What you need to know about the Canadian election dominated by Donald Trump
Is this an election on Trump?
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Poilievre had hoped to make the election a referendum on former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined toward the end of his decade in power as food and housing prices rose and immigration surged.
But then Trump became the dominant issue, and Poilievre's similarities to the bombastic president could cost him.
'He appeals to the same sense of grievance,' Canadian historian Robert Bothwell said of the Conservative leader. 'It's like Trump standing there saying, 'I am your retribution.''
How are the votes counted?
All ballots are counted by hand by federal election officials in the presence of witnesses, usually campaign or party representatives.
Ballots cast in person on election day are counted at each local polling place after polls close. Ballots cast in person before election day and mail ballots cast from within the district are tabulated at the district's local Elections Canada office.
Ballots from incarcerated voters, members of the military, Canadians living overseas and voters who live in Canada but outside their home district, such as some college students, are counted at a centralised Elections Canada facility in Ottawa.
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What time do polls close?
Canada's vast expanse has six time zones, but polls are somewhat synchronised to end at about the same time across the country.
Polls in Newfoundland closed at 7pm EDT (9am AEST). Areas just west of that, including Nova Scotia, are on Atlantic Time and vote until 7.30 pm EDT (9.30am AEST).
Many areas across Eastern, Central and Mountain Time all wrap up voting at 9.30pm EDT (11.30am AEST), as well as in Saskatchewan. Polls in Pacific Time are open until 10pm EDT (midday AEST).
Who are the other candidates?
Other parties are fielding candidates as well. One is Jagmeet Singh, who heads the progressive New Democratic Party and responded on X to Trump's remarks by telling voters that 'You can protect what makes Canada, Canada. Every New Democrat you send to Ottawa will stand up for our country. And never back down.'
There's also Yves-François Blanchet, who leads Bloc Québécois, a Quebec nationalist party.
In March, Carney called for Parliament to be dissolved to pave the way for the election. At the time, the Liberals held 152 seats and the Conservatives had 120. Bloc Québécois held 33 seats and the NDP held 24. Others were held by unrecognised parties, independents or were vacant.
How is the Canadian Prime Minister and MPs elected?
Canada is a constitutional monarchy, like Australia, with King Charles III serving as ceremonial head of state. The country's electoral system is also modelled after the British system.
A member of the House of Commons will be elected in each of the nation's 343 federal electoral districts, also known as a constituency or a riding. The winner in each district is the candidate who receives the most votes. A majority vote is not required to get elected to Parliament. This is sometimes called a 'first-past-the-post' system.
The leader of the party that wins a majority of seats in the House of Commons will form a new government and serve as prime minister. If no party wins a majority, a party – usually the one with the most seats – can form a minority government but must rely on support from some opposition members. In rare cases, two or more parties might reach a formal agreement to form a coalition government together.
Canada's Parliament has an upper chamber called the Senate, but those members are appointed and do not play a role in determining the prime minister.
What next?
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Canada has been dealing with a cost-of-living crisis for some time, and Trump's threat to impose sweeping tariffs and his desire to get North American automakers to move Canada's production south could severely damage the Canadian economy.
Both Carney and Poilievre said that if elected, they would accelerate renegotiations of a free trade deal between Canada and the U.S. to end the uncertainty hurting both of their economies.
Carney has notable experience navigating economic crises after running Canada's central bank and later becoming the first non-UK citizen to run the Bank of England.
