How Canada rediscovered patriotism, thanks to Trump Margaret MacMillan

Donald Trump is taking credit for the Liberal victory in Canada. Mark Carney, he purrs, is “a nice gentleman” who called and, in words that sound suspiciously like the president’s own, said: “Let’s make a deal.”

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This time Trump has a point in taking credit for developments in another country. Without him the Liberal party would not have had a chance. Until the start of 2025, the Conservative party had been polling some 20 points ahead and its leader, Pierre Poilievre, was hammering the government in snappy three-word slogans: “Axe the Tax”, “Stop the Crime’ or “Canada is Broken”.

Most people, including Canadians, took Trump's remarks about the 51st state and “Governor” Trudeau, as a bad joke - but not for long. The map of North America, Trump mused, would look “beautiful” if all that real estate north of the “artificial” border became part of the US.

Canadians, more than 80% of them, did not welcome that prospect and the polls started to shift in late January. The deeply unpopular Justin Trudeau won rare approval for his forthright defence of Canadian independence and Poilievre started to face criticism even from fellow Conservatives over his slowness to respond to the American threat. When Trudeau resigned, that removed a large part of the reason the Liberals were so disliked. His successor Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, was untried in Canadian politics, but was seen as someone who knew the world and, crucially, could stand up to Trump. By the time Carney called the election the polls had reversed with the Liberals ahead by as much as 7%.