Mark Carney is expected to ask the governor general to dissolve Canada’s parliament and drop the writs around midday today. Follow along for live updates and analysis from our reporters in Ottawa.
Haven’t been paying attention? Here’s a look at our recent coverage:
Carney to run in Ottawa-area riding
Newcomer Liberal Leader Mark Carney will run to represent the suburban Ottawa riding of Nepean, previously represented by Liberal MP Chandra Arya who was disqualified as unfit in the leadership race to replace Justin Trudeau and whose candidacy for re-election was rejected by the party.
Read the full story from Ottawa Bureau Chief Tonda MacCharles
Election slated for April 28
Sources confirmed to the Star that voters will cast a ballot on Monday, April 28, marking the end of what will be a 37-day campaign, one day longer than the minimum required by law. The number of federal ridings increases to 343 from 338 due to the redrawing of electoral boundaries.
Here’s more from MacCharles
A guide to the biggest storylines this federal election campaign
Just months ago, the outcome of Canada’s 45th general election campaign seemed cushioned in certainty.
But before it even started, the return of a U.S. president and the departure of a Canadian prime minister changed the game.
The Liberals hastily orchestrated a revival and reversed their tanking fortunes.
The Conservatives wrestled with message discipline in the face of a rapidly diminishing lead.
The New Democrats found themselves cast in the shadow of a gripping two-way race.
And amid it all, the Greens prepared to enter a national contest with two leaders, instead of a deeply embattled one.
Here’s what’s at stake for Canada’s federal parties as a monumental campaign begins.
Canada’s election security task force expected to be more vocal about possible foreign interference
A group of senior government bureaucrats tasked with warning the Canadian public about possible foreign interference during an election may be more vocal and less secretive in the upcoming campaign.
The Security Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force has been in place since the 2019 federal election and gathers the country’s national security agencies together to focus on identifying potential foreign interference.
The task force reports to what is called the “panel of five,” which includes the clerk of the Privy Council, the prime minister’s national security adviser and the deputy ministers of justice, foreign affairs and public safety. It’s these senior government officials who decide whether to go public with a warning to Canadians about possible interference, but they have used a high standard in past campaigns and only made public statements if they believe something “threatens Canada’s ability to have a free and fair election.”
Despite concerns about potential interference in individual ridings in the 2021 election, the panel never went public with any concerns in either that campaign or the 2019 race.
But a new guidance document from Privy Council clerk John Hannaford argues they may have to be more vocal this time. Hannaford wrote the new proposal in January and it opens up the possibility of more announcements.
Here’s more from Ryan Tumilty
Analysis: Why Canadians must brace for U.S. interference
There was once an American president who loved tariffs, sought to negotiate the lay of the Canada-U.S. border and had a beef about the influx of illegal migrants entering from up north.
That president’s name was not Donald Trump but Benjamin Harrison. And in 1891, his country cast a cloud over the Canadian vote that elected Prime Minister John A. Macdonald to his sixth and final political victory, just months before his death.
It was a campaign dominated by trade policy. The ballot question: to impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., as the Conservative leader urged, or to seek free trade, as Liberal Wilfrid Laurier was pitching.
Macdonald warned that his opponent was opening the door to American annexation. The election, he said, would resolve “the crisis of Canada’s fate” and show Americans that “we would fight for our existence as they would.”
The re-election of Macdonald’s party was summed up elegantly in a biography of the Tory leader by the late Toronto Star journalist Richard Gwyn. Canadians, he wrote “voted to go on being Canadians.”
And from Washington, Harrison reacted in a manner that will be frighteningly familiar to those of us who hang on Trump’s every Canada-focused utterance: “Canada,” Gwyn cited him as saying, “can offer us nothing we cannot duplicate.”
With this country set for an election campaign to begin on Sunday, it’s a cross-border crisis, fight and decision Canadians will be forced to confront once again, 134 years later.
And, once again, the whims and will of Washington loom over Canadian politics. But this time there are much greater abilities to sway or swing the outcome.
