EDITORIAL: We need a federal election right now

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Unless the polls are spectacularly wrong, former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney will become Canada’s 24th prime minister on Sunday.

Elected, that is, by Liberal partisans, who are actually voting for their new leader to replace Justin Trudeau, a job which currently comes with the title of prime minister.

Carney, who is not an MP, has never run for office and has no seat in the House of Commons, will then be poised to lead the Liberals into a federal election, presumably sooner rather than later.

That’s because Trudeau’s resignation and U.S. President Donald Trump’s irrational declaration of a tariff war on Canada has raised the Liberal party from the dead.

Trailing Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives by double digits for more than a year, polls now suggest the next election is a toss-up and that a Carney-led Liberal party could win.

Many Liberals who, when their polls were underwater, were doing everything possible to avoid an election until the fall, are now champing at the bit to go to voters, given their latest polling numbers.

Carney has said he may call a snap election if he wins the Liberal leadership race on Sunday.

This is, of course, political opportunism which is nothing new in politics because all parties want elections to be called when their chances of winning are good.

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More important, whatever the polls show, is that we need a federal election as soon as possible because we need a PM with the mandate to speak for all Canadians now.

Trudeau, who clung to office far longer than he should have, hasn’t had that mandate ever since he announced his decision to resign as prime minister after essentially being forced out by his own party.

Carney, who has been running his leadership campaign in stealth mode — typical of a frontrunner — already seems unable to give straight answers to the simplest questions.

For example, whether he supported, as chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, the company’s decision to relocate its head office from Toronto to New York.

Canadians need to see Carney and Poilievre, also running for the first time as Conservative leader, tested in the pressure cooker of an election and the time to do it is now.