Canadian elections and results

Canadians went to the polls on Monday, and Mark Carney and his Liberal Party have won. The Liberal party did not win the majority of the 343 seats in the Canadian Parliament, but the victory was an impressive turnaround given that the Conservatives were ahead in the polls by double digits a few months ago. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre even lost his own seat.

Many Canadians were upset over President Donald Trump’s announcement he wanted to make Canada the 51st state and his efforts to impose tariffs.

John von Heyking, Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Lethbridge, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the Canadian elections.

“They responded, by a large part, by moving support to the Liberals because a significant number of Canadians saw Mark Carney as the best bet to stand up to Mr. Trump,” Heyking said.

Some aspects to the Canadian vote had to do with President Trump’s comments on making Canada the 51st state of the U.S. and tariffs. According to Heyking, the 51st state comment hurt Canadians’ pride and the tariffs scared the citizens’ pocketbooks.

“Marl Carney, he’s got quite a resume, he’s a former governor of the bank of Canada, former governor of the bank of England, which is kind of unusual. So he come’s with an impressive resume of international finance and helping to run companies like Brookfield…. Economic performance has been disappointing, high housing prices have left a lot of people out of the housing market, as a data point, the average house price in Canada is higher than it is the United States,” Heyking said.

Mr. Carney and Mr. Trump have met since the election, we’re cordial and plan to meet at some point in the near future, according to Heyking.