Hello, welcome to Politics Insider, election edition. There are four days until voting day. Let’s look at what happened today.
Mark Carney acknowledged that Donald Trump raised the issue of Canada becoming the 51st state in their private phone call last month, a fact Carney did not mention in his original summary of the phone call.
The Globe and Mail’s Bill Curry reports that the Liberal Leader was asked to comment on a Radio-Canada story saying that during the call the U.S. President had said why he thought Canada should be the 51st state and that Carney had replied that they would agree to disagree.
“The President brings this up all the time. He brought it up yesterday. He brought it up before,” Carney told reporters in Coquitlam, B.C. without describing exactly what was said during the call.
After several questions on the topic, Carney clearly confirmed that Trump raised the issue. Carney, who is also the Prime Minister, did not mention the issue in his original summary of the phone call, which said the President “respected Canada’s sovereignty today both in his private and public comments.”
“I said that he did,” he said. “He has these things in his mind. This is not news.”
Carney said he rejected the proposal.
In the Montreal-area city of Dorval, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Carney’s call with Trump now appears to have been a stunt, and not what was described afterwards.
“There was no support for Canada’s sovereignty,” Blanchet told a news conference, referring to a condition Carney had set for discussions with Trump.
“I believe many people in Canada and Quebec will say, ‘What the hell is that?’ And if that is not true, what else is not true?’”
Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is at risk of losing his Ottawa-area riding as the party scrambles to send in volunteers to save the seat he has held since 2004, two federal and two provincial Conservative sources say.
The Globe’s Robert Fife reports that with several polls showing the Liberals poised to win the election, the loss of Poilievre’s Carleton riding would make it difficult for him to hang on to his federal party leadership post.
Mark Carney, left, in Kitchener, Ont., on March 26, and President Donald Trump, right, in Washington on March 26.The Canadian Press
Elsewhere on the campaign trail
Elections Canada managing long ballot with 90 candidates challenging Poilievre: The elections agency says it has measures in place to help people vote in the Ontario riding where Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is being challenged by 90 other candidates on the ballot.
Liberals, NDP promise to make it easier to access medical records: The Globe’s Secret Canada series recently published an investigation into the country’s fragmented medical-records system, revealing how inefficiencies were wasting precious health care resources and potentially leading to medical errors.
Pierre Poilievre promises to end EV sales mandates, keep battery plant subsidies: “If a company sells even one car over the government-imposed quota, they will face a $20,000 per-vehicle tax, which will obviously be passed on to consumers,” the Conservative Leader told a news conference today at a car dealership in Halifax.
New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador sign agreement to knock down trade barriers: The country’s two Liberal premiers announced the agreement in St. John’s, N.L., today, saying their goal is to allow workers and goods certified in one province to be given the same clearance in the other.
Pierre Poilievre has spent two decades in politics, but Canadians still wonder what he believes: Globe business columnist Andrew Willis profiles the Conservative Leader ahead of Monday’s federal election.
On our election radar
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet visited a Bombardier facility in Dorval, held a news conference, attended a lunch with candidates in Longueuil, visited Farnham, a family farm in Saint-Alexandre, and a Sainte-Julie creamery.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held a news conference in Halifax, and was scheduled to participate in an evening rally in Saskatoon.
Green Party Co-Leader Elizabeth May, in British Columbia, attended a rotary club breakfast in Sidney, participated in an online dialogue held by the British Columbia Real Estate Association, and canvassed in the neighborhood of Gordon Head. In Montreal, party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault campaigned in the Montreal riding of Outremont.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney delivered remarks and took media questions in the Vancouver-area city of Port Moody, and was scheduled to hold an evening rally in Winnipeg.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh made an announcement in Winnipeg and travelled to Toronto where he was scheduled to meet with businessperson and philanthropist Mohamad Fakih, and hold an evening campaign event.
Poll tracker
The poll by Nanos Research, conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV, surveyed 1,226 Canadians aged 18 and older from the past three days. The interviews are compiled into a three-night rolling average. It has a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Respondents were asked: “For those parties you would consider voting for federally, could you please rank your top two current local preferences?” The full methodology for all surveys can be found at: tgam.ca/polls.
Campaign quote
“Sometimes I think the cheese slips off the cracker with this guy,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford on U.S. President Donald Trump. Ford was speaking at the Public Policy Forum’s Canada Growth Summit 2025 in Toronto.
Question period
How many premiers have gone on to become prime minister of Canada?
Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer.
Perspectives
Whether it’s Carney or Poilievre, the next PM must clean house in the federal public service
That is where the Tory plan collapses on itself. Not that the Liberal plan for the public service does not have its incongruities.
— Konrad Yakabuski, Columnist
The Conservatives’ dilemma: their policies aren’t different enough from the Liberals’ to make up for the leadership gap
In the end, this monumental, epochal, nation-defining campaign, “the most important election in our lifetimes,” came down to one question: Is Mark Carney more like Justin Trudeau than Pierre Poilievre is like Donald Trump?
— Andrew Coyne, Columnist
Look who’s sorry now: Americans are an apologetic bunch to this Canadian on vacation
We’re in Mexico. They’re Americans. We’re Canadians. That much had been established within the short ride from the main floor to the third floor. We step out of the elevator in the moment that our nationalities are identified. We will likely never see each other again. But they want us to know something. Something important. They’re sorry.
— Jane Macdougall is a writer based in Vancouver.
Go deeper
- Stay informed ahead of voting day with the latest updates
- The Decibel: National affairs columnist Gary Mason is on the Globe podcast to talk about challenges facing the NDP, having written on what the party’s collapse could mean for Canada’s political landscape
- Follow along for our stories on Canada-U.S. relations as news develops
- Like a long read? Check out the fall of Justin Trudeau and the making of Pierre Poilievre
- Take a look at the history of immigration reporting and great political scandals from A Nation’s Paper, a book about The Globe’s role in Canadian history
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com. Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop.
The answer to today’s question: Two former premiers of Nova Scotia. Charles Tupper was premier from 1864 to 1867 and prime minister from May 1 to July 8, 1896. John Thompson ran the province from May 25 to July 18, 1882 before leading the country from 1892 to 1894.