How Donald Trump Upended Canadian Politics and Helped the Liberals Win

 By Tim Challies - Posted at @challies:

On April 28, Canadians elected the Liberal Party of Canada to a fourth consecutive term. This is a rare feat for a political party in Canada and in this case, one of special significance, for just months ago, the Liberals seemed destined for near-complete destruction. The cost of living was spiking, the quality of life was falling, and through it all Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had become historically unpopular. His party had also become historically unpopular and was able to press on only by being propped up by the New Democratic Party and then proroguing Parliament. At that time, polls showed the Conservative Party under Pierre Poilievre would triumph to a degree never before seen in Canadian history.

But then Donald Trump got involved and did so in a couple of different ways.1 First, following a fateful meeting with Justin Trudeau, he began to refer to Canada as the 51st state and its Prime Minister as a mere governor. He made it clear that he believed Canada should revoke its sovereignty and become part of the United States. Second, he began to treat Canada as more of an enemy than an ally, putting heavy tariffs in place and speaking of how Canada has been taking advantage of the United States by stealing her jobs and maintaining unfair trade surpluses. Almost instantly, the political scene in Canada was utterly transformed.

Justin Trudeau eventually resigned and the Liberals chose Mark Carney as his successor. Carney, a former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, was almost entirely unknown to Canadians before putting his hat in the ring and being appointed Prime Minister. In his short initial tenure in office, he quickly passed some of the measures promised by Pierre Poilievre, such as revoking the hated carbon tax, while adopting several components of the Conservative platform as his own. This took the wind out of the Conservative sails and essentially narrowed the election to a referendum on which leader could best stand up to Donald Trump and save the Canadian economy. Many believed it came down to the choice between a career politician with no business experience or a wealthy businessman with slim political experience.

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See also:

• Canada’s “Lost Liberal Decade” Just Got Longer ━ The European Conservative