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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
America's economic and political chaos has implications for Australia
The gripping stoush between Donald Trump and Elon Musk was emblematic of America's slide into a kind of corrupt flakiness. Yesterday's decision to call in the National Guard to put down immigration protests in Los Angeles was equally gripping, but much more serious. Californian governor Gavin Newsom called it "purposefully inflammatory", which looks spot on. Remember Trump's use of emergency declarations to impose tariffs. Meanwhile, tanks were rolling into Washington DC ahead of the big autocracy-esque military parade on June 14, which happens to be the president's birthday. America has become a bewildering blend of the ridiculous and the deadly serious, and the implications of this for Australia are profound. The unserious nature of the place is reflected in the nation's president and richest person fighting in public: picture Anthony Albanese and Gina Rinehart abusing each other on social media. But that analogy falls well short because only two weeks ago Musk was a close adviser and effectively a member of cabinet, responsible for the closure of significant government programs, tens of thousands of retrenchments from the federal public service and a full re-ordering and centralising of government data on all Americans. Now, Musk is outside the tent, as they say, weeing in, except it's a torrent, including ferocious opposition to Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill". That 1,038-page bill with its ludicrous official title, and all sorts of unrelated things thrown in so it would be hard for Congress to reject each bit, was an earlier sign that the United States has become a bit of a joke and not a serious country anymore. What's not a joke is that the oligarch Musk obviously thought he had bought the presidency and is complaining now that having spent $US300 million getting Trump elected, the guy is not doing what he is told. "Such ingratitude," he posted on X. In response, Trump threatened to terminate Musk's government contracts, not because they're bad contracts but because he's "disappointed" with Musk. As economist Paul Krugman wrote on Substack: "The point is that both men start from the presumption that the US government is an entirely corrupt enterprise, with the president in a position to hand out personal favours or engage in personal acts of vengeance." Examples of America's unseriousness have been building to the point where the US isn't even a comprehensible ally, let alone a reliable one, or a safe place to invest — global investors are now steadily reducing their exposure to American assets. The tariffs on the ridiculously named "Liberation Day", April 2, were a hastily assembled mess. The ones other than the arbitrary 10 per cent "base tariff" were calculated with a simple sum using each country's trade deficit, which was plainly bonkers, and included uninhabited islands as well as tiny countries that had virtually no trade with the US. And then, a week later, they were replaced by a whole new set of tariffs. Then Trump complained that China won't do a deal, having been whacked with the threat of a 145 per cent tariff, which was reduced to 30 per cent for no apparent reason. Then Trump asked for a phone call with Xi Jinping, got it, and then meekly chickened out, confirming his TACO nickname (Trump Always Chickens Out). Trump met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last week and, with cameras rolling, Merz noted that the following day, June 6, would be the 80th anniversary of D Day. "That was not a pleasant day for you," said Trump. "This is not a great day." Merz replied: "This was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship." Oh, right. Last Wednesday, without warning, Trump banned citizens of 12 countries from travelling to the US. Before that, he posted that "Because of Tariffs, our Economy is BOOMING!", which is plainly divorced from reality. The Bureau of Economic Analysis had announced a week earlier that the US economy contracted by 0.2 per cent in the March quarter, and a few hours later, the OECD predicted that growth in the United States will decline from 2.8 per cent in 2024 to 1.6 per cent in 2025 and 1.5 per cent in 2026. At about the same time, the Congressional Budget Office released an assessment of the impact of the tariff policy, saying it would raise inflation and slow economic growth as consumers bear the cost of them. The CBO also produced an analysis of the "One Big Beautiful Bill", which it said would add $US2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade because the $US1.3 trillion in spending cuts won't fully offset the $US3.7 trillion in tax cuts. By the way, the Big Beautiful Bill also contains a "revenge" provision that would allow the US government to impose extra taxes on foreign investors whose home countries have policies America doesn't like, which is not the sort thing that's going to endear a country to foreign investors. As a result of all this, the "American exceptionalism" that was the foundation of global investment and finance for decades, is over. Does that mean the US dollar will lose its place as the world's reserve currency, a position it has held since 1944? Probably not, but its monopoly is under threat. As exceptionalism dims, there will be a shift towards other currencies, mainly the euro and, to some extent, the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan. The US dollar still accounts for 58 per cent of global foreign exchange reserves, and the euro is second at 20 per cent. The fact that gold is hitting new record highs, and the euro has appreciated 15 per cent this year, shows that central banks and global investors are looking for foreign exchange alternatives. The US dollar has about half of SWIFT transactions (it's the global banking communications network), with the euro second at 22 per cent. While the US dollar is used in 55 per cent of global trade, the euro is next at 30 per cent. There is no complete alternative for the US dollar in sight at this stage, but that could change, and even a 10 per cent reduction in its use in trade, foreign exchange and banking would have a meaningful impact on asset valuations in the US, including shares. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to meet Trump later this month, and like other heads of state who have ventured into the White House, he could quite easily take a beating in the Oval Office, on camera. Trump seems to think Australia has a ban on American beef, which isn't true, but the Australian PM could still find himself arguing biosecurity with an aggressively uncomprehending American president. Beyond that meeting, Australia needs to rethink its relationship with the United States. We've done quite well maintaining a wary, non-trusting trade relationship with China. We now need a wary, non-trusting security alliance with the US, if that's even possible. Alan Kohler is finance presenter and columnist on ABC News and he also writes for Intelligent Investor.
