OTTAWA — In the minutes after the landslide victory that propelled him to Liberal leader, Mark Carney already seemed to be gearing up for an imminent snap election.
In a first official message to supporters, Carney accused Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives — who had been calling for a “carbon tax election” for months, before pivoting to his “Canada First” message — of having taken “this year’s election for granted.”
“But Canadians love a good comeback,” reads Carney’s note to Liberal supporters on Sunday evening. “I’m ready for the fight, and to work harder than ever before.”
On Monday, the newly appointed leader was in private meetings and preparing his transition. He is expected to be sworn in as prime minister later this week and to name a smaller, leaner cabinet to face the threat of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Carney will soon have to decide if he calls an early election instead of going back to Parliament when prorogation ends on March 24.
The party did not wait for the election of their new leader to prepare for that moment. They already have a campaign platform ready that is being tweaked to reflect Carney’s vision and are gearing up for an election that could be called in the days leading up to March 24.
Philippe J. Fournier, creator of the poll aggregator website 338Canada, said he has never seen anything like the current polls showing the Liberals closing the gap with the Conservatives in two months since he started analyzing polls a decade ago.
Fournier however thinks the Conservatives still have a clear advantage in the upcoming election.
“The Liberals have been in power for close to a decade. The Conservatives have a huge fundraising advantage, and they have been leading in the polls for the better part of 18 months. So, this is the Conservatives’ election to lose,” he said.
National Post
[email protected]
Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.