CANADA BY-ELECTIONS:
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said the Liberals won through ‘backroom deals,’ and floor-crossers had betrayed people who voted for them
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s party secured a majority in parliament on Monday after winning all three by-election seats up for grabs, boosting his Liberals as they work to bolster a nation shaken by threats from the US.
Carney’s Liberals won the most seats in elections a year ago, but fell just short of a majority.
Canadians voted in three districts on Monday to fill vacated seats, and the Liberals easily won two Toronto areas where the party had dominated previous votes.
Photo: Bloomberg
The Liberal candidate also narrowly cinched victory in Quebec’s Terrebonne District against the Bloc Quebecois separatist candidate.
Securing 174 seats, the by-election wins give Liberals full control of parliament.
Carney congratulated the new Liberal lawmakers — Tatiana Auguste, Danielle Martin and Doly Begum — in a statement on social media early yesterday.
“Tonight, voters have placed their trust in our new government’s plan,” Carney said. “This is a time to come together so we can build a strong Canada for all.”
Carney has improved his party’s fortunes since last year’s election by sticking firmly to a message focused on US President Donald Trump, arguing the US leader has upended the world order and Canada needs to take bold action in response.
He has announced massive increases in military spending — insisting that Canada can no longer rely on Washington for security — and has traveled the globe seeking new trade deals in Asia and Europe.
Liberal poll numbers are higher than they were a year ago, and the party has pulled off a stunning set of defections from the opposition benches — poaching four Conservatives and one left-wing New Democratic lawmaker into the Liberal caucus.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on Monday on social media said that the Liberals had won their majority through “backroom deals,” and that the floor-crossers “betrayed the people who voted for them.”
The by-election results give Carney Canada’s first majority government since 2019, when the Liberals led by former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau controlled parliament.
Canadians have been rattled by Trump’s return to power.
The US president’s tariffs in key sectors have forced job losses in Canada and slowed growth, even if the majority of bilateral trade remains tariff-free.
Trump has threatened to annex Canada, and mocked both Carney and Trudeau as the “governor” of a US state.
For University of Ottawa political scientist Genevieve Tellier, Carney has built momentum by “emphasizing the historic moment we are living through.”
“We’ve rarely seen popularity ratings this high one year after coming to power,” Tellier said, adding that Carney was working to build “a broad national coalition” to respond to the unprecedented geopolitical moment.
On a warm afternoon in central Toronto, Jeyaram Duraisingam said that he volunteered for the Liberal campaign partly because he was impressed by the local candidate Martin, but he also praised Carney for asserting that Canada is “a sovereign nation” in response to Trump’s taunts.
“He’s willing to go out there and connect with Europe, connect with different countries and make those relationships stronger. I think that matters,” he said.
Opposition parties have argued that Carney’s soaring rhetoric about economic transformation has failed to make lives more affordable.
The Angus Reid Institute last month found that “concerns over the high cost of living are higher than they have been in recent memory for lower-income Canadians.”
Grocery prices are up more than 20 percent since 2022 and unemployment is at 6.7 percent.
“We will continue to fight for people to afford homes, food and fuel,” Poilievre said after Monday’s votes.