West Australian
2 hours ago
- West Australian
Andrew Miller: Trump & Musk remind us humans are predictable in moral vulnerability and propensity for hubris
Whenever a wedding scene comes on TV, Mum says 'it starts when you sink in his arms and ends with your arms in the sink.' Their passion was hot, but now the bromance is over. President Trump has thrown his virgin red Tesla out of the cot, and Elon Musk says he won't let Donald play with his rockets anymore. If they are correct now, they must have been terribly wrong just last week. Either way, neither is fit to run a lemonade stand, and the world is sick of their drama. Their clowning example makes their mutual war on diversity, equity and inclusion in the name of 'merit' even more grotesque. America will neither be the first nor last empire to fall. 'We are all Greeks,' wrote the nineteenth-century English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, acknowledging the intellectual heavy lifting of the Hellenics, which underpins all modern western civilisations. The Greeks told all the important stories. Humans are nothing if not predictable in our moral vulnerability and propensity for hubris. Icarus' father Daedalus gave him the advice that all caring parents try to impart — 'try to neither fly too low, nor too high.' Back in the loved-up days of February, Musk swung a chainsaw about and paraphrased Robert Oppenheimer, claiming unironically, 'I am become meme.' The world's richest alleged ketamine user triggered not only massive cringe, but a vision of young Icarus, flying too close to the orange sun. Mind altering substances are never far from the action — even in ancient Greece. Nicotine, alcohol, methamphetamine, cannabis, ketamine, opiates, psychedelics — none of these are new. Percy Shelley used opium and laudanum to 'dampen his nerves,' between arguments with his neighbours about his pistol shooting, radical politics and 'science experiments.' President Trump spuriously claims his right to impose tariffs is based on a fentanyl trafficking crisis. A year ago, I wrote of Musk — 'when it comes to the chemical modulation of our impossibly complex brain, the stakes are much higher than boring old money.' Now his whole house of cards is wobbling and the one president who possibly might have shored it up is brandishing a flame-thrower. In properly trained hands, drugs can be useful. I have been employing ketamine and opiates all week. How to use them safely and sparingly though is a matter of dispassionate science — populism does not make for good medicine. In November 2019, I appeared on Channel 7's Flashpoint programme, alongside then low-flying WA Health Minister, now Premier Roger Cook. As he announced that GPs would be permitted to openly prescribe medicinal cannabis henceforth, I was watching the face of another panelist — the CEO of a start-up cannabis supplier. Her blushing visage could only be described as 'just told she won the lottery.' I was called cynical at the time, but in the second half of 2024 eight doctors alone — assisted by eager pharmaceutical companies — wrote over 80,000 scripts for the highest strength cannabis, much of it to be smoked. Over 400,000 Australians started prescriptions for the highest THC content cannabis during that period. It's way out of control. Mental health services picking up the pieces of addicted young people are not amused at this State-sponsored jump in the boringly predictable complications of cannabis. 'First doing no harm' won't be good for the online reviews of doctors or politicians, but that's our job. Shelley's brilliant wife Mary wrote an excellent warning about science gone morally wrong. Her protagonist was Doctor Frankenstein. Percy Shelley's 1818 sonnet Ozymandias interpreted a statue of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses the Great as saying, ' Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! ' He points out the irony of egotistical monuments: ' No thing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away .' Time kills the importance of all men. It ends when we sink in the sand, so let's strive to do no harm.
The Advertiser
3 hours ago
- The Advertiser
National Guard arrive in LA over immigration raid demos
National Guard troops have begun arriving in Los Angeles on orders from US President Donald Trump, in response to clashes in recent days between federal immigration authorities and protesters seeking to block them from carrying out deportations. Members of California's National Guard were seen on Sunday staging at the federal complex in downtown Los Angeles that includes the Metropolitan Detention Center, one of several sites of confrontations involving hundreds of people in the last two days. Trump has said he is deploying 2000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell the protests, which he called "a form of rebellion". The move came over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsome, marking the first time in decades that a state;s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Early on Sunday, the deployment was limited to a small area in downtown Los Angeles, with the rest of the city of four million people largely unaffected. Their arrival follows two days of relatively small protests that began on Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighbouring Compton. As federal agents staged near a Home Depot in Paramount, demonstrators sought to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, federal agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls. Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the week-long tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed past 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement. On Sunday morning, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the National Guard would "keep peace and allow people to be able to protest but also to keep law and order". The troops included members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defense that showed dozens of National Guard members with long guns and an armoured vehicle. In a signal of the administration's aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines "if violence continues" in the region. Newsom, a Democrat, described Trump's decision to call in the National Guard as a "provocative show of force" that would only escalate tensions, adding that Hegseth's threat to deploy Marines on US soil was "deranged behaviour". Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the order by Trump reflected "a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism" and "usurping the powers of the United States Congress". Several Republicans, meanwhile, have voiced support for the involvement of the National Guard. Among them was Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who stopped short of backing Hegseth's threat to send in active-duty military personnel. "My guess is the National Guard ought to take care of the situation," Johnson said. National Guard troops have begun arriving in Los Angeles on orders from US President Donald Trump, in response to clashes in recent days between federal immigration authorities and protesters seeking to block them from carrying out deportations. Members of California's National Guard were seen on Sunday staging at the federal complex in downtown Los Angeles that includes the Metropolitan Detention Center, one of several sites of confrontations involving hundreds of people in the last two days. Trump has said he is deploying 2000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell the protests, which he called "a form of rebellion". The move came over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsome, marking the first time in decades that a state;s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Early on Sunday, the deployment was limited to a small area in downtown Los Angeles, with the rest of the city of four million people largely unaffected. Their arrival follows two days of relatively small protests that began on Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighbouring Compton. As federal agents staged near a Home Depot in Paramount, demonstrators sought to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, federal agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls. Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the week-long tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed past 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement. On Sunday morning, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the National Guard would "keep peace and allow people to be able to protest but also to keep law and order". The troops included members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defense that showed dozens of National Guard members with long guns and an armoured vehicle. In a signal of the administration's aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines "if violence continues" in the region. Newsom, a Democrat, described Trump's decision to call in the National Guard as a "provocative show of force" that would only escalate tensions, adding that Hegseth's threat to deploy Marines on US soil was "deranged behaviour". Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the order by Trump reflected "a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism" and "usurping the powers of the United States Congress". Several Republicans, meanwhile, have voiced support for the involvement of the National Guard. Among them was Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who stopped short of backing Hegseth's threat to send in active-duty military personnel. "My guess is the National Guard ought to take care of the situation," Johnson said. National Guard troops have begun arriving in Los Angeles on orders from US President Donald Trump, in response to clashes in recent days between federal immigration authorities and protesters seeking to block them from carrying out deportations. Members of California's National Guard were seen on Sunday staging at the federal complex in downtown Los Angeles that includes the Metropolitan Detention Center, one of several sites of confrontations involving hundreds of people in the last two days. Trump has said he is deploying 2000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell the protests, which he called "a form of rebellion". The move came over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsome, marking the first time in decades that a state;s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Early on Sunday, the deployment was limited to a small area in downtown Los Angeles, with the rest of the city of four million people largely unaffected. Their arrival follows two days of relatively small protests that began on Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighbouring Compton. As federal agents staged near a Home Depot in Paramount, demonstrators sought to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, federal agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls. Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the week-long tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed past 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement. On Sunday morning, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the National Guard would "keep peace and allow people to be able to protest but also to keep law and order". The troops included members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defense that showed dozens of National Guard members with long guns and an armoured vehicle. In a signal of the administration's aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines "if violence continues" in the region. Newsom, a Democrat, described Trump's decision to call in the National Guard as a "provocative show of force" that would only escalate tensions, adding that Hegseth's threat to deploy Marines on US soil was "deranged behaviour". Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the order by Trump reflected "a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism" and "usurping the powers of the United States Congress". Several Republicans, meanwhile, have voiced support for the involvement of the National Guard. Among them was Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who stopped short of backing Hegseth's threat to send in active-duty military personnel. "My guess is the National Guard ought to take care of the situation," Johnson said. National Guard troops have begun arriving in Los Angeles on orders from US President Donald Trump, in response to clashes in recent days between federal immigration authorities and protesters seeking to block them from carrying out deportations. Members of California's National Guard were seen on Sunday staging at the federal complex in downtown Los Angeles that includes the Metropolitan Detention Center, one of several sites of confrontations involving hundreds of people in the last two days. Trump has said he is deploying 2000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell the protests, which he called "a form of rebellion". The move came over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsome, marking the first time in decades that a state;s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Early on Sunday, the deployment was limited to a small area in downtown Los Angeles, with the rest of the city of four million people largely unaffected. Their arrival follows two days of relatively small protests that began on Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighbouring Compton. As federal agents staged near a Home Depot in Paramount, demonstrators sought to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, federal agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls. Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the week-long tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed past 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement. On Sunday morning, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the National Guard would "keep peace and allow people to be able to protest but also to keep law and order". The troops included members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defense that showed dozens of National Guard members with long guns and an armoured vehicle. In a signal of the administration's aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines "if violence continues" in the region. Newsom, a Democrat, described Trump's decision to call in the National Guard as a "provocative show of force" that would only escalate tensions, adding that Hegseth's threat to deploy Marines on US soil was "deranged behaviour". Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the order by Trump reflected "a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism" and "usurping the powers of the United States Congress". Several Republicans, meanwhile, have voiced support for the involvement of the National Guard. Among them was Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who stopped short of backing Hegseth's threat to send in active-duty military personnel. "My guess is the National Guard ought to take care of the situation," Johnson said.
