Carney defends deficit spending amid ‘worst crisis of our lifetimes’

Liberal Leader Mark Carney meets supporters as he arrives at the Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, airport on Sunday, April 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

CHARLOTTETOWN — CHARLOTTETOWN - Liberal Leader Mark Carney is defending his plan to carry on with deficit spending as he adds billions to the fiscal framework, calling his approach “fundamentally different” from that of former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Carney said he will throttle government spending growth by scaling it back from nine per cent to two per cent, while at the same time adding new program spending to deal with an economic crisis spurred by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

“We are in a crisis, the worst crisis of our lifetimes ΓǪ because we are in a fundamental reordering of our relationship with the United States and the global economy,” Carney said in response to questions from reporters at a morning press conference in Charlottetown.

“We need to build. We need to invest. We need to use scarce dollars on the federal balance sheet to catalyze that investment, and we’re prepared to do that.”

Carney unveiled the full cost of his platform over the weekend -- roughly $129 billion in new measures that would add to the deficit over the next four years. That figure includes a one percentage-point tax cut to the lowest income bracket.

Carney also has pledged to separate the budget into operating and capital streams, and balance the operating side by 2028-2029. But he would still run a $48 billion deficit on the capital side for that fiscal year.

Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre exchanged blows over their respective spending plans on Monday.

Poilievre accused Carney of being “$130 billion more expensive than Trudeau” and of trying to bury his spending plan in the news by revealing it over the Easter holiday weekend, when he “thought no one was listening.”

Poilievre said in Scarborough, Ont., Monday morning that Carney is making “exactly the same `the budget will balance itself’ kind of commitments” the Trudeau government made.

Carney, meanwhile, accused Poilievre of “hiding” his plan and said Poilievre would cut $140 billion and slash funding for the CBC and foreign aid.

Carney’s team arrived at that figure after adding up Poilievre’s promises and noting that the Conservative leader has promised to find one dollar in savings for every new dollar of spending.

“Cutting to the core of institutions, cutting to the vulnerable, cutting to all Canadians at any time, let alone in a crisis, is not the way you get out of a crisis. It’s not the right approach,” Carney said.

Poilievre contested the $140 billion figure on Monday, calling it “Liberal math” that “doesn’t add up.”

“Whenever Liberals present you with numbers, you should be afraid and very afraid because their numbers are always wrong,” he said, vowing to cut bureaucracy, foreign aid and consultants while boosting revenues by generating more economic growth.

Poilievre said he will release his own costed platform on Tuesday. That will come a day after advance polls close and make the Conservatives the last party to release a costed platform.

Both the Liberal and Conservative platforms landed late in the campaign, after millions of Canadians had already cast their votes in advance of election day and after the only two televised debates of the campaign took place.

Carney held his Monday press conference to promote his health-care plan, which includes $4 billion for building and renovating hospitals and long-term care homes. He was introduced at that event by Liberal incumbent Sean Casey, who called Carney the “adult in the room” in Canadian politics.

The Liberal leader was on a whirlwind tour of Atlantic Canada on the final day of advanced polling, campaigning in three provinces on Monday alone: Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The Liberals currently hold all four seats in P. E. I., with three of those incumbents running for re-election.

Former agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay, who was first elected as MP for the riding of Cardigan in 1997, is not running again. Instead, the party is fielding Kent MacDonald, a longtime dairy farmer, against the Conservatives’ James Aylward, a former provincial cabinet minister.

The Liberals currently hold 23 of 32 seats in Atlantic Canada -- a key region for the party that could make or break its shot at a majority government. While the Trudeau Liberals swept the region in 2015, the party lost several seats in the 2021 election as support waned.

Carney started the day visiting the University of Prince Edward Island, where he toured rooms that will be used for training for medical students.

He stopped for a meet-and-greet Monday in Truro, N.S., part of the Cumberland-Colchester riding. The party lost the riding in 2021 to firebrand Conservative Stephen Ellis, a doctor who became the party’s health critic.

While stumping for local Liberal candidate Alana Hirtle, hecklers tried to interrupt Carney during a speech in Upper Onslow that he was delivering from the family porch of the late former provincial agriculture minister Ed Lorraine.

Carney shrugged it off by joking that he would get to the World Economic Forum in his speech in a moment -- then put his index finger up to his ear and said, “I’m just listening, waiting for the orders coming (in).”

Carney told the crowd that his government would help build millions of houses with Canadian workers using Nova Scotia lumber. He then played street hockey with a group of kids, and stood at a barbecue handing out hot dogs to supporters.

Among the races out east, South Shore--St. Margarets stands out -- a riding Conservative incumbent Rick Perkins won from former fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan in 2021. The NDP is notably not fielding a candidate in that riding, while the Liberals are running former teacher Jessica Fancy-Landry.

Carney landed in Fredericton, seen as a bellwether riding, later in the day for a rally. There is no incumbent there; Liberal Jenica Atwin is not running again. The Liberals are fielding musician David Myles against Conservative Brian MacDonald, a former provincial MLA.

Myles kicked off the rally by playing a set with a band, which was followed by a speech from New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt. Carney addressed the crowd flanked by Liberal MPs and candidates, including cabinet ministers Dominic LeBlanc and Ginette Petitpas Taylor.

Carney used his stump speech to poke at his rival’s recent campaign promise to end the ban on plastic straws, accusing Poilievre of grasping at straws.

-- Written by Kyle Duggan in Ottawa and Anja Karadeglija in Charlottetown

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2025.