Canada election: Poilievre speaks as Carney expected to trigger snap vote

CBC

23-03-2025

CBC News Special | Poilievre launches Conservative election campaign
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Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to visit the Governor General around noon ET.
Canada's 45th federal election will officially kick off after that meeting.
Poilievre is holding a news conference at 11:30 a.m. ET.
We're expecting to hear from all the major party leaders today.
Polling suggests a tight race between the Liberals and Tories.
Updates
March 23
12 minutes ago
The election's economic question
Peter Armstrong
This election is about a lot of things. It's about trade and tariffs and threats and sovereignty. It's about anger and disappointment and frustration. But if you zoom out, it's about the economy.
One thing just about everyone agrees on is that Canada's economy has fallen behind. The above chart compares Canada's per capita to its Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) partners growth going back to the final months of the Stephen Harper government in 2015.
Canada's growth is second-last, ahead of only Luxembourg.
The start date matters here. Remember, the global price of oil fell off a cliff in 2014 and 2015. That clobbered the Canadian economy. It drove down investment and has not yet rebounded.
Amidst that downturn, Liberal government policies made it harder to approve resource projects.
The Conservatives and many industry associations have repeatedly said those policies kept investment low and hindered an economic rebound.
Today, the Liberals have promised to speed up approvals and unleash the Canadian economy as a way of offsetting the damage of a trade war.
The biggest economic question Canadian voters will be asked in this election is which leader — and which party — is best positioned to deliver on that promise.
25 minutes ago
Many writs but no 'dropping'
Lucas Powers
You might hear the term 'dropping the writ' kicked around a lot today, but it's not accurate.
Nothing has dropped, and there are actually lots of writs — one for each of Canada's 343 federal ridings, in fact.
A writ is a formal written order instructing the returning officer in each riding to hold an election to select a member of Parliament. It specifies the day the names of the candidates must be officially recorded and sets a polling date.
Writs are issued by Canada's chief electoral officer after the Governor General has dissolved Parliament.
33 minutes ago
Polls show a tight race
Darren Major
Hi folks, I'm a senior writer with CBC's politics team in Ottawa.
Here's a look at where the parties stand in the latest polls. Conservatives had been leading for much of the past year, but the Liberals rapidly gained ground in the wake of Trudeau announcing his resignation and Trump's return to the White House.
As it stands, CBC's Poll Tracker shows fairly equal support between the Conservatives and Liberals, but is giving a slight edge to the red team. Much of the recent boost to the Liberal numbers has come at the expense of the NDP, who have dropped about 10 points since January.
All that said, a common saying around the Hill is 'campaigns matter' and, as we've seen in the past few weeks, things can change quickly.
38 minutes ago Rhianna Schmunk
Singh, 46, has led his party since 2017.
In his first campaign as national leader, the NDP won 24 seats in 2019 — down from 44 in 2015 and far from "Orange Wave" territory, but better than the result many expected.
A similar result in 2021 was enough for the NDP to hold the balance of power in the minority Parliament, which it used to secure a supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals. The Trudeau government agreed to act on NDP priorities and, in exchange, the NDP helped keep the Liberals in power until 2025.
This campaign will have Singh fighting for his political survival. Polls suggest his party is bleeding support to the gaining Liberals, which are in majority position for the first time in years.
Singh holds a federal seat in the B.C. riding of Burnaby South. He lives in the community with his wife and their two children.
40 minutes ago
The 3 major party leaders: Pierre Poilievre, Conservatives
Rhianna Schmunk
Poilievre, 45, has been in federal politics for nearly half his life. He was first elected as a member of Parliament in an Ottawa-area riding at the age of 25, and later served as a cabinet minister under former prime minister Stephen Harper.
He has led the Conservative Party and the Official Opposition since 2022.
As leader, Poilievre's focus has consistently been focused on the economy and calls for lower taxes. He has promised "the biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history" and said he's a "tough guy" best positioned to deal with Trump.
He is married with two children.
43 minutes ago
The 3 major party leaders: Mark Carney, Liberals
A 60-year-old father of four, Carney has a long list of formers: governor of the Bank of Canada, governor of the Bank of England, deputy minister in the Department of Finance, UN special envoy for climate action, chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, banker with Goldman Sachs.
Missing from that list? Political office.
"I'm not the usual suspect when it comes to politics but this is no time for politics as usual," Carney said at his campaign launch, just seven short weeks ago, neatly trying to turn his lack of retail polish into a virtue.
But he is the 14th leader of the Liberal Party and the 24th prime minister of Canada. The question now is how long he will occupy that office — whether he is the man for this moment or a man who will only momentarily be prime minister.
As far as policy goes, he eliminated the controversial federal carbon tax as one of his first official acts in office. He said his focus will be on the Canadian economy and sovereignty, promising that Canada will never be part of the United States.
48 minutes ago
Here's what's on the agenda so far
Jenna Benchetrit
Hi everyone — I'm a senior writer based in Toronto. For the next few weeks, I'll be writing about the election with our morning live page team.
Here's what's on the agenda today. Carney will attend a church service in the morning, according to his campaign. Afterwards, he's expected to walk to Rideau Hall — Gov. Gen. Mary Simon's official residence — around noon ET, where he'll ask her to dissolve Parliament, triggering a weeks-long election campaign.
Carney will then address reporters outside Rideau Hall. The leaders of the other major parties will kick off their own campaigns in the hours after that announcement, starting with Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party just before 1 p.m. ET.
52 minutes ago
How Carney became prime minister
Verity Stevenson
Liberal leadership race: How we got here
14 days ago
Duration 2:28
First came the byelection losses and reports of caucus discontent. Then the bombshell: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's resignation. We look back at the key moments that led to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's resignation.
This all started when then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet on Dec. 20, hours before she was set to deliver the fall economic statement.
Freeland's move came after a fated Zoom call with Trudeau, who told her his plan to remove her from the finance portfolio and instead focus on Canada's relationship with the United States, specifically Trump, then the president-designate.
Trudeau's plan, although reportedly not set in stone, was to replace Freeland with former Bank of Canada governor Carney.
Freeland's resignation shocked the Liberal Party, which had already become increasingly divided in its support for Trudeau as leader. It prompted a wave of supporters within the party to call for Trudeau's resignation. In early January, Trudeau confirmed he would leave once his party elected a new leader.
Carney announced his leadership bid 10 days later, Jan. 15. Carney won the leadership race with nearly 86 per cent of points, beating three other candidates — including Freeland.
60 minutes ago
How we got here: Trudeau, Trump and tariffs
Verity Stevenson
In the weeks following former prime minister Justin Trudeau's announcement he would resign, Donald Trump began to make threats to Canadian sovereignty — even before he was sworn into the U.S. president's office Jan. 20.
Soon after Trump was elected in November, he announced plans to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico, citing border security, especially illegal fentanyl.
Days later, Trudeau met Trump for a surprise dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. That evening, Trump made what many at first interpreted as a joke: that Canada should become the U.S.'s 51st state with Trudeau as its governor.
That joke has continually escalated into rhetoric and threats, as Trump has moved forward on tariffs and saying he would use 'economic force' against Canada.
As shown in the graphic above, the U.S. is by far Canada's largest trading partner, so a prolonged trade war could potentially devastate key Canadian industries.
1 hour ago
On your marks, get set…
Lucas Powers
Good morning, Canada. I'm a digital producer based in Toronto, and I'll be curating your live updates experience today.
It's a big day for our country.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to trigger our next federal election. Sources say Canadians will go to the polls on April 28 to choose a new government to steer us through these turbulent times.