Sunday April 6, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated 5:24 pm April 7, 2025]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
This evening Liberal Leader Mark Carney showed up for a Victoria crowd of Liberal party loyalists and some community-active onlookers at a rally in downtown Victoria.
The Sunday evening gathering was a warm welcome for the new leader, on the eve of his meeting with Premier David Eby tomorrow morning.
The Edelweiss Club venue could only hold 300 people, but hundreds more people waited outside in the cool rainy weather to meet Carney after his speech inside the club.
Carney was introduced to the crowd primarily for his track record as the Governor of the Bank of Canada and Governor of the Bank of England with a spin of “commitment to economic resilience, climate leadership and progressive public policies”.
Tough challenges for Canada are here and lie ahead for a time to come including building a sustainable economy, strengthening our international partnerships and navigating a changing global order — this was part of the intro for Carney before he entered the packed room.
There seemed to be a genuine excitement in welcoming the new party leader. Tonight Carney seemed more relaxed this far along into the campaign, showing a bit of the humour that he demonstrated on The Daily Show before he launched his leadership campaign.
Consequential election:
In his 12-minute speech Carney called this “the most consequential election of our lifetime”.
“The world has changed. And our old relationship with the United States is over,” said Carney. “The world that I lived through my whole life — a global trading system sponsored by the United States — that world is over,” he added. “This is a big change, these are a big series of changes,” he added.
With reference to Winston Churchill’s observations about a critical period in WWII in which he was a central player, Carney said “we are living through a hinge moment”.
“We’re not coming together, unfortunately, with our American allies — it’s a hinge moment caused by our American allies,” said Carney. “We are coming together as Canadians and this is what is fundamental.”
An ambitious home-building plan is part of what the Liberal are promising. He talked about challenges ahead but didn’t specifically mention affordability or the cost of living.
Softwood lumber tariff:
This evening Carney mentioned the US softwood lumber tariff to the crowd that he says will impact about 50,000 workers in BC and impacting two percent of Canada’s GDP.
The softwood lumber tariffs will be the main topic of conversation for Carney tomorrow in his 11 am meeting with Premier Eby at the BC Legislature.
Environment:
“Our response is to fight, to protect and to build,” said Carney to tonight’s supportive crowd.
Attending the rally were former Victoria Liberal MP David Anderson and Catherine McKenna who served as Environment and Climate Change Minister (2015-2019) and Minister of Infrastructure and Communities (2019-2021) in the Trudeau Liberal government.
Fighting the US:
“We’re fighting Americans in the pocketbook,” said Carney, referring to retaliatory tariffs including in the auto sector. He also said Canada will win in the courts, eventually.
He joked about “sending Doug Ford to fight the Americans on Fox News”, which drew laughter from the crowd.
“We have learned a lesson that we have to look out for ourselves and we have to care for each other,” said Carney, “which starts with protection for our workers”.
“We are going to build ourselves into a clean energy super power,” said Carney.
New trade corridors will be built with reliable trading partners, he outlined.
Arctic protection:
The Carney government promises to put year-round troops in the Arctic “in the air, on the ground and in the water.”, said Carney.
Candidates in the room:
Liberal candidates Will Greaves (Victoria), David Beckham (Saanich-Gulf Islands), Stephanie McLean (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke), Blair Herbert (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford), and Michelle Corfield (Nanaimo-Ladysmith) were there for the rally.
Part two:
After his speech captured by TV cameras indoors, Carney delivered a very short speech (from the top of an outdoor staircase) to the crowd that had waited in the drizzly evening weather to be part of his welcome to Victoria.
Carney’s wife Diana accompanied him at the rally, dressed in Liberal red.
Media there:
National media travelling with Carney who arrived in Victoria on his plane this evening included David Akin (Global) and Karina Roman (CBC).
Local media outlets there for Carney’s rally — his first visit to Victoria while serving as Prime Minister — included The Times Colonist, Black Press, Island Social Trends, and Victoria Buzz.
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