Canada’s two biggest parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives faced off in an important election in April, which brought in significantly more voters than recent elections and shocked many with its outcome.

The Liberal Party of Canada has for the past few years been considered doomed to lose its control of Canada due to the cost of living crisis the country has been suffering from. Longtime leader Justin Trudeau was pushed to resign due to his steadily decreasing popularity in January, and Conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre was believed to be guaranteed a landslide victory in this year’s election.

Pierre Poilievre is a right wing populist often compared to Donald Trump, and ran against Mark Carney, who had never held elected office, and had mostly worked as a bureaucrat in the national banks of Canada and England, where he was considered very competent. The only issue for Pierre Poilievre was the comparisons to Donald Trump, because after tariffs on Canada were introduced, anti-Trump sentiment in Canada skyrocketed. Comparisons to Trump became an extreme burden to Poilievre, while Carney marketed himself as steadfastly against Trump, which in an incredible political comeback won the Liberals the election by comfortable margins. Carney has made it clear that he considers Canada’s relationship with the US irreparably damaged. He plans to meet with Donald Trump soon to discuss the removal of tariffs.