From Trump’s Tariffs to Beijing’s Interference, Key Moments of Canada’s Election Campaign

News Analysis

Canada’s 45th general election started and ended with U.S. President Donald Trump making waves, but there were also unrelated and noteworthy events that could’ve shaped voters’ opinions.

Among those was Beijing foreign interference events, infighting in the Conservative/Ontario Progressive Conservative camp, and leaders’ debates with more controversy in the media room than on the stage.

None of these, however, likely moved the needle more than Trump. The election was launched by recently sworn-in Prime Minister Mark Carney on March 23, as he said he was seeking a strong mandate to deal with Trump’s tariffs.

Carney’s key campaign focus was on the response to the Trump presidency, saying the U.S. president presents the “biggest crisis in our lifetimes.” The new Liberal leader has sought to distinguish himself from his predecessor Justin Trudeau in some key policy areas, while keeping the focus in some other areas the same.

Carney cut the consumer carbon tax rate to zero while saying he’ll make industry pay, and cancelled the planned hike of the capital gains tax before the election. He has promised a federal income tax cut for the lowest bracket and has also vowed to build a stronger economy by investing in and speeding up major projects. He also vowed to build more homes.

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These promises were made amid economic uncertainty caused by U.S. tariffs. Before the election was called, the White House had imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as on goods not covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade deal, citing border security and drug trafficking concerns. Trump announced tariffs on automobiles and car parts shortly after the election was called.

Poilievre’s key campaign message has been on “change,” saying the country needs new leadership after nearly 10 years of Liberal government. On the U.S. tariffs and Trump’s 51st state comments, he has said that Canada will remain sovereign and approved of the federal government’s plans to fight the tariffs dollar-for-dollar, while adding that Canada needs to reduce taxes and red-tape to be able to compete with the United States to attract investment and jobs.

Other key aspects of the Conservative campaign have been on reducing the income tax on the lowest bracket, enabling energy projects, improving public safety, and improving housing.

It was deep into the campaign before the parties released their costed platforms. The leaders’ debates had already passed and advance polling had already begun.

It is difficult to know if this caused some early voters to have remorse after casting their vote. Liberals and Conservatives have made many promises that are similar, such as income tax cuts and removing the GST on new homes, but on other issues they have vastly differed.

Tories have pledged to cancel the gun buyback program while Liberals say they will make it more “efficient.” Liberals have promised to boost CBC/Radio-Canada’s budget by an initial $150 million, while Tories have pledged to defund CBC and keep Radio-Canada’s service across the country.

Aside from individual promises, the platforms revealed each party’s overall budgetary intent.

The Liberals’ plan includes $129 billion in new spending over four years, adding nearly $225 billion to the federal debt. The Trudeau government had planned to have a $42.2 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2025-26, while a Carney government plans a $62.3 billion deficit over that period.

Officials from the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force had warned when the election was launched it was expected Chinese officials and their proxies were “likely to conduct foreign interference activity using a complex array of both overt and covert mechanisms.”

Beijing had interfered in the previous two elections and has been identified by security bodies and the Foreign Interference Commission as the primary meddling threat.

SITE officials revealed two distinct instances of meddling during the campaign. They said China had sought to influence Chinese-Canadian voters on Mark Carney with an information operation on social media.

SITE officials also said a transnational repression operation was targeting Tory candidate Joe Tay, who is running in the Don Valley North riding of Toronto. Tay has been advocating for the freedom and democracy of Hong Kong, and its authorities placed a bounty on his head in December 2024. SITE said the operation seeks to discredit Tay, silence dissent, and manipulate voters.

The campaign has been marked by some infighting among federal and provincial conservative parties over how the federal Tories have managed their messaging.

Anonymous sources from the federal and provincial conservatives reportedly told the Globe and Mail last week that Poilievre was at risk of losing his long-held seat in the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton.

Before these doubts were being sown, Ontario Progressive-Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s campaign manager Kory Teneycke was publicly accusing the federal Tories of “campaign malpractice” for being overtaken in the polls by the Liberals.

Ford kept his majority government after calling a snap election earlier this year.

“To be very frank, if Kory was running that campaign, I don’t think Mr. Poilievre would be in the position he’s in right now,” Ford said on April 14.

Teneycke has criticized Poilievre’s campaign for not focusing more on Trump. Poilievre has countered he would remain focused on issues affecting Canadians such as falling prosperity and rising crime.

Leaders’ debates are a key moment in an election, where leaders can reach a broad audience and voters can evaluate policies and characters of leaders. A small amount of watchers (4 percent) said the English-language debate made them change their mind, according to a snap Abacus Data poll.

What caught the attention with the debates this year was arguably events surrounding them. The French-language debate on April 16 was moved to an earlier time slot so that it didn’t coincide with the Montreal Canadiens’ last game of the season as the team was seeking to clinch a playoff spot.

The Green Party was also disinvited on the day of the debate because it had ceased to meet the criteria of fielding enough candidates. The party admitted to strategically removing candidates from certain ridings to not split the progressive vote against Conservatives.

More controversy erupted after the French-language debate, when independent media got rare face time with leaders of the Liberal Party and the NDP. Carney was asked, “how many genders are there,” to which he replied, “in terms of sex, there are two.” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was asked why he hasn’t condemned the multiple church burnings that occurred after claims were made about remains of indigenous children having been found at former residential schools, while no excavations have found any bodies.

Singh refused to answer the question, saying he doesn’t interact with Rebel News, which asked the question. Shortly after, a CBC News anchor live on air criticized Rebel News, saying there was misinformation in the question, adding that, “Yes, there have been remains of indigenous children found in various places across the country.”

CBC News issued a correction the next day, saying that “what several Indigenous communities across Canada have discovered on the sites of some former residential schools are potential burial sites or unmarked graves.”

During the English-language debate on April 17, several confrontations broke out in the media room. Subsequently, the Leaders’ Debates Commission cancelled the media scrums with leaders, saying it couldn’t ensure a proper environment.