Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned US President Donald Trump in his victory speech in Ottawa, Ontario on Tuesday. The 60-year-old Liberal Party leader won the federal elections on Monday but fell short of majority.
Carney stressed on the unity of Canadian people in the face of threats from Trump–steep trade tariffs imposed by the latter. He vowed to speak for all Canadians while rebuking the US president. “Our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over,” Carney said.
The Canadian premier added the system of open global trade anchored by the United States, a system that Canada has relied on since the World War II is now over. Carney noted that it wasn’t a perfect system, but it helped deliver prosperity for Canada adding that it is “also our new reality.”
He added that America wanted Canada, its resources, land, and water. These threats, however, are not innocuous. Carney celebrated a stunning turnaround in his party’s fortunes and declared that Trump was trying to break them so that America could own them. “Never, ever will that happen,” he said.
Carney added that though Canadians have moved past the trauma of the American treachery, they must always remember the lessons learned. “We must take care of ourselves. And we must look out for one another above all else,” he remarked.
Though it is unclear if Carney has secured a majority or will require coalition partners to rule, voters have put Canada’s Liberal Party back in power for a fourth consecutive term.
Early on Tuesday, Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative opposition, conceded defeat, claiming that Carney had secured enough seats to establish a “razor thin minority government.”
After former prime minister Justin Trudeau stepped down in March, Carney, a former central banker has been riding on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment that worked for him. Besides, he also rallied against Trump’s threats to annex Canada as the 51st state of the US.
During the time of writing this report, Liberals were leading in 127 electoral districts or seats whereas the Conservatives won 101, with votes still being counted.
The Liberals had needed to win 172 seats of the 343 seats of the House of Commons for a majority that would allow them to govern without support from a smaller party.
Shachi Kurl, president of the polling company Angus Reid Institute said that three factors were crucial to the Liberal victory while speaking to Reuters.
“It was the ‘anybody-but-Conservative’ factor, it was the Trump tariff factor, and then it was the Trudeau departure … which enabled a lot of left-of-center voters and traditional Liberal voters to come back to the party,” Kurl said, referring to the resignation of Trudeau, whose popularity had taken a nosedive.
Carney had stated that Canada would have to invest billions to lessen its dependency on the US and had pledged a stern stance with Washington regarding its import tariffs.