Canada’s governing Liberal Party has won national elections dominated by United States President Donald Trump’s trade war and annexation threats.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, a career economist and banker who cast himself as a champion for Canada in the face of Trump’s threats, led the Liberals to a fourth consecutive term on Monday, a stunning turnaround for a party that until recently was on track for a crushing defeat at the hands of the Conservative Party.
Carney, who had never held office before taking the top job in March, cast the outcome as an opportunity to “stand up for Canada” and “build Canada strong”.
“As I’ve been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,” Carney said in a victory speech, in which he called on Canadians to never forget the lessons of the “American betrayal”.
“These are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never – that will never, ever happen. But we also must recognise the reality that our world has fundamentally changed.”
Carney said Canada was again facing one of the “hinge moments of history” just as it did at the start of the Second World War and the end of the Cold War.
“Our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over,” he said.
“The system of open global trade, anchored by the United States – a system that Canada has relied on since the Second World War, a system that, while not perfect, has helped deliver prosperity for our country for decades – is over.”
Although Carney’s Liberals won the most seats in the 343-member House of Commons, it is unclear if he will be able to form a majority government or need to rely on the support of a smaller party.
With the votes still being counted late on Monday, the Liberals were on course to win at least 165 seats, with the Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre, on track to take at least 147, according to projections by national broadcaster CBC.
The Liberals last won a parliamentary majority in 2015 and had relied on the support of the left-leaning New Democratic Party to pass legislation after narrowly winning t