By Promit Mukherjee and Allison Lampert
KING CITY, Ontario (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre will make their final pitches to voters on Sunday, before an election that will determine who will negotiate on tariffs with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Carney spent Saturday in the most populous province of Ontario, arguing he is best placed to steer Canada through a crisis triggered by Trump’s tariffs, while Poilievre has emphasized the need for change after nearly a decade of Liberal rule under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It was too early to tell if a mass casualty event in Vancouver would have any impact on the election. Multiple people were killed and injured when a man drove into a large crowd attending a street festival late on Saturday, police said.
Carney, a two-time central banker and former college hockey goalie who took over this year after Trudeau resigned, referred to the country’s most popular sport as he campaigned ahead of Monday’s election.
“We are in the equivalent of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup in the last two minutes,” Carney, 60, said in a speech north of Toronto, referring to the National Hockey League championship.
In posts on social media, Carney later offered condolences and Poilievre said his thoughts were with Vancouver’s Filipino community after the “horrific” news coming out of the festival.
Pollsters say Carney’s Liberal Party holds a narrow lead in popular support ahead of final voting, after Trump slapped tariffs on Canada and repeatedly referred to the once close ally as the 51st U.S. state. Trump’s comments enraged Canadians and reversed a lead of some 20 points by Poilievre, whom the Liberals have compared to Trump.
A Nanos poll on Saturday said the gap between the two front-running parties has narrowed nationally to approximately three percentage points, from closer to four a day earlier, with the Conservatives making up ground especially in Ontario. The poll put national Liberal support at 41.9% versus 38.6% for the Conservatives.
That result in national voting would usually translate into a Liberal win, because the party’s support is more concentrated than the Conservatives’ in urban areas rich with electoral districts, or seats. It is unclear if it would result in the Liberals winning a majority of seats to govern without a smaller party’s help.
Nanos surveyed 1,291 adult Canadians between April 23 and 25 and is accurate to 2.7 percentage points.
According to another Saturday poll by Angus Reid, voter intention favors the Liberals by four percentage points over Poilievre’s Conservatives.
Poilievre’s promises of change and his pledges to curb living costs have resonated with young men, among others, leading to large crowds at rallies.
“We can’t afford four more years of the Liberals,” Poilievre told supporters in British Columbia on Saturday as they cheered “bring it home” and waved placards reading “change.”
Carney, who has distanced himself from Trudeau’s policies since taking over in March and has attracted mainly older voters to rallies, is expected to hold a frenetic four-province canvassing sprint on Sunday.
Voters in suburban Toronto waited over two hours in a cold, windy airport hangar on Saturday to hear Carney speak, waving placards reading “Canada Strong” and “Elbows up,” a hockey phrase used by Canadians to signify resisting Trump.
Trump generated headlines on the campaign trail recently after saying the United States did not need Canadian-made autos, and that he might increase tariffs on them.
Carney said his ideas for large infrastructure projects and eliminating trade barriers among the provinces by July would create leverage for Canada when the country kicks off trade talks with the U.S. after the election.
“We show the Americans that we’re not waiting for the phone to ring. We have other work to do,” Carney said. “If we just sit back, if we take what the Americans want, if we lose the negotiations … we will lose as a country.”
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee in King City, Ontario and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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