Donald Trump has touted tanking Canada’s right-of-center party’s chances of winning Monday’s election—even though it will put the left-of-center liberals in power north of the border.
The president bragged about his power in an interview with The Atlantic published Monday, just as Canadian voters headed to the polls in an election that had been a lay-up for the country’s opposition Conservative Party.
The election was called because Trump foil Justin Trudeau, leader of the ruling Liberal party, resigned. His replacement Mark Carney—a former head of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England—then became prime minister and appeared set for a crushing defeat.
But Trump’s attacks on Canada and push to make it the 51st state turned the race on its head.
The president bragged about his personal impact on the election during a White House interview while discussing his push to make Canada a state.
“You know, until I came along, remember that the conservative was leading by 25 points,” Trump said.
“Then I was disliked by enough of the Canadians that I’ve thrown the election into a close call, right? I don’t even know if it’s a close call,” he added.
In Canada, voters do not directly cast ballots for prime minister but for candidates in a political party to join parliament. The leader of the party with the most seats then becomes prime minister.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre was considered the frontrunner consistent with the rise in anti-incumbent party sentiment at the start of the year. Trudeau and his Liberal Party had been in power for nearly a decade. Poilievre had run on a MAGA-style platform, promising tax cuts, complaining about immigration and dipping his toe into culture war issues.
But since Trump took office in January, the Conservative Party’s 25-point lead has been wiped out. Canadian pollster Frank Graves credited Trump as the biggest factor in the election.
The president brought up the election in his interview while talking about making Canada the 51st state.
“I say it would make a great 51st state. I love other nations. I love Canada,” Trump said.
He argued if Canada was a state, it would not face tariffs.
That’s when The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg cut in and asked the president if he was serious about wanting Canada to become a state.
“I think it would be great,” Trump responded.
When Goldberg pointed out that Canada would amount to a very large Democratic-leaning state, Trump argued out that it had been previously been leaning toward the country’s Conservative Party.
He said that conservatives did not like Trudeau, referring to him as “governor.”
“I would call him Governor Trudeau, but he wasn’t fond of that,” the president said.
Most polls in Canada close at 9:30pm ET. Election results were expected late Monday night.
Carney was expected to secure a majority in the Ottawa parliament on an anti-Trump ticket which would put his party in power in Canada until after the 2028 elections.
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