Federal Liberal, NDP leaders make push for votes in Winnipeg with 4 days until election
NDP's Jagmeet Singh, Liberal Leader Mark Carney back in city for 2nd time in election campaign
Two federal party leaders made return pit stops to Winnipeg in another bid for support in the final days of the election campaign, as new polls suggest the margin between the Liberals and Conservatives continues to tighten.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney held a rally at the downtown venue Pyramid Cabaret Thursday evening, where he reiterated the campaign promises he has made to voters in the past, repeatedly selling himself as the leader to stand up for Canada's sovereignty in the face of the U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of annexation and the ongoing trade war.
"It is a tragedy, but it is our new reality and we have recognized this," Carney said. "It's a time for serious leadership and it's time to come together as a united country."
Carney credited Canadian counter-tariffs on some American goods as one reason why the U.S. has shifted some of its economic policy in recent weeks, while also promising that if elected he will continue to impose the retaliatory levies and use "every single dollar" of revenue from them to support businesses most affected by tariffs.
Rhetoric on Canada becoming the 51st state had faded in recent days, until Trump resurfaced the matter on Wednesday. A day later, Carney confirmed the president brought up that prospect during their first call in late March.
"We're over that shock, but we shouldn't forget the lessons that are being taught, we have to look out for ourselves," Carney said at the Winnipeg rally.
The leader added his government would also usher in "big changes" to unite and build a strong country, including bringing in legislation to slash interprovincial trade barriers by July 1.
"I'm not a career politician, I'm still learning," he said.
"But I am a pragmatist so when I see something that's not working, I will change it," Carney added, referring to his short-lived time in the prime minister's office marked by scrapping the consumer carbon tax and cancelling an increase in the capital gains tax.
He also brought up his track record dealing with crises in the past to promote himself as the leader to stir the country with his plan for Canada including less government spending and building more homes.
"We need calm, not chaos, and above all, we need action, not anger," Carney said.
Manitoba MPs deliver, NDP says
Earlier on Thursday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, whose party is at risk of losing official status, gathered with supporters beside the Union Centre downtown to pitch the New Democrats as the only ones who will target the priorities of middle-class families and workers.
He also attacked U.S. tariffs as "a massive threat to everyday Canadians who are worried about losing their job and the cost of things getting more expensive."
A strong NDP presence in Ottawa "will fight for you" and not for "the interest of millionaires or rich CEOs," he said.
"The only ones you can trust to fight back and defend your interests are New Democrats."
The NDP currently has two seats in Winnipeg — Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre) and Leila Dance (Elmwood-Transcona) — but polling firm Probe Research said Thursday that its work suggests the party has been trailing the Liberals and Conservatives in the city even if the party has rebounded since last month.
A Probe poll commissioned by the Winnipeg Free Press suggests support for the NDP has rebounded to 15 per cent in Manitoba compared to nine per cent in March. Support for the party in Winnipeg is at 16 per cent.
"The NDP have had a little maybe a bit of a surprising resurgence that might make a few of those really tight ridings a little bit safer for some of those NDP MPs," said Probe Research partner Mary Agnes Welch.
Gazan and Dance may be "breathing just a little bit easier," she said. "But it's still really tight. That kind of Liberal momentum is still there in in the city as a whole."
Christopher Adams, adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, said Thursday Singh's stop in Winnipeg is no mistake.
"Nationally, they're below 10 per cent and they don't look like they're climbing out of that. So Jagmeet Singh's job right now is save the furniture," he said.
"The heartland of the NDP nationally is in large part in Winnipeg.… If the NDP loses their two seats in Winnipeg and the north, that really spells a bad story for the NDP."
WATCH | Two federal party leaders make final stop in Winnipeg to pitch Manitobans:
The NDP's only other seat in Manitoba is Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, where New Democrat Niki Ashton is running again. She's running against Liberal Rebecca Chartrand, Conservative Lachlan De Nardi and People's Party of Canada candidate Dylan Young.
"These three New Democrats delivered far more than all the Conservative MPs in this province combined," Singh told reporters, citing the new dental care program and the completion of a pharmacare agreement with Manitoba in February that will see Ottawa pay for diabetes medication and contraceptives.
Singh was bookended at the podium by Gazan and Dance, whose seats are typically NDP strongholds, though Dance has only represented hers for seven months.
Gazan is running against Liberal Rahul Walia, Conservative Tom Bambrick, Green Gary Gervais, People's Party of Canada candidate Donald Grant and Animal Protection Party of Canada candidate Debra Wall. Running against Dance in Elmwood-Transcona are Conservative Colin Reynolds, Liberal Ian MacIntyre, Green Nicolas Geddert and People's Party of Canada candidate Collin Watson.
She won a September 2024 byelection after the seat was vacated by Daniel Blaikie, who resigned earlier in the year to take an advising role with the provincial NDP government. He held Elmwood-Transcona for nearly a decade, and his late father Bill was the area MP for almost 30 years before that.
The Probe poll surveyed a representative sample of 800 Manitoba adults online from April 8-14. Because it wasn't a random sample of voters, no margin of error can be given to it, but a random poll of that size would have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
It suggests Carney and the Liberals are viewed as best-suited to address Canada-U.S. relations and the economy, but Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives are seen as best able to handle pocketbook issues, public safety and taxation.
"It's a really good question about what's in kind of voters hearts and minds as they're casting that ballot," Welch said. "Especially with [U.S. President Donald Trump] kind of re-upping that issue of the 51st state and tariffs just in the last day."
Singh said health care, environmental regulations, labour and treaty rights must be kept off the table when new trade talks begin with Washington.
He said the NDP will fight to protect these interests when trade negotiations between the new government and U.S. Trump's administration begin shortly after Monday's election.
"Labour rights will never be on the table. We do not want to become Americanized."
The Liberals continue to hold a slight edge over the Conservatives in Manitoba, the Probe poll suggests.
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With files from The Canadian Press and Santiago Arias Orozco