If we look back, just five months ago, Canada was poised to become a conservative backdrop as the popularity of the Conservative Party was at its highest. But the Canadian election results of 2025 painted a completely different story.
Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party, was widely unpopular despite the long-running rule of the Liberal Party. Every poll was in favor of the Conservatives and was expected to dominate the Canadian election results with a 25-point lead.
Then, Donald Trump entered the picture.
Canadian Election Results Take a Surprising Turn
After the resignation of Justin Trudeau as the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney took his spot as the interim Prime Minister. Carney’s Liberal Party celebrated the 2025 Canadian election results as they secured 168 seats, four short of a majority in the Canadian Parliament.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre came out as the biggest loser, losing his long-held seat in Ontario’s Carleton district to his liberal rival Bruce Fanjoy. Poilievre, once expected to come out on top in the Canadian election results, was hit the hardest by voter backlash to Trump’s annexation threats and tariff blunders.
One Toronto voter even remarked that Poilievre “sounds like a mini-Trump.”
The Trump Effect
Donald Trump’s long shadow over the Canadian elections wasn’t missed by the voters. In his first three months in office, Trump has been spitting insults at America’s northern neighbor and long-term ally. It has made many Canadians think about how the parties would deal with the “Trump Threat.” And that is what determined the Canadian election results.
Trump’s 25% tariff on Canadian goods and the threats of annexation added fuel to the fire of Canadian nationalism. Even the hockey fans were booing the US national anthem before games, a sign of growing resentment towards the US and its president.
While the Conservative Party had a softer stance towards Trump, Carney positioned himself as the solution to an existential threat from President Trump. He proclaimed boldly during a campaign stop that Donald Trump is “trying to break us, so the US can own us.”
Mark Carney framed the election as a battle for Canada’s survival and independence, while leveraging his international credibility as a crisis-era banker during the Great Recession and Brexit. The backlash against Poilievre’s MAGA tendencies and support for Carney’s anti-Trump policy led to a stunning comeback for the Liberal Party in the 2025 Canadian election results.
Read Next: This Policy Shift Could Be the Worst Thing to Happen to Women’s Health in Decades