Canada votes: Trump's tariffs and annexation threats among key issues driving high voter turnout

Speaker A [00:00:00]:

It looks like any other day in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, but it's the final hours before Canada's historic election. In a race that has gotten tighter in the last weeks, it's down to the Liberals, led by current Prime Minister Mark Carney, and the Conservatives, led by Pierre Poliev. But looming large over the proceedings is a third man. Although Canadians are set to determine who their next prime minister is going to be, it's the American president who's ended up shaping so much of this electoral contest. 

President Donald Trump's repeated threats to Canada's economic security and sovereignty have turned this vote in part into a referendum as to who can best deal with the United States. Domestic issues like the cost of living and housing affordability have also risen to the top of voters' minds in the last weeks. But the U.S. Canada relations have remained a key concern.

Speaker B [00:00:54]:

I feel like for the most part, Canada hasn't been the aggressor in that relationship. And so seeing the US just impose tariffs after tariffs and the US not really doing that much was kind of a pain point for me. And so we need someone that could actually stand up to the US what's.

Speaker C [00:01:11]:

Going on with Donald Trump is scary. I mean, if you look at the market, it's going up and down and like me, like a boomer, I have investment and now it's going down. And I work all my life to have that investment.

Speaker D [00:01:32]:

I hope that we stay as united as we are now, but we don't also lose focus of what can also be important and not let this idea of Trump, like the specter of Trump haunt us and just keep fighting, just.

Speaker C [00:01:45]:

You know, having a stable relationship with the US and not getting pushed around, I guess. So, yeah, that was mostly not getting pushed on by the US and not getting too, too much influence by them.

Speaker D [00:01:59]:

I mean, you know, tariffs are a concern. We deal, we've dealt with those before. I don't think that, you know, this is sort of my, my single issue, but U.S. canada relations, insofar as they, as there's creep from, like, ideological creep from the United States to here. Yeah.

Speaker A [00:02:17]:

It's clear that whoever comes into power in Canada will have to find a balance between engaging with their southern neighbor and challenging it.

Speaker E [00:02:26]:

The fundamental fact is that Canada and the United States are neighbors, and will always be neighbors. Geography will not change because leaders come and go. Whoever is the new leader is going to have to chart a course while still obviously trying to preserve as much as possible of the relationship, is going to have to find ways to lessen the reliance of Canada. In the United States. 

Just given the fact that for over a generation we've assumed, we Canadians, Canada have assumed that there would always be a stable, reliable partner to our south. And that is no longer an assumption that can be taken for granted.

Speaker A [00:03:06]:

Like with all elections, Canadians are choosing a vision for the future. And their choice will help redefine what was Canada's most important relationship in the world and therefore how the country defines itself.