As it has evolved, this federal election is the most consequential vote for the country’s future that Canadians have had to cast since the Canada-U.S. Free Trade election of 1988. Like that election, the Liberals and Conservatives are offering Canadians opposing visions for the nation. The outcome Monday night will not only determine how the country will manage relations with its largest trading partner and longstanding ally, but also which of the significantly differing approaches to developing the economy the country is about to embark on.
The banker with a globalist vision
Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney has had an accomplished financial career, being governor of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England and the central banker for the financial initiatives supporting the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda and the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) banking alliance that is advancing net-zero objectives. Holding responsibilities as both the U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and a Trustee on the WEF board, Carney returned to Canada in 2020 to assume an advisory role to former prime minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal cabinet on matters relating to fiscal and energy transition policy. In his spare time, he was also Chairman of the Board of Brookfield Asset Management Company, formerly a Toronto-based firm that, with the guidance of Carney in late 2024, moved its head offices to New York.
Carney’s campaign has focused on his abilities in negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump. The Liberals suggest they will be “elbows up” tough with the President and Carney has held out the promise that he will rebuff Trump’s trade terms by establishing new trading opportunities with Europe and elsewhere, presumably China. Aside from this centrepiece campaign plank, Carney has signaled that his government will not support building pipelines but rather pursue an energy strategy that advances the subsidization and development of energy transition projects. Also, though no details have been offered, Carney promises to establish a new industrial carbon tax on Canada’s industrial and agricultural sectors as well as a “carbon border mechanism” to ensure Canada meets its international net-zero goals.
Last weekend Carney released the Liberals’ costed platform entitled “Canada Strong”. The document is highlighted as Carney’s plan to “stand up to Donald Trump and build a stronger Canada.” To safeguard Canadian sovereignty in the face of the threats of American tariffs, the Liberals’ plan, in part, is to support “Nation-building projects” like high-speed rail from Quebec City to Toronto and upgrading port facilities, initiate a new “Build Canada Homes” program, and provide additional financial support and a broadened mandate to CBC. With his election platform, Carney is also promising nearly $130 billion of new government support measures over the next four years – over and above the deficit budget spending projected by the Liberal government’s 2024 Fall Economic Statement.
The Liberal campaign promises have had many in Canada’s business community express their reservations with the direction the Carney Liberals will take the country. Perhaps most noteworthy has been business magnet and philanthropist Jim Balsillie (formerly of RIM/Blackberry) who observed, “Whether it’s his perspectives on incentives, investment, climate strategies or productivity, Mr. Carney’s economic proposals to date represent the very establishment that has for the past 30 years peddled ossified and distorted ideas about the economy that manifested a systemic erosion of Canada’s prosperity. A more confident and efficient version of Mr. Trudeau will not make Canada’s economy grow. Instead, Mr. Carney’s economic policy proposals will simply perpetuate the status quo, making Canada more vulnerable, less prosperous and less sovereign.”
The parliamentarian with a nationalist vision
In contrast to the career banker, the leader of the Conservative Party has spent the last two decades as an elected representative in the House of Commons. He has spent time on both sides of the chamber, including as a cabinet minister and for the last two years as Leader of the official Opposition. Poilievre has a solid understanding of Parliament, Canadian institutions, and the country’s international relations. As MP, Poilievre has travelled the country extensively and has an intimate knowledge of the regions and the peoples’ sensitivities and needs.
There are two commitments that have been core to Poilievre’s campaign. First, he will grow Canada’s economy by developing its natural resources, specifically unharnessing the oil and gas sector and boosting energy exports. Second, he will request the immediate negotiations of a renewed Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal to prompt trade talks with the U.S., while working with provinces to ease interprovincial trade barriers, and with Canadian businesses and unions to facilitate greater investment and development within the country.
This past week the Conservatives released their costed platform entitled “Canada First – For a Change” and Poilievre’s lead message was a call to action: “It is time for Canada to think big again. It is time to challenge ourselves to build. Because decline is a choice, but it’s not my choice. I choose to grow. I choose to meet this moment with ambition worthy of the men and women who built this great country.”