Read the full story from Alan Woods
Trump claims he ‘totally changed’ the fortunes of Carney’s Liberal party
President Donald Trump claimed Friday that he “totally changed” Canada’s political landscape ahead of the coming federal election — one that will play out against the backdrop of American economic aggression and Trump’s repeatedly stated desire to annex the country.
In his latest foray into Canadian affairs, Trump took credit for the resurrection of the federal Liberal party’s electoral fortunes, days before Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to trigger a snap national campaign that all parties were buzzing Friday to prepare for in Ottawa.
“Just a little while ago, before I got involved and totally changed the election — which I don’t care about … the Conservative was leading,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.
Carney later clapped back at Trump, saying Canadians will decide who the next government will be, and any trade talks will only come after the president shows respect for Canada’s sovereignty.
“Canadians are going to decide who their next government is going to be,” he said late Friday. “I trust Canadians to make those decisions. We’ll have, I’m sure, a robust election campaign and Canadians will make the choice. No foreign leader is going to determine who’s best.”
Read more Tonda MacCharles, Alex Ballingall and Raisa Patel
Carney, premiers seeking plan for national energy, trade corridor
Mark Carney says he and the country’s premiers agreed today to work on a plan to develop a national trade and energy corridor.
He says after some discussions about the response to the tariffs directly, the premiers turned their sights on “nation building” to build things faster than ever before.
That includes finding ways to better move energy and critical minerals and improve digital connectivity.
The first ministers also talked about moving quickly to eliminate trade barriers between provinces and with the federal government.
Read the full story from the Canadian Press
Top parties gear up for Sunday election call
At a Friday morning news conference in Ottawa, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made a campaign-style announcement about boosting training and employment for workers in the skilled trades.
He also took the opportunity to claim Carney wouldn’t be able to stand up to Trump as well as he could, and vowed to “unleash the great Canadian promise.”
“The choice in the next election is very clear,” he said in front of an audience of local construction union members.
Carney made an announcement of his own later in the afternoon, confirming his government won’t move ahead with a hike to the inclusion rate on capital gains that was first pitched by the Liberals in the federal budget last year.
That tax change drew sharp criticism from some tech leaders and professional groups at the time, but enabling legislation was never passed. Carney said dropping the change will encourage business owners to take risks.
The NDP hosted media on Friday for the launch of its campaign headquarters in Ottawa and unveiled its slogan for the upcoming race: “In it for you.” It’s the same slogan the party used in the 2019 federal election.
Here’s more from the Canadian Press
Ford says his ‘absolutely swamped’ MPPs won’t have time to campaign for Poilievre
Asked at the first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa on Friday if he would “let your MPPs campaign with Mr. Poilievre,” Ford did not mince words.
“I want to make sure our MPPs are fulfilling our mandate. We are going to be absolutely swamped,” said the premier, whose Tories were re-elected Feb. 27.
“Let’s focus on Ontario. That’s our main objective,” he said when pressed about any role his team would have in the federal election that is expected to begin Sunday.
“I’m not going to help anyone. That’s not my job. My job is to keep Ontario moving forward.”
Read the full story from Robert Benzie
Carney’s Liberals would win a majority government if election was held today, poll aggregator says
According to the Signal, the Star’s election predictor, Carney would win a majority of seats in the House of Commons if an election were held today.
“These are … pull-the-trigger type of numbers in terms of an election campaign,” said Clifton van der Linden, a McMaster University political science professor and the CEO of Vox Pop Labs, the independent research organization that developed the Signal, an online tool that gathers polling information from across Canada and aggregates the results using a supercomputer.
On Thursday, the Signal had Carney’s Liberals at 40.8 per cent support and on track to win 182 seats in the House of Commons.
That compared to 37.6 per cent and 134 seats for Poilievre’s Tories.
Jagmeet Singh’s New Democrats were at 8.6 per cent and seven seats while Yves-François Blanchet’s Bloc Québécois was at 6.3 per cent and 20 seats and the Greens were at one per cent and no seats.
Learn more from Robert Benzie
