 "Pierre Poilievre (L) and Mark Carney (R) are the top contenders in the Canadian snap elections. Agencies")
Canada’s snap election, once expected to hand Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre the keys to 24 Sussex Drive, has been upended by Donald Trump’s tariff barrage on steel, aluminium, autos and even lumber.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney warns of “tough days ahead” while courting European allies; on the stump, Poilievre scrambles to distance himself from the US president’s threats to turn Canada into “the 51st state”.
“These tariffs are fundamentally damaging to the American economy and, by extension, to the global economy,” Carney told reporters after Trump’s announcement, according to a report by CNN .
Tariffs meet an overheated housing market
Trump’s 25 per cent duties, and Ottawa’s promised retaliatory levies, land squarely on an economy already punished by record house prices. Ontario’s builders’ lobby says costlier steel and aluminium will make new homes dearer still, deepening a crisis that has priced a generation out of ownership.
Economist Randall Morck noted share prices have sagged on recession fears: “Stock prices have gone down, so everybody is poorer,” he says. “I expect that [voters] are going to vote for the candidate that they think will minimize the cost of the trade war with the US … I haven’t seen anything like it since the Vietnam war.”
Finance technocrat vs career populist
Carney, a rookie MP but a veteran of the Bank of England and Bank of Canada, presents himself as the steady pilot Canada needs. On his first foreign trip, he bypassed Washington and flew to Europe, securing pledges of tighter military and commercial links.
“I have seen this movie before. I know exactly what’s going to happen to them; the Americans are going to get weaker,” he told supporters in Ontario.
“In a crisis, it’s important to come together, and it’s essential to act with purpose and with force. And that’s what we will do.”
Poilievre, once the clear front‑runner, touts a “Canada First” vision and vows to slash red tape, yet now stresses he is “not MAGA.” His decades in Parliament and modest upbringing— child of two schoolteachers—contrast with the financier‑turned‑politician in power. But as anti‑American sentiment rises, voters appear to be rallying to the man who has already steered nations through global turbulence.