The Conservatives lead promises involve making life more affordable by cutting income tax by 15 per cent, providing tax breaks for seniors, and removing development charges as well as sales tax on most new homes. They promise to encourage resource projects, from pipelines to mining sites, establish a pre-approved east-west energy corridor, and to repeal all Liberal anti-energy laws. The Conservatives will also fully scrap the carbon tax – both the consumer and the industrial carbon tax. Poilievre is also pledging to strengthen the economic activities between provinces and working to re-establish the national dream that had inspired Canada’s Fathers of Confederation.
The editors of the National Post published a front-page article this week that lauded the aspirational overtures of the Conservative platform. In its editorial, “Pierre Poilievre’s platform is a clear path back to prosperity – Tories promise to bootstrap the country’s economy, reduce the cost of living and protect us from foreign threats” the paper observes:
“The Conservative platform reads like a laundry list of things we should have been doing at least since Trump was first elected in 2016, but it’s better late than never. While none of this will be easy, that should not stop us, as a nation, from striving to accomplish big things and building a better future for our children and grandchildren.
The Conservatives are offering a path back to prosperity and a vision for the country that contrasts sharply with the worn-out ideas of the Liberal party. The choice of whether we follow that path at this critical point in history will be up to us Canadians — and us alone — as we head to the polls on Monday.”
The Conservatives offer Canadians a very different vision and pathway forward. Poilievre summed up the contrast in an interview with Jasmin Laine, in which he is critical of the Liberals’ interventionist approach to nationhood. “They want to control everything. I want pretty much the opposite – let people decide for themselves. I don’t believe politicians or bureaucrats have any divine powers to tell you how to live your life.” (This is a telling interview for understanding the differences between the Conservatives and Liberals: Pierre and Ana Poilievre sit down with Jasmin Laine (26 minutes)).
Two final points on the significance of Monday’s vote. The first point is a report that has surfaced that underscores the necessity for the next government to take decisive action to ensure economic growth and prosperity. This week Blacklock’s Reporter set off alarm bells over the fate of the Canadian society with its bombshell news story “Fed Report Predicts Collapse.” An internal government report given to the Liberal cabinet in January conjured up a picture of Canada in 15 years: an Orwellian state where most Canadians will be living a hopeless existence. The report envisions Canada in 2040 “where upward social mobility is uncommon. Hardly anyone believes they can build a better life for themselves or their children in this future.”
While many in media and the political punditry were quick to dismiss this report as sensational and unplausible, veteran newsman Terry Glavin saw it as a Cassandra’s vision – perhaps to help Canadians refocus on what is really at stake with the vote Monday. Glavin’s National Post piece makes the concluding observation, “This is a horribly dystopian scenario, and it’s not something somebody imagined might prevail in 2040. It’s already upon us, and it’s hard to say whether any of our politicians want to admit it.”
Read the report: Future Lives: Social mobility in question
The second point is an analogy that was shared in the last few weeks that this scribe believes captures the intense situation Canadians now find themselves in. Imagine Johnny Canuck is hiking in the forest on an early spring morning and comes across a venomous snake laying rigid on the path. He hesitates and walks around it, and the snake looks up and says, “Please, I am soooo cold. Will you please hold me so I can warm up.” Johnny says, “No, I know you. You are a snake and if I pick you up you will bite me.” “No, I promise I won’t for I will be thankful for your compassion,” says the snake. Johnny picks up the snake and cradles it against his chest. The snake warms up, turns its head and bites into Johnny’s neck. Johnny throws the snake down and as he feels the poison work through his body and he is about to lose consciousness, Johnny mutters, “But, why, why, you promised?” The snake flicked his tongue and said flatly, “I am a snake.”
On issues involving Trump and trade, as well as other serious matters like housing, immigration, cost of living, crime and public safety, fiscal policy – and not to forget China and foreign influence, the Carney Liberals and the Poilievre Conservatives offer voters two opposing visions of the Nation. This is the choice for Canadians.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
