Canada's new prime minister is triggering an election campaign this weekend. Here’s what to know

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Canada's new prime minister is triggering an election campaign this weekend. Here’s what to know

2025-03-22 01:58 Last Updated At：02:01

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to trigger the process for an early parliamentary election this weekend for an expected vote on April 28.

The election will take place against the backdrop of a trade war and sovereignty threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The governing Liberals had appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year until Trump declared a trade war. Trump has repeatedly said that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state and he acknowledged Friday that he has totally upended Canadian politics.

What Trump hasn't said is that the almost daily attacks on Canada's sovereignty have infuriated Canadians, who are canceling trips south of the border and avoiding buying American goods when they can. The surge in Canadian nationalism has bolstered Liberal poll numbers.

The opposition Conservatives hoped to make the election about former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined as food and housing prices rose and immigration surged. But after decades of bilateral stability, the vote is now expected to focus on who is best equipped to deal with the United States.

Carney will visit Governor-General Mary Simon on Sunday and request to dissolve Parliament, a government official who wasn’t authorized to publicly give details so spoke on condition of anonymity on Thursday.

Requests by the prime minister to the governor-general are rubber-stamped. Simon’s office holds a constitutional and ceremonial role as the representative of Canada’s head of state, U.K. King Charles III. Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies.

An election campaign lasting about five weeks will then officially begin.

People throughout Canada will elect all 338 member of the House of Commons, one for each constituency. There are no primaries or runoffs, just a single round of voting.

Canada is like Britain in that uses a “first past the post” system of voting, which means that the candidate that finishes top in each constituency will be elected, even if they don’t get 50% of the vote.

This has generally cemented the dominance of the two largest parties, the Liberals and Conservatives, because it's difficult for smaller parties to win seats unless they have concentrated support in particular areas.

The party that commands a majority in the House of Commons, either alone or with the support of another party, will form the next government and its leader will be prime minister.

Carney replaced Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January, but remained in power until the Liberal Party elected a new leader on March 9 following a leadership race by the governing Liberal Party.

He was sworn in as Canada's 24th prime minister on March 14. Carney said Thursday in this time of crisis that the government needs a strong and clear mandate.

Carney, 60, is among the two main candidates. He navigated crises when he was the head of the Bank of Canada and when in 2013 he became the first noncitizen to run the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694.

His appointment won bipartisan praise in the U.K. after Canada recovered from the 2008 financial crisis faster than many other countries.

A highly educated economist with Wall Street experience, Carney worked for 13 years for Goldman Sachs in London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto, before being appointed deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. He has both financial industry and public service credentials.

Carney still hasn’t had a phone call with Trump yet. He has said that he’s ready to meet with Trump, if he shows respect for Canadian sovereignty.

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservatives, is Carney's main challenger. The party and Poilievre were heading for a huge victory in Canada’s federal election this year until Trump’s near-daily trade and annexation threats derailed them.

Poilievre, 45, for years the party’s go-to attack dog, is a career politician and firebrand populist