‘President Trump is trying to break us’: Liberal Party’s Mark Carney wins Canadian prime minister seat in test of Trump’s rhetoric.
“Who’s ready to stand up for Canada with me?” echoed from the microphone of Prime Minister-elect Mark Carney during a victory speech in Ottawa late Monday night. The victory marked a significant gain for the Liberal Party as it inches closer to a 172-seat majority in the House of Commons. This win proves vital in understanding how Trump’s tariff threats could impact politics abroad.
Carney addressed Trump’s rhetoric toward Canada in his victory speech late Monday night.
“President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never, ever happen,” Carney said.
Toward the end of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s term, President Trump called on Canada to become America’s 51st state. Trump continued these calls into Monday as Canadians went to the polls.
Posting on Truth Social on Monday, Trump endorsed neither candidate but had a stark message for Canadian voters.
“Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your car, Steel, Aluminium, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America,” Trump wrote.
Both Carney and his Conservative opponent, Pierre Poilievre, campaigned on keeping Canada sovereign and not becoming the 51st state of the United States.
Poilievre emphasized this in a message posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday in response to President Trump.
“President Trump, stay out of our election. The only people who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box,” Poilievre said.
Sophomore Brooke Saunders, a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, said she believes Trump’s recent rhetoric on Canada is simply him being power hungry and Canada should not become a part of the U.S.
“I think it’s stupid. Canada shouldn’t be the 51st state, and most Canadians don’t like Trump and don’t want to be the 51st state,” Saunders said.
HHS English teacher Karen Hansen also holds dual Canadian and United States citizenship, and believes tariffs imposed by Trump influenced how the election swayed.
“Prior to Trump’s tariffs, the prediction was that the other party — Conservative Party — was going to win, because a lot of Canadians were not pleased with Trudeau, and when Trudeau resigned, Carney took over until the election and people were really pleased with how he handled Trump. Carney really stood up to Trump, whereas other world leaders seemed to be a little intimidated by him. I think that really impressed a lot of Canadians,” Hansen said.
Despite Poilievre’s pushback against Trump, it proved unsuccessful as Mark Carney led the Liberal Party to victory.
In Canadian politics, the prime minister is not elected in the same way as a president is in the United States. The leader of the party that holds or gains more seats in the House of Commons becomes prime minister. As of Tuesday morning, the Liberal Party holds 154 seats to the Conservatives’ 131. Carney’s party is just 18 seats away from a guaranteed majority, therefore projecting that Liberal Party leader Carney will become the next prime minister of Canada
As Carney prepares to take office as prime minister, he vows to represent everyone who calls Canada home.
“My message to every Canadian is this: no matter where you live, no matter what language you speak, no matter how you voted, I will always do my best to represent everyone who calls Canada home,” Carney said in his victory speech Monday night.
