HEADING TO THE POLLS: Mark Carney calls April 28 election

Article content

OTTAWA — Voters head to the polls to pick Canada’s 45th Parliament on April 28.

Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Governor General Mary Simon at Rideau Hall at noon Sunday to dissolve Parliament, kicking off the 2025 federal election campaign.

“I’ve just requested that the Governor General dissolve Parliament and call an election for April 28,” Carney told reporters outside of Rideau Hall.

“We are facing the most significant crisis of our lifetimes, because of President Trump’s unjustified trade action and his threats to our sovereignty.”

Carney presented a brief outline of the Liberal campaign, including meeting with premiers to dismantle inter-provincial trade barriers, walking back key Liberal policies such as the supposed elimination of the consumer portion of the carbon tax and a controversial hike to the capital gains tax inclusion rate.

He also promised a middle-class tax cut, one he promises will save an average middle-class family up to $825 annually.

When asked why Carney decided to put the country through a whirlwind, five-week election instead of facing Trump’s tariff threats head-on, Carney insisted he’s already instituted “a tremendous amount of change” in his nine days as PM — citing the campaign promises he made in his preceding speech and his Friday meeting with Canada’s premiers.

Carney, who has never held elected office, will run in the capital-region riding of Nepean — formerly held by veteran Liberal MP Chandra Arya until the party abruptly revoked his nomination late last week.

Carney wouldn’t answer direct questions on why Arya was disqualified  from the ballot, and while he wouldn’t directly say if he currently lives in the riding, he stated he’d lived in the “Ottawa area” for over 20 years and once served as best man in the wedding of Peter Chiarelli — the Nepean-born former GM of the Edmonton Oilers.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was first out of the gates Sunday, holding a news conference in Gatineau, Que., across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill, before Carney’s visit to Rideau Hall had begun.

Poilievre said he plans to “restore Canada’s promise” and tackle affordability issues that he blames on elites.

“Our nation is more divided than ever before, because the Liberal, radical, post-national, borderless and globalist ideology has weakened our nation,” Poilievre said.

“Now, desperate for a fourth term, Liberals have replaced Justin Trudeau with his economic adviser and hand-picked successor, Mark Carney.”

Poilievre said he will bring down the cost of living and fix the immigration system while having a strong military.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh opened his campaign from a downtown Ottawa hotel, reiterating his party’s success in convincing the Liberals to enact national dental care and pharmacare programs.

He said the other two parties aren’t the best to manage “Donald Trump’s illegal trade war” because they support the rich.

Recent polls have suggested the Liberals and Conservatives are in a neck-and-neck race and the comfortable polling lead the Conservatives enjoyed for more than a year has all but evaporated. The NDP, which a few months ago was tied with the Liberals in many surveys, has watched its support plummet.

— With files from the Canadian Press