As Trump's impact fades, Carney faces a big challenge

Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson talks to Brian Lee Crowley, the managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, about the big challenges ahead for Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Carney and Poilievre faced off in the House of Commons on Monday for the first time , with a few niceties and some light sparring as Conservatives attempted to paint Carney as “just another Liberal.”

In August, Poilievre was elected in one of the safest Conservative ridings of the country, Battle River—Crowfoot, after one of his MPs, Damien Kurek, agreed to step down. The Conservatiuve leader was defeated in his Ottawa-area riding of Carleton in April and therefore could not sit as leader of the opposition during the short spring session.

Carney spent part of the summer making good on two campaign promises by setting up new entities: Major Projects Office and Build Canada Homes. But the upcoming budget is shaping up to be a challenge. Already, Liberals have been setting the stage for a substantially bigger deficit than the $42.2 billion that was budgeted for this fiscal year.

The state of the economy, not U.S. tariffs, is top of mind for Canadians right now, Leger polling CEO Jean-Marc Léger told reporters , after his presentation on the “mood of the country” to cabinet earlier this month.

National Post

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