Party leaders campaign in Ontario, B.C. battlegrounds as election day nears
OTTAWA - Party leaders blitzed key ridings in southern Ontario and British Columbia on Saturday with the final vote in the federal election now just two days away.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney took his tour through battleground ridings in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as Windsor, Ont., a city where U.S. President Donald Trump's auto tariffs have created immense anxiety.
At a news conference at the Seneca College campus in King City, Ont. Saturday Morning, Carney focused his message heavily on protecting Canada from Trump.
'President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us,' Carney said, repeating one of his most frequent campaign statements.
'And well, that will never happen.'
Carney said if Canada unites, 'we will win this trade war, and we will build the strongest economy in the G7.'
When asked if that is an overly ambitious reading of what economists expect to happen to the Canadian economy in the coming years, Carney responded that winning a trade war means becoming an energy superpower with high amounts of trade with other countries and affordable housing.
Carney rejected the declaration Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet made on Friday that Canada is 'an artificial country with very little meaning.'
'I reject them completely. This is an incredible country,' he said. 'What I would look to be part of is this process that is underway, of the country coming together, of unifying. And I want to support that, not divide.'
He similarly said he aspires to be a prime minister for all Canadians. Yet he would not specify how he would include supporters of Poilievre who say the country is headed for dire living conditions if Carney wins.
King City is in the riding of King — Vaughan, just north of Toronto, where the difference between the Liberals and Conservatives in 2021 was just over 1,000 votes.
Carney's tour is set to breeze through several more 905-area ridings on Saturday — named for being in the area around Toronto that originally all had a 905 area code.
Short stops were planned in Newmarket, Aurora and Markham, all seats the Liberals won in 2021 and need to keep to be victorious on Monday.
Later Saturday Carney will hold rallies in Mississauga and Windsor.
The Liberals have led the Conservatives in Ontario throughout the campaign, but many of the ridings in the 905 are swing seats that can make the difference between who forms government and between a minority or majority mandate.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is campaigning in the Vancouver area Saturday, in ridings in Surrey and Delta, B.C., before flying for an event in Sudbury, Ont. Saturday night.
There are multiple seats in play in the Vancouver region on Monday. The Liberals won Delta in the last three elections but former cabinet minister Carla Qualtrough isn't running again so there is no incumbent.
In Surrey, at least two of the three seats are considered to be in play.
Sudbury, known mostly for its nickel mining industry, has just one seat. It seems an unlikely win for the Conservatives though it was a smaller victory for the Liberals in 2021 than in 2019.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, whose campaign has struggled from the beginning, is campaigning in Southwestern Ontario, where his party is trying to at least hang on to the two seats it won in 2021. They face a stiff challenge from the Liberals in both Windsor West and London — Fanshawe.
Singh delivered snacks to campaign workers at a stop in London and will attend a Unifor rally in Windsor, Ont.
He told campaigners in London this morning to remind voters that 'their vote that has actually built this country by electing New Democrats, that have built up all the things that make Canada, Canada.'
He is later expected to attend a Lapu-Lapu Day party with the Filipino community in Vancouver and an Eid dinner with Muslims in Burnaby, B.C.
Carney also said he wants to pursue trade with India despite a strain in the relationship which he blamed on New Delhi. Canada has accused Indian state agents of being behind the assassination of a Canadian Sikh leader in British Columbia in 2023.
— With files from Kyle Duggan in King City, Ont. and David Baxter in London, Ont.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2025.
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