MONTREAL: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s party swept to victory in special elections on Monday (Aug 31), boosting the leader’s parliamentary majority as a trade war with the United States escalates.
Carney’s Liberal Party secured three seats, taking the district of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord in French-speaking Quebec from the opposition Conservatives, and two other districts in Ontario and British Columbia that were previously held by the Liberals.
Carney congratulated the winning candidates in a post on X, saying that voters had “placed their trust” in the government “at this consequential time for Canada.”
“Canada is being tested in a changing world, and Canadians are up for it,” he wrote.
Relations between former close allies the United States and Canada have soured after trade talks collapsed last month, with Carney saying US negotiators sought restrictions on his country’s trade pacts with other nations.
US officials made unacceptable “threats” to the French language and “Quebec culture” too, he added.
After Washington slapped Canada with 50-per cent duties, Ottawa announced counter-tariffs of its own.
Despite the risks that escalating the trade war poses to Canada, which is heavily dependent on exports to its southern neighbour, Carney can boast of broad support.
According to a poll late last month, 76 per cent of the public praised the former banker’s stance toward Washington.
Former head of Canada’s central bank, Carney, 61, was not known for his charisma – unlike his flamboyant predecessor Justin Trudeau, from the same Liberal Party – but has nevertheless managed to kindle a patriotic flame among Canadians weary of American attacks.
It was trade tension with the United States that propelled him to power – two months after Trump began his second term – as Canadians saw him as a protector of their economy.
Replacing Trudeau as leader of his party and the government in March 2025, he won a general election a month later, to everyone’s surprise.
The Liberals won the most seats but fell short of a majority.
A by-election in April this year changed that, allowing the party to secure the parliamentary majority it needed to push through an economic agenda aimed at reducing dependence on the United States.
More special elections are scheduled in the coming months to replace lawmakers who resigned, but polls suggest no threat to Carney’s majority.
