Election campaign begins, as leaders start making their pitches to Canadians

Prime Minister Mark Carney has called the 2025 federal election, sending the country into an early campaign, six months ahead of the fixed date.

Carney paid Gov. Gen. Mary Simon a visit Sunday to ask that she issue the writs of election.

It’s his second trip to Rideau Hall in 10 days, with his last historic visit happening March 14 for the swearing in of his new and now potentially short-lived ministry. Now, instead of returning to Parliament on March 24 as scheduled, MPs and the candidates looking to unseat them are off to the races, now with 343 seats up for grabs after the last electoral district redistribution.

“We’ve done a lot in the nine days to put in place many of the foundations,” Carney said from outside Rideau Hall Sunday. “But what’s important is that the government has a mandate from the Canadian people to finish the job, to finish the job of building that Canadian economy, to finish the job of diversifying our trading partners, and to have a strong mandate to stand up to (U.S. President) Donald Trump and the Americans and negotiate the best deal for Canadians.”

Making it a five-week campaign, Canadians will head to the polls April 28. The date means Carney has opted for the shortest possible campaign period allowed under Canadian law.

It also means advance polls would take place over Easter weekend.

Liberals look to leverage leadership momentum

The Liberals selected Carney as leader on March 9, after a two-month race to replace former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Without a seat in the House of Commons, the former central banker would not be able to participate in the chamber. This was seen as potential motivator for him to trigger a snap vote rather than try to navigate an already unstable minority government from the sidelines.

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One day before kicking off the campaign, the Liberal party announced what many in Ottawa long speculated, that Carney would be running for a seat in the nation’s capital. Carney is seeking his first ever seat in the House of Commons in the riding of Nepean, which neighbours Poilievre’s long-held riding.

Confirming the news in a post online, Carney said he was “honoured” to seek election in that constituency, and called this election “one of the most consequential in our lifetimes.”

Meanwhile, despite nearly two years of a Conservative double-digit lead in public opinion polling, the Liberals started to gain ground and close the gap around the end of January, following Trudeau’s resignation earlier that month.

By mid-February, data showed the Liberals and the Conservatives would be neck-and-neck if Carney were chosen as the next Liberal leader.

Now, some of those same pollsters have the Liberals pulling slightly ahead, a widely unanticipated turnaround for a party that’s been in power for nearly a decade.

In his speech outside Rideau Hall Sunday, Carney pointed to his following through on Liberal leadership campaign promises in the last week to try to make the argument that he now needs a mandate from Canadians to continue making progress.

Carney cited his pledge to scrap the consumer carbon tax and the capital gains inclusion rate increase, and to work to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers, as examples .

If he wins the election, he’s vowed to eliminate the GST for some first-time homebuyers, a move Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised last October.

The Liberal leader also announced Sunday that if he becomes prime minister at the end of April, he’ll implement a middle-class tax cut, which he says will save dual-income families up to $825 a year.

Poilievre blames Liberals for ‘lost’ decade

Opposition party leaders, meanwhile, are also launching their campaigns today.

The election is the first with Poilievre as leader of the Conservatives. He took over in September 2022, after his party’s three consecutive general election losses to the Liberals, and is now looking to end early ten years of Liberal rule.

In a press conference ahead of Carney’s trip to Rideau Hall, Poilievre pitched himself to Canadians, blaming the Liberals for the cost-of-living crisis, and referring to Trudeau’s tenure as “the lost Liberal decade.”

With some polling showing the Liberals and Conservatives in a statistical tie, the leaders of both parties took shots at the other in their speeches on Sunday, setting up the next five weeks as a potentially antagonistic race.

In his speech, the Conservative leader also laid out a slate of policy planks, including scrapping the industrial carbon tax, eliminating the sales tax on some new homes, and freeing up land and cutting development charges, among other promises.

“We don’t go looking for a fight, but we’re ready if one comes looking for us,” Poilievre said. “None of this will be easy, but making and defending Canada wasn’t easy either, and with change, there’s hope.”

“Change and hope are both on the way,” he also said. “A new Conservative government will restore Canada’s promise, the promise that anyone from anywhere can do anything, that hard work gets you a great life in a beautiful home on a safe street under a proud flag.”

He officially kicked off the 37-day campaign with an event in Manotick, Ont., in the riding he’s held for nearly 21 years.

