Prime Minister Mark Carney led his Liberal Party to a narrow victory in Canada’s pivotal election on Monday, securing a fourth term in power for the party and a renewed mandate to lead the fight against President Trump over trade and the nation’s sovereignty.
Mr. Carney, a former central banker who was running for office for the first time, struck a combative tone toward the United States during his acceptance speech in the early hours of Tuesday at a Liberal Party event in Ottawa.
It was unclear whether the Liberals would win a majority of seats in the next House of Commons, which would allow Mr. Carney to govern relatively unimpeded, or if his government would need to rely on smaller parties to support his legislative agenda.
Carney promises to face up to Trump.
Mr. Carney has not met Mr. Trump in person since becoming Liberal Party leader and prime minister last month. But he made Mr. Trump’s menacing comments about making Canada the 51st state and the tariffs he has imposed on Canadian goods the center of his campaign.
The two men held what was described as a professional call before the election, though Mr. Carney said during the campaign that Mr. Trump had brought up the 51st state threat during that conversation.
Mr. Carney has said that he will maintain Canada’s retaliatory tariffs against the United States. But he has cautioned that expanding them would harm Canadians more than they would pressure Americans.
Mr. Carney has also pledged to diversify Canada’s alliances and trading relationships, and he made a brief but important trip to Europe to underscore that approach last month.
In his acceptance speech, Mr. Carney stressed that his priority would be to continue to push back against Mr. Trump.
“As I’ve been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,” he said. “President Trump is trying to break us so he can own us. That will never happen.” He also warned Canadians that confronting the American threat would be difficult and might require sacrifices.
The result was close.
Mr. Carney’s victory was an extraordinary political comeback for the Liberals. Just a few months ago, they trailed the opposition Conservative Party under Pierre Poilievre by nearly 30 percentage points according to opinion polls, and it was widely expected that the Liberals faced a near-death experience.
But that was before Mr. Trump began talking about annexing Canada and imposing potentially crippling tariffs on the country.
It was also before Justin Trudeau, who many voters had soured on after nearly a decade in office, stepped down as prime minister.
Early in the campaign, polls started to suggest that the Conservatives’ sizable lead had evaporated and that the Liberals under Mr. Carney might be headed for a decisive win.
But during the final week or so of the campaign, the gap between the two parties narrowed as voters’ concerns shifted away from Mr. Trump’s designs on Canada and back to concerns about the cost of living.
While the Conservatives were denied power, the party appeared headed for its biggest share of the popular vote since 1988, and it will most likely win more seats than it did in the previous Parliament.
The Conservatives made gains, but their leader lost his seat.
Mr. Poilievre lost his seat in Ottawa, a stinging defeat for a man who seemed set to become the next prime minister just a few weeks ago. He is a career politician and has held the seat for the past two decades, since he was 25.
Before news of his loss had been confirmed, Mr. Poilievre conceded the general election but vowed to stay on as leader.
He framed the Conservative result as the start of a major shift in Canadian politics, highlighting the important gains the party had made under his leadership.
“Change is needed, but is hard to come by. It takes time, it takes work,” Mr. Poilievre told his supporters in Ottawa.
But it is not clear whether his party will stick with him. Despite crediting Mr. Poilievre with lifting the Conservatives, there are segments of the party that hold him accountable for failing to successfully pivot after the threat posed by Mr. Trump. Losing his seat weakens his authority, and the Conservative caucus ousted the party’s two previous leaders after election losses, but analysts expressed belief that he still had a strong grip on the party.
Carney will have to make big decisions quickly.
After his call with Mr. Trump last month, Mr. Carney said that the U.S. president had agreed to swiftly enter broad talks on security and economic issues with whoever won Monday’s election, so a meeting between the two leaders is expected soon.
Mr. Carney will also have to quickly make a number of domestic political decisions, starting with forming a cabinet and beginning a parliamentary session.
Other experiences awaiting him include being grilled in Parliament for the first time.
And Mr. Carney will soon host the leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations. Mr. Trump and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as the European Union, are expected to attend the summit to be held in Kananaskis, a mountain resort in Alberta, in mid-June.
