Canada election: Leaders on campaign trail respond after Trump revives ‘51st state’ rhetoric

A reporter asked Singh whether the Liberals are trying to show a more progressive side of Carney in an effort to target NDP and Green voters.

Singh said that people are worried about potential cuts by a Liberal government, and that the party is trying to hide from that. Carney has responded to this allegation before, saying he won't cut social programs for Canadians and that his plan is to cut operational costs.

"Mark Carney can't run from his record," said Singh, repeating his go-to talking points about Carney's time as chair of Brookfield Asset Management, and about Carney's planned tax rate cut for the lowest tax bracket, which Singh has characterized as a tax cut for millionaires.

"People are looking at that and starting to be really worried, so I could see why Mark Carney wants to say, ‘Hey, no, no, I'm actually a progressive.’ Well, the facts don't lie," said Singh.

Yesterday, Carney mentioned the NDP and its preference for “progressive policies.”

“To use an NDP term if I may — there, I said ‘NDP’ for the first time in the campaign — progressive policies, I think of them more as policies and institutions that are part of this country because we care about each other," Carney said.

With just four days left until election day, the NDP is in a tough spot. According to CBC’s Poll Tracker, New Democrats remain on track to suffer significant seat losses.

But Singh, who is running his third campaign as leader, was once again all smiles when reporters asked about his future.

“It’s hard to see how your leadership is not on the line this election,” CBC’s David Thurton said.

Singh said he’s focused on standing up for Canadians. Supporters chanted “Jagmeet! Jagmeet!” to the point the next reporter in line had to ask if she could get her question in.

“We’re just having a good time here,” said Singh.

There is pressure on Carney today to explain contradicting reports about his call with Trump last month. After the call, Carney said Trump “respected Canada's sovereignty,” but according to two sources who spoke to Radio-Canada, the idea of making Canada the 51st U.S. state was brought up by Trump during the March 28 call.

Singh questioned if Carney can be trusted to tell the truth if he’s the one negotiating with Trump after this election.

“With all this fear coming back up, people are worried about what this means for their jobs. People are worried about what this means for their families,” Singh said during a campaign stop in Winnipeg.

“We’re also worried about what the negotiations are going to look like and we recently learned that Mark Carney wasn’t being totally straight up with us when he told us what happened with his first phone call.”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is holding a campaign event in Winnipeg this morning.

I was struck by Poilievre's tone today — after dabbling with a more hopeful and optimistic message earlier in the week, he's back to painting quite a dark picture of life in Canada.

At his press conference in Halifax this morning, Poilievre reverted to form and leaned on a government research report that talks about a deteriorating quality of life for Canadians by 2040 if there aren't some changes.

"The trajectory we are on after the lost Liberal decade, were it to continue, would lead to more despair, more inflation and higher costs," Poilievre said.

"People need to know the terrifying picture that a fourth Liberal term will paint — of higher cost, of raging crime, of more despair," he said.

In 30 minutes, Poilievre asked voters to make a change 55 times.

That's the strategy for the closing days: remind voters things haven't been great for some folks over the last 10 years, pull attention back to just how long the Liberals have been in power and make the case that Carney isn't all that different from former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Poilievre also avoided talking about Trump today — even as the U.S. president renewed his 51st state taunts. Poilievre only said he will stand up to the Americans "from a position of strength."

Good morning! I’m J.P. Tasker, a senior reporter on the Conservative campaign trail.

In this final push of the election, leader Pierre Poilievre stopped at a car dealership this morning in suburban Halifax, one of two stops in the province on his first and only visit to Nova Scotia during this campaign.

The Liberals are looking to pick up seats here and in the wider Maritimes, and Poilievre came here to at least fly the flag in the closing days.

The choice of a car dealership fits with today’s announcement about scrapping the EV sales mandates, but it could also be seen as a nod to the auto tariffs Trump has slapped on all foreign-made cars, including most from his country.

Poilievre has studiously avoided making Trump and the trade war a major focus of his campaign, routinely only mentioning the president once by name in his rallies and rarely at his press conferences unless asked by reporters.

I’m Cat Tunney, a senior reporter with CBC’s Parliamentary Bureau. Our colleagues at Radio-Canada have an interesting story out this morning.

Sources tell them that during the phone call last month between U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump talked about the idea of making Canada the 51st U.S. state.

That differs from what the prime minister told journalists in a news conference later that day.

"The president respected Canada's sovereignty today both in his private and public comments," Carney said on March 28.

According to Radio-Canada's sources, Trump brought up the issue of the 51st state during the March 28 call, explaining the advantages of Canada joining the U.S. Carney let him speak before expressing his disagreement.

Carney will likely be asked about the duelling stories when he has an announcement in Port Moody, B.C., at 9 a.m. PT (noon ET).

Good morning! I’m Jenna, a senior writer in Toronto, and I’ll be curating this live page today.

With just four days to go until election day, the leaders are fanned out across the country to make their final appeals to voters.

Donald Trump’s shadow has loomed over much of this campaign, and the U.S. president reinserted himself into the election yesterday as he revived the “51st state” rhetoric that seemed to be on the backburner for a while.

However, Radio-Canada is reporting this morning that Trump did in fact refer to Canada as the “51st state” during his March 28 call with Carney. That contradicts Carney’s statement to reporters the next day that the U.S. president respected Canadian sovereignty during the call.

Poilievre spoke about Trump — and Carney — during his campaign event this morning and we’re waiting to see how the rest of the leaders react.

Join us for news and analysis from the campaign trail and beyond.