SATURDAY RECAP: Conservatives want Liberal candidate ousted for China comments​on March 29, 2025 at 8:53 pm

Follow the Toronto Sun’s live coverage of Canada’s 45th general election, with contributions from Brian Lilley, Bryan Passifiume, Lorrie Goldstein and columnists Joe Warmington and Warren Kinsella, as well as contributions from the Sun’s editors and reporters covering the election ahead of the April 28 vote. Plus, you can find all of our election coverage here.

Article content

Article content

Article content

CARNEY MAKES FIRST CAMPAIGN APPEARANCE IN NEPEAN

Rounding out his first week on the campaign trail, Liberal Leader Mark Carney made his first stop in the riding of Nepean on Saturday.

Speaking to a crowd of volunteers at his new campaign office, Carney called the race “the most important election of our lifetime.”

“It’s critical in redefining our relationship with the United States. It’s critical in redefining our economy on our own terms, standing up for Canada, creating one economy, one strong economy,” he said in remarks that were recorded by CPAC.

Journalists were not given an opportunity to ask questions at the event. And the Liberal Party did not inform several local media outlets of the location of the event. A Liberal Party staff member later told the Ottawa Citizen that the exclusion of local media was a misunderstanding.

Article content

Read the full story here.

LILLEY: POILIEVRE SAYS CPC BEST FOR WORKERS

Pierre Poilievre pitched his Conservative team as the one with the best plan to put workers first and defend Canada’s economy in the face of the Trump threats.

He also drew a sharp contrast between his plans and what he called the anti-worker record of Liberal Leader Mark Carney.

Poilievre was making a policy announcement in Winnipeg that would see tradespeople who travel for work in excess of 120 km be able to deduct the cost of their travel. Many people in skilled trades travel to different parts of the country for jobs, but Poilievre said they are capped at claiming $4,000 worth of expenses on their income taxes.

The Conservative Leader also promised he would make it easier to get the projects approved that so many people in the trades rely on, pointing out the Liberals have only gotten in the way.

Article content

Article content

Read the full column here.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

GOLDSTEIN: LIBERALS SCREWING THE WEST AGAIN

Another federal election and the Mark Carney-Justin Trudeau Liberals are employing their tried-and-true tactic, made famous by the legendary Liberal campaign organizer Sen. Keith Davey in the 1980 election, to “screw the West, we’ll take the rest.”

The Liberals deliberately divided Canadians 45 years ago for political gain and continue to do it today, recklessly and dangerously straining the bonds of Confederation.

In that 1980 election, the Liberals defeated the minority Progressive Conservative government of Joe Clark.

Armed with a Liberal majority government, Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, imposed his infamous national energy program, forever hated in Alberta because, as then Progressive Conservative premier Peter Lougheed said, it intruded into provincial jurisdiction, deprived the province of oil revenues and sparked massive job losses and bankruptcies. Sound familiar?

Article content

Read the full column here.

EDITORIAL: LIBERALS PUT US INTO ECONOMIC ABYSS

The conventional wisdom about the federal election is that concern over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Canada has overtaken concern about carbon taxes as the ballot question.

But that’s a false framing of what’s at stake.

The defining issue facing Canadians is the high cost of living and our declining standard of living, including the negative impact of Trump’s tariffs and Liberal carbon taxes on our economy.

According to Statistics Canada, real (inflation-adjusted ) gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, a widely accepted measure of prosperity, dropped by 1.4% last year, following a 1.3% drop in 2023.

Read the full editorial here.

Article content

KINSELLA: IF OVER, WHAT’S FUTURE OF CANADA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH U.S.?

Mark Carney looks grave.

“The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” the Prime Minister of Canada says, and his words hang in the air like static. He pauses.

“It’s clear the U.S. is no longer a reliable partner. It is possible that with comprehensive negotiations, we could reestablish an element of confidence, but there will be no going backwards.”

And with that, a unique relationship that has endured for 158 years – a relationship that has survived war, pandemics and terror attacks – came to an ignoble end. With a whimper, not a bang, at a hurriedly-convened press conference in Ottawa. Called to answer to Donald Trump’s destructive and reckless tariffs on the auto industry.

Article content

Read the full column here.

LILLEY: HAND CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE TO CHINA, LIBERAL MP SAYS

The Conservatives are calling on Liberal Leader Mark Carney to fire one of his candidates for suggesting he be kidnapped and handed over to China for bounty money.

The story involving two Toronto-area candidates sounds far-fetched but it’s true.

The Liberal candidate who made the inflammatory comments has apologized, but the Conservatives say it isn’t good enough.

“Yesterday, it came to light that Mark Carney’s Liberal candidate, Paul Chiang, called for a Conservative candidate to be turned over to the authoritarian regime in Beijing in return for a bounty offered by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” Conservative MP Michael Chong said in a statement.

Article content

Read the full column here.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

WARMINGTON: ELECTION SIGN WAR TACTIC?

These were definitely signs of the times.

Sign, sign everywhere a sign – except no longer at the corner of Keele St. and Wilson Ave.

As reported in my Saturday column, it seems Conservative candidate Roman Baber’s blue election sign on a lawn in the York Centre riding was crowded out by four red Liberal incumbent Ya’ara Saks signs.

It was so effective that from most angles, you could not even see Baber’s sign.

Read the full column here.

POILIEVRE, SINGH FOCUS ON AFFORDABILITY

The Conservatives and NDP both promised affordability measures on the campaign trail Saturday, with the NDP focused on capping the price of some food items and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre offering more tax writeoffs to some trades workers.

Article content

As the federal election campaign moved into its seventh day, both NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Liberal Leader Mark Carney campaigned in Ottawa. Singh visited a food bank in the city’s Ottawa Centre riding, and Carney stopping by his own campaign office in Nepean for the first time.

Carney is seeking a seat in the suburban Ottawa riding, and met with campaign volunteers and supporters.

Singh promised to introduce emergency price caps on basic food items like pasta, frozen vegetables and infant formula. He is also calling for taxes to be hiked on grocery chain profits, and to boost the sector’s competition regulations.

Read the full story here.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

WHERE THE LEADERS ARE SATURDAY

Liberal Leader Mark Carney will be campaigning in Nepean today, the Ottawa riding where he is seeking election.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose Carleton riding shares a boundary with Nepean, will be at a rally in Winnipeg today.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has a campaign event scheduled for Ottawa.

Green Party of Canada co-Leaders Jonathan Pedneault and Elizabeth May discuss their plans to protect Canada’s economic sovereignty in Nanaimo, B.C.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet is in Sherbrooke to announce a complete team of 78 candidates throughout Quebec.

— with files from The Canadian Press

Article content