Prime Minister Mark Carney will be calling the 2025 federal election today, sending the country into an early campaign, six months ahead of the fixed date.
Carney is expected to pay Gov. Gen. Mary Simon a visit around midday EDT to ask that she issue the writs of election.
It’s his second trip to Rideau Hall in 10 days, with his last historic visit happening March 14 for the swearing in of his new and now potentially short-lived ministry. Now, instead of returning to Parliament on March 24 as scheduled, MPs and the candidates looking to unseat them are off to the races, now with 343 seats up for grabs after the last electoral district redistribution.
Making it a five-week campaign, Canadians will head to the polls April 28. The date means Carney has opted for the shortest possible campaign period allowed under Canadian law.
It also means advance polls would take place over Easter weekend.
Liberals look to leverage leadership momentum
The Liberals selected Carney as leader on March 9, after a two-month race to replace former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Without a seat in the House of Commons, the former central banker would not be able to participate in the chamber. This was seen as potential motivator for him to trigger a snap vote rather than try to navigate an already unstable minority government from the sidelines.
There had also been widespread speculation during the latter half of the Liberal leadership race that whoever won would try to seize on the party’s recent surge in popularity by calling an early election.
That same polling indicated that Carney, in particular, would benefit the most from an earlier election.
Despite nearly two years of a Conservative double-digit lead in public opinion polling, the Liberals started to gain ground and close the gap around the end of January, following Trudeau’s resignation earlier that month.
By mid-February, data showed the Liberals and the Conservatives would be neck-and-neck if Carney were chosen as the next Liberal leader.
Now, some of those same pollsters have the Liberals pulling slightly ahead, a widely unanticipated turnaround for a party that’s been in power for nearly a decade.
Campaign kicks off amid trade tensions
This election — the first in 12 years without Trudeau at the helm of the Liberals — will get underway at a time when Canada’s relationship with the United States is being severely tested, and amid unpredictability about what the American administration might do next.
During the leadership race Carney played coy about his potential post-victory electoral intentions, noting the underlying uncertainty of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
After taking office, the two-time central banker made it clear that he thought it was important that at a moment like this, Canadians need to have their say about the path ahead and who should be leading the way.
This campaign is being called with cross-border tariffs in place. Trump has hit Canada with 25 per cent import tariffs on non-trade-exempt goods and followed it up with further levies on steel and aluminum. The federal government has hit back with reciprocal countermeasures, targeting $60 billion worth of U.S. products.
And still looming is the president’s threat of what he has called “the big one:” reciprocal tariffs, which he says are coming April 2.
It’s set to be the big ballot question, with Canadians being asked to vote for who they think is best placed to steer the country through these choppy and chaotic waters.
Opposition parties pitch change
Since being officially sworn in as prime minister little more than a week ago, Carney has followed through on his campaign promises to scrap the consumer carbon tax and the capital gains inclusion rate increase. If he wins the election, he’s vowed to eliminate the GST for some first-time homebuyers, a move Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised last October.
Opposition party leaders, meanwhile, have campaign-launch events scheduled for today.
The election is the first with Poilievre as leader of the Conservatives. He took over in September 2022, after his party’s three consecutive general election losses to the Liberals, and is now looking to end early ten years of Liberal rule.
He’s set to kick off the 37-day campaign with an event in Manotick, Ont., in the riding he’s held for nearly 21 years.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who will be launching his campaign from Ottawa today, and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet were both at the helm of their respective parties during the last two elections. Heading into this one, they — and Green party co-leaders Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault — are all hoping to improve their standings.
The Bloc and the Greens will launch their campaigns from Montreal.
CTVNews.ca will have in-depth coverage on Sunday and exclusive reporting throughout the campaign. A CTV News Special Report will be hosted by CTV News Chief Anchor & Senior News Editor Omar Sachedina and Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos on Sunday and will be streaming on all platforms.