Mark Carney calls for unity at Liberal convention with majority government nearly clinched

Carney, who is likely to secure a majority government after three byelections Monday night, said Canada needs to move past partisanship.

“This is not the time for politics as usual, for petty differences, for political point scoring,” he said to applause from delegates at the national convention. “United, we will build Canada strong, a Canada strong for all — a Canada strong that no one can ever take away.”

The three-day convention included a victory lap for a political point Carney scored last week, when Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu crossed the floor. Gladu and the four other MPs who have crossed to Carney’s government in the last six months were all in attendance. 

Carney wasn’t the only one not to mention Poilievre, with ministers in a series of panels rarely invoking the Conservative leader. 

Monday’s byelections include the Toronto ridings of Scarborough Southwest and University-Rosedale, which are safe seats for the Liberals. In the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne, the party is in a dead heat with the Bloc Québécois, but the riding is no longer required for the Liberals to have a working majority in the House of Commons.

The bulk of Carney’s 45-minute speech included familiar themes from the last year, with an emphasis on building the Canadian economy to survive the trade war with the U.S. He said Canadians need to accept that we are living in a different world. 

“We are meeting in the middle of a transformation that will define this country for generations and Canadians sense it,” he said. “Some are still in denial. Rather than starting on this journey, they’re waiting for the past to return, but hope is not a plan, and nostalgia is not a strategy.”

He emphasized the work his government has done to expedite major projects and his pledge for a “buy Canadian” approach to procurement. 

“The days of our military sending 70 cents of every dollar to the United States are over,” he said. “We’re going to build Canada strong with Canadian steel, Canadian aluminum, Canadian lumber, Canadian workers.”

Gladu, who voted against a conversion therapy ban and said she would be open to free votes on abortion, distanced herself from those positions at the convention. Carney in his speech said Canada would be a “just society anchored in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. where women always have the right to choose, where you can believe what you want to believe, where you can love who you want to love.”

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau wasn’t in attendance and Carney has moved the party away from many of Trudeau’s policies by cutting the consumer carbon tax, ending door-to-door mail delivery with Canada Post and cutting the public service. 

Nevertheless, Carney praised Trudeau and other former Liberal prime ministers for their part in building the country. 

“Justin Trudeau widened the scope of our inclusive society by lifting almost one million Canadian children out of poverty. He walked the path of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, and he built a true compact with future generations.”

Canada hasn’t had a majority government since 2019. Kingston Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen, the party’s whip, said it will mean the government can move more quickly on legislation.

“To state the obvious, a majority means that we can start to get legislation through at a much faster speed without having to deal with the tactics that we’ve seen, in particular from the Conservatives, over the years,” he said.

Gerretsen’s role involves keeping the Liberals’ own MPs in line and in a narrow majority he will have to ensure MPs don’t miss votes and that any concerns they have about government legislation are addressed.

Since Gladu’s crossing, multiple Liberals have mentioned how much of a big tent the party is, but it now has to encompass views ranging from Gladu’s more Conservative stance to former NDP MP Lori Idlout’s positions. Gerretsen said all of that diversity can be encompassed in the Liberal party.

“We agree on the fact that 98 per cent of the time we’re together on every issue,” he said. “We hash those issues out when we aren’t, the two per cent of the time, amongst ourselves and it’s important that we come out united as a team.”

The party had a record-breaking fundraising year and the 4,500 people at the convention is the most the party has had outside of leadership contests. Party president Sachit Mehra said even if they should reach a majority, the work continues to prepare for a campaign.

“We are always working hard, making sure that we’re campaign ready,” he said.

The Liberal convention has had none of the usual tensions of political events. Carney’s leadership was not up for discussion because he won last year’s campaign and most of the policy debates landed in line with the government’s agenda. A proposal to change how leadership reviews would go in the future, which would have required delegates to be in attendance in person at future conventions, was withdrawn before it came to a vote. 

One potentially divisive policy proposal, which would have encouraged the government to use the constitutional power of disallowance on provinces that use the notwithstanding clause was defeated.