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Mark Carney: Liberal convention A delegate holds a voting card at the Liberal national convention in Montreal on Saturday, April 11, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Christinne Muschi <\/p>\nMONTREAL \u2014 Days after welcoming a social conservative into his caucus, Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to reassure Liberals the party hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
In a closing speech to delegates Saturday, Carney underscored the values he says his party stands for including a women\u2019s right to choose and a just society that takes care of the vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Liberals, we are passionate about building a strong economy as the means to a just society,\u201d Carney told the crowd. \u201cWhere women always have the right to choose. Where you can believe what you want to believe; Where you can love who you want to love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments in Carney\u2019s speech come days after former Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu crossed the floor. The entrance of the Sarnia MP, once known as a social conservative, raised questions among some delegates and strategists about whether the party\u2019s tent was becoming too big. <\/p>\n
Mark Carney: Liberal convention A delegate holds a voting card at the Liberal national convention in Montreal on Saturday, April 11, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Christinne Muschi <\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Gladu said she was pro-choice and anti-conversion therapy, despite previous comments suggesting the opposite. <\/p>\n
Carney has said Gladu will be expected to vote with the government on any future votes relating to abortion or similar issues. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will vote with the government,\u201d Gladu said on Thursday. \u201cI will protect the rights and freedoms of women to choose, for people to be who they are and love who they love.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Liberal government has welcomed five floor crossers in just over five months, four are former conservatives and one is a former NDP MP. Four of those MPs were introduced to delegates on stage during the party\u2019s three-day policy convention in Montreal.<\/p>\n
Carney specifically addressed the floor crossings in French only, saying some MPs have changed camps to join the party because they understand the importance of what is at stake and know that together they can achieve better. <\/p>\n
In English, he highlighted the need for unity and cooperation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the time for politics as usual, for petty differences for political point scoring,\u201d he said. \u201cUnited, we will build Canada Strong, a Canada for all\u2014 A Canada strong that no one can ever take away.\u201d<\/p>\n
To build Canada Strong, Carney said Canada needs to continue diversifying its trading partners and strengthening its economy. <\/p>\n
Canadians, Carney said, are demonstrating just how strong they are by choosing Canada repeatedly over the last year. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt started quietly, people choosing a wine from the Okanagan over one from California\u2026 A family planning a vacation to Prince Edward Island instead of booking flights to Florida,\u201d Carney said to a loud round of applause. \u201cSmall, small individual acts of solidarity, but repeated millions of times and together, they make a statement: we are the masters of our destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n
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PM Mark Carney Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives to speak at the Liberal national convention in Montreal on Saturday, April 11, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Christinne Muschi <\/p>\n
Carney\u2019s speech makes just one reference to Trump in a quote from his \u201cold friend Bob Zettle.\u201d Carney cited the same quote in his victory speech at last year\u2019s Liberal Leadership contest. <\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, everyone sees the main threat as the Trump tariffs. But the far greater challenge will be, as it has always been, to foster unity and a sense of the common good,\u201d Carney quoted. \u201cBob\u2019s right, Canadians are being called to serve but not against something. For something, for each other and that is why you are here. You believe, like I believe, that Canada is only strong when it works for everyone\u201d<\/p>\n
Carney was introduced by his wife Diana Fox Carney, who was introduced by the candidate in Terrebonne Tatiana Auguste. Terrebonne is one of three ridings holding a byelection on Monday.<\/p>\n
The two Toronto-area ridings of Scarborough Southwest and University-Rosedale are considered safe Liberal seats, while senior Liberals expect Terrebonne will once again be a close race with the Bloc. Auguste won by one vote in 2025, but that result was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada. <\/p>\n
If the Liberals win all three, they will have 174 seats, a two-seat majority in the House of Commons. <\/p>\n
What do floor-crossers say about Liberal brand under Mark Carney? Political analyst Victor Henriquez on the Liberal Party’s convention in Montreal and what the floor crossings say about the party’s brand under Mark Carney. <\/p>\n
Buy Canadian Policy<\/p>\n
Last week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a report calling Canada\u2019s Buy Canadian Policy a trade irritant<\/a>. <\/p>\n In his speech, the prime minister highlighted the policy as a way Canadians are standing up for each other to make the country stronger. He told the crowd that this policy will make every community across Canada stronger. Canada, he repeated, is on track to double non-US exports over the next decade. <\/p>\n \u201cThe days of our military sending 70 cents of every dollar to the United States are over,\u201d he told the crowd to a standing ovation. \u201cWe are going to build, we are going to build Canada strong with Canadian steel, Canadian aluminum, Canadian lumber, Canadian workers.\u201d<\/p>\n New report finds Canadians could see increased taxes to fund NATO defence commitment Nicholas Dahir, one of the authors of the study at the C.D. Howe Institute, says a tax hike \u2018is definitely on the board\u2019 if Canada wants to meet its goals. <\/p>\n Canada\u2019s Defence Industrial Strategy talks about the desire to diversify away from the United States and build new defence-industrial relationships, including with the European Union and the United Kingdom. The strategy says that 49 per cent of the defence-related products and services produced by Canadian firms are sold abroad. Of those exports, the strategy says 69 per cent go to the United States and Canada\u2019s other Five Eyes Partner.<\/p>\n The new strategy<\/a> aims to increase the share of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms to 70 per cent.<\/p>\n One of the big purchases Canada still has to make is around the F-35s. Canada has decided to move forward with the purchase of 16 F-35s already in production, but the government has said it\u2019s reviewing a decision on whether to acquire several dozen more jets from Lockheed Martin in the United States. The Swedish company Saab has talked to Ottawa<\/a> about making its Gripen fighter jets on Canadian soil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 Days after welcoming a social conservative into his caucus, Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[415,407,111,290,113,431],"class_list":{"0":"post-681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mark-carney","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-mark-carney","11":"tag-national","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}