NDP, Greens and Bloc look to improve their standings

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who launched his campaign from Ottawa today, and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet were both at the helm of their respective parties during the last two elections. Heading into this one, they — and Green party co-leaders Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault — are all hoping to improve their standings.

Singh is campaigning on policies advanced by the longstanding supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and the NDP — such as dental care and pharmacare — highlighting them as progressive moves his party “forced” the government to implement.

“You deserve a prime minister you can trust to make decisions in your best interest,” Singh said, before taking aim at Carney, Poilievre, and Trump.

“People who are afraid at a Pierre Poilievre government might think they have no choice but Carney,” Singh also said. “But this is like being told you have to pick between a house with a leaky roof or a cracked foundation, one patched together with empty Conservative slogans, the other rotting from the inside after years of Liberals protecting the most wealthy.”

In a press release Sunday, the NDP says that Singh and New Democrat candidates are ready for this election: “this time around, they’ve got more money, they’re better prepared and they’ve got strong candidates.” The release also states, “This is the first time in a decade the NDP will spend the maximum allowed under Elections Canada’s limits.”

The Bloc and the Greens launched their campaigns from Montreal.

At the start of the year, polling suggested the main rival to Blanchet’s Bloc Québécois was the Conservatives.

Trudeau’s decision, however, to step down as Liberal leader — and Carney’s rise as his replacement — coincided with a Liberal resurgence in the polls.

“What goes up goes down. If that’s good for me, that’s good for Mr. Carney. Let’s see,” Blanchet told reporters at his party’s campaign launch.

“I do not have the feeling that Quebecers trust so much Mr. Poilievre, and I do not have the feeling that Quebecers know so much about Mr. Carney,” said Blanchet.

The Bloc leaded added that while he’s not running to be prime minister, he’s running to be a strong leader to promote Quebec interests.

Also speaking to reporters in Montreal, the Green Party leaders — which held two seats in in the House Commons before dissolution — were asked directly about their electoral prospects and whether they can make any gains.

“Actually, I think (the Green Party has) done extremely well. We now have more candidates nominated than others of the main parties,” May said, adding they are aiming to win “as many (seats) as we can.”

“The role for the Green Party right now is to stand up for every single Canadian that’s having a hard time because of politicians and career politicians standing up in front of them and consistently, constantly lying to them. We’re not politicians,” Pedneault added.

Campaign kicks off amid trade tensions

This election — the first in 12 years without Trudeau at the helm of the Liberals — will get underway at a time when Canada’s relationship with the United States is being severely tested, and amid unpredictability about what the American administration might do next.

During the leadership race Carney played coy about his potential post-victory electoral intentions, noting the underlying uncertainty of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

After taking office, the two-time central banker made it clear that he thought it was important that at a moment like this, Canadians need to have their say about the path ahead and who should be leading the way.

This campaign is being called with cross-border tariffs in place. Trump has hit Canada with 25 per cent import tariffs on non-trade-exempt goods and followed it up with further levies on steel and aluminum. The federal government has hit back with reciprocal countermeasures, targeting $60 billion worth of U.S. products.

And still looming is the president’s threat of what he has called “the big one:” reciprocal tariffs, which he says are coming April 2.

It’s set to be the big ballot question, with Canadians being asked to vote for who they think is best placed to steer the country through these choppy and chaotic waters.

Both Carney and Poilievre took aim at the commander-in-chief in their campaign-launch speeches Sunday.

“I know a lot of people are worried, angry and anxious, and with good reason, as a result of the president’s unacceptable threats against our country,” Poilievre said. “You worry about your job and the sovereignty of our nation, and you’re angry at the feeling of betrayal that these unacceptable words and tariffs have made us all experience.”

“I share your anger and I share the worry for our future, but I also draw great resolve in knowing that we can transform the anxiety and anger into action,” he added, insisting Canada will never become the 51st state, an ongoing threat from the U.S. president amid the trade war.

The Liberal leader also framed many of his policy proposals as geared at pushing back against Trump and helping Canada become less reliant on its southern neighbour.

“We are facing the most significant crisis of our lifetimes because of President Trump’s unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty,” Carney said. “Our response must be to build a strong economy and a more secure Canada President Trump claims that Canada isn’t a real country. He wants to break us so America can own us.”

Poilievre, Carney, and Singh are set to host more campaign launch events Sunday night.

With files from Stephanie Ha and Brennan MacDonald