into campaign with quip about Canadian sovereignty
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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.
LONGEST BALLOT CANDIDATES EXERCISING ‘DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS’
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Michael Bednarski is not sure he has ever been to Carleton nor does he have immediate plans to visit even though his name is on the ballot there, the Ottawa Citizen reports.
The Toronto-based substitute teacher is one of 91 candidates on the ballot in Carleton in the federal election. He is part of the Longest Ballot protest that is targeting the Ottawa riding held by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for more than two decades.
Eighty-five of the 91 people listed as candidates in the large riding that stretches from Arnprior to Cumberland are part of a protest that aims to make a point about electoral reform by flooding the ballot.
Because of the sheer size of the ballot — almost a metre long — and the volume of names, Elections Canada has said it may take extraordinary steps to ensure the vote count is not delayed too long in what will be one of the most closely watched ridings in the country on election night.
CANADA WOULD ‘CEASE TO EXIST’ WITHOUT U.S., TRUMP SAYS … AGAIN
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Canada would “cease to exist” if it weren’t for the United States — comments that came just days before Canadians are set to vote in an election dominated by Trump’s comments on the country’s economy and sovereignty, The Associated Press reports.
Trump re-inserted himself into Canada’s election during a signing ceremony inside the Oval Office. saying Canada “would cease to exist as a country” without the U.S. buying goods from Canada.
“I have to be honest, as a state, it works great,” said Trump, who previously threatened to make the country the 51st state through economic coercion.
Trump reiterated his claim that the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada — including autos and oil.
OUR EDITORIAL: THE MAN BEHIND THE HOCKEY MASK
The way in which Liberal leader Mark Carney has positioned himself as the only person capable of managing this country through perilous times is astonishing, our editorial department writes.
In the U.K., where he served as governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, some observers have been highly critical of his time there and are shocked that Canada is poised to make him prime minister. In addition to his lacklustre performance, critics say he was bad-tempered and thin-skinned.
Financial columnist Matthew Lynn, writing in London’s Daily Telegraph, said Carney was good at negotiating “trophy jobs” and fabulous salaries (at the BofE, he was paid 600,000 pounds a year or about $1.1 million).
Carney was at best an indifferent governor and at worst a “disappointing failure,” said Lynn.
TIME TO PULL PLUG ON CORPORATE WELFARE?
General Motors recently announced the temporary closure of its electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Ontario, laying off 500 people because its new EV isn’t selling, Tegan Hill and Jake Fuss write.
The plant will shut down for six months despite hundreds of millions in government subsides financed by taxpayers. This is just one more example of corporate welfare — when governments subsidize favoured industries and companies — and it’s time for the provinces and the next federal government to eliminate it.
Between the federal government and Ontario government, GM received about $500 million to help fund its EV transition. But this is just one example of corporate welfare in the auto sector. Stellantis and Volkswagen will receive about $28 billion in government subsidies while Honda is promised $5 billion.
TORIES CONSISTANT IN THEIR SUPPORT OF JEWISH CANADIANS
In a neighbourhood where many Jewish Canadians live, Lorrie Goldstein writes, there is still a Toronto Police mobile field command unit operating in the parking lot of a prominent Jewish day school, set up in the wake of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
It’s a daily reminder — and Thursday is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day — that things will never be the same for Canada’s Jewish community, with Statistics Canada reporting that while Jews make up 1% of the Canadian population, 70% of all religiously motivated hate crimes today are aimed at Jews.
Toronto Police last year reported a 69% increase in hate crimes against Jews – far higher than for any other group.
In the 18 months since Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitism has become so normalized in Canada in the worst outbreak of it since the 1930s that it’s no longer considered big news.
LILLEY: FOR CARNEY, HEALTH CARE IS BIG AND PROFITABLE
Mark Carney told a crowd in Charlottetown, P.E.I. the other day that health care is big business in the United States. He should have said health care is big business for him given how deeply invested Carney is in private health care through his holdings and options in Brookfield Asset Management.
Like most Liberals, Carney wants to portray himself as a champion of Canada’s public health system, but like so many champions, he’s also a hypocrite.
“In the U.S., health care is a big business, in Canada it is a right. It is right that my government will fight for and invest in it,” Carney said.
Investing in health care is something that Carney is very familiar with, just not in the way he was describing in Charlottetown. During his time at Brookfield, Carney oversaw a company that owns private hospitals, a health insurance and pharmaceutical benefits company, a collection of fat-loss clinics, an orthopedic care firm and a chain of pharmacies.
Read Lilley’s column here.
GUNTER: CARNEY AN EXTENSION OF TRUDEAU-ERA POLICIES
The problem with the Conservative campaign in this election has been its lack of identity. It’s been all over the place all at once.
It gets started constructing a theme — like the Liberals don’t deserve a fourth term. Then it gets distracted by what it perceives as the need to show spending cuts. Or tax cuts. Or new spending to counter the Liberals’ charge that the Conservatives will hurt working people with mean-spirited cuts to services.
The other problem for the Conservatives is that the focus of the Liberal campaign is all too clear — it’s to put lipstick on Trudeau’s economic, environmental, debt, crime and tax pigs and parade them through the town square as if they were some new creatures.
This extension of Trudeau-era policies is being given a free ride by most commentators and the bulk of voters in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
Read Gunter’s column here.
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MOE ENDORSES POILIEVRE AHEAD OF CAMPAIGN STOP
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is set to make his first stop in Saskatchewan on the heels of an endorsement from Premier Scott Moe.
That endorsement came Wednesday, just a few days before the April 28 federal election. Poilievre is scheduled to be in Saskatoon on Thursday for a rally and then a news conference on Friday before leaving in the afternoon.
Speaking in a video filmed in his hometown of Shellbrook, Sask., Moe said Ottawa has felt “a million miles away. That’s because we’ve had a federal government that has turned its back on this part of the country.”
The premier said the Liberal Party government has made it harder for the province to extract and sell resources, focusing on, but not explicitly stating, which policy planks swayed him to vote for his riding’s Conservative candidate.
Read the story here.
SINGH TARGETS LIBERALS IN SECOND EDMONTON STOP
Less than a week from the federal election, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was in Edmonton calling out not the Conservatives but the Liberals.
In a province long associated with Tory blue, Singh dismissed the Conservative campaign as being yesterday’s news. He said local voters could play their part in helping the NDP stop Mark Carney and the Liberals from securing a majority government.
“In this election, you’ve got an important question,” said Singh, addressing the media in front of the Annamoe Mansion near the corner of 100 Avenue and 119 Street.
“People have rejected Pierre Poilievre, and I think it’s pretty clear he’s not going to win this election. But, do you want Mark Carney to have all the power? What do you think is going to happen if Mark Carney has all the power?”
Read the story here.
POILIEVRE DEFENDS ECONOMIC GROWTH PROJECTIONS
Growing the economy is key to staving off a trade-fuelled recession, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party says.
Reacting during a Wednesday press conference in Hamilton to questions about the Tory platform not taking into account a potential recession, Pierre Poilievre said the fact that Canada’s economy hasn’t seen any recent growth suggests a recession has already arrived — and he blamed both Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney for the problem.
“They are the reckless ones, and now what is ultimately the most reckless of all is that in a period of uncertainty. Mark Carney says he wants to keep all of the spending that Justin Trudeau planned, and then stack $130 billion of more spending on top of that, for a total of a quarter of a trillion dollars of extra inflationary debt that will drive up the cost of food and fuel,” Poilievre said, questioning the reporter on why he’s being criticized for campaigning on economic growth.
Read the story here.
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FUTURE LIBERAL BAN ON GAS, DIESEL VEHICLES OPPOSED
Despite the Liberals going all-in on a government-mandated internal combustion engine ban, recent polling shows Canadians are not on board.
In a Leger poll commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, 54% say they’re against the planned national ban on the sale of new gas and diesel vehicles by 2035.
Thirty-six per cent say they’re in favour, while 10% said they didn’t know.
“This ban means taxpayers will foot the bill for charging stations, grid upgrades and massive subsidies,” said Carson Binda, the federation’s B.C. director.
Read the story here.
HUNTER: LIBERALS HAMMERED ON MURDER AND MAYHEM
A young woman was murdered just 17 minutes from where Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre lambasted the Liberals’ sad record on crime.
A stray bullet killed 21-year-old international student Harsimrat Randhawa on April 17. The innocent bystander was waiting for the bus.
Arch-criminals in two stolen cars were settling scores.
Randhawa sadly paid the bill.
On Wednesday, Poilievre took the Liberals to task for soft-on-crime policies that have made the country a more dangerous place.
Read Hunter’s column here.
BREWERY DISTANCES ITSELF FROM VIRAL ‘BRANTFORD BOOMER’
A craft brewery in St. Thomas, Ont., is distancing itself from a former executive after a photo of him making an obscene gesture outside a Liberal rally in Brantford went viral on social media.
Matt Janes, who is a volunteer for David Goodwin, a Liberal candidate in Elgin-St. Thomas-London South, was photographed as he held up both middle fingers in front of his smiling face.
The photo was taken while hundreds of Liberal supporters attending a rally for Liberal Leader Mark Carney at the Sassy Britches Brewing Co. in Brantford on April 19 waited in line. A group of protesters, some with F*** Carney flags, were heckling them.
The photo was posted on X and has since become an internet meme, with some users saying the “Brantford Boomer” reflects the party’s perceived indifference to younger Canadians facing high housing costs.
Read the story here.
KINSELLA: FALL OF CONSERVATIVE PARTY?
What if the Conservatives lose?
Every poll, just about, now suggests they will. The seat projections are worse. Even the polls that describe a very tight race — like Mainstreet — project a Mark Carney Liberal majority.
Polls are a snapshot in time, the saying goes, and they are. So, politicos pay attention instead to the trendline: That is, what a number of polls — over a longish period of time and asking substantially the same groups of people substantially similar questions — have to say. That’s the trendline.
The trendline, for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, has been very grim indeed. Since the departure of Justin Trudeau, and the return of Donald Trump, the Poilievre Tories have presided over one of the most astonishing polling freefalls in living memory.
Read Kinsella’s column here.
WHERE THE LEADERS ARE WEDNESDAY
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is set to spend time in Hamilton today before heading to a rally in Nova Scotia.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney has campaign events scheduled in British Columbia, including a rally in Surrey in the evening, while NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is expected to campaign in Edmonton before participating in a virtual forum with the Assembly of First Nations.
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