Carney says Trump key issue in Canada's election, while Conservative rival says country needs change

TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday the key question in Canada's election is who is best to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump while his Conservative rival argued that Carney doesn't represent change after a decade of Liberal Party rule.

Opposition Conservative Pierre Poilievre said during the French-language leaders’ debate Canada needs change and Carney is just like his predecessor Justin Trudeau.

“Mr. Poilievre is not Justin Trudeau. I’m not Justin Trudeau either. In this election the question is who is going to face Mr. Trump," Carney said.

Trump's trade war and threats to make Canada the 51st state have infuriated Canadians and led to a surge in Canadian nationalism that has bolstered Liberal Party poll numbers ahead of the April 28 vote.

Poilievre is imploring Canadians not to give the Liberals a fourth term. He hoped to make the election a referendum on Trudeau, whose popularity declined toward the end of his decade in power as food and housing prices rose and immigration surged.

But Trump attacked, Trudeau resigned and Carney, a two-time central banker, became Liberal party leader and prime minister after a party leadership race.

“One of the differences, there are many, but one of the differences between the two of us is that I put much more emphasis on the economy, on growing the economy,” Carney said when asked about Trudeau at a news conference after the debate. “In fact in this circumstance that we are in, given the scale of the crisis, I would say relentless focus on growing the economy.”

During the debate Carney said he has only been prime minister for a month.

“We need change. You do not embody change,” Poilievre said to Carney.

Bloc Québécois Yves-François Blanche, whose party is losing support to Carney's Liberals in Quebec, agreed, saying the Liberals are the same party, the same ministers and the same lawmakers and a new leader does not change that.

But public opinion has changed. In a mid-January poll by Nanos, Liberals trailed the Conservative Party by 47% to 20%. In the latest Nanos poll released Wednesday, the Liberals led by 8 percentage points. The January poll had a margin of error 3.1 points while the latest poll had a 2.7-point margin.

“Carney, who played safe, did not make the kind of big mistakes that could have altered the dynamic of the race in Quebec,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal. “I don’t think the debate will have a major impact on the race in Quebec, which remains dominated by the Liberals.”

The French debate was moved up by two hours to minimize a conflict with a Montreal Canadiens hockey game. The NHL team faced off against the Carolina Hurricanes at 7 p.m. ET, and clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

This isn’t the first time NHL hockey has elbowed its way onto the campaign trail. During the 2011 election, former Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe asked for a debate to be postponed due to a Canadiens hockey game, and his request was granted.

The English language debate is Thursday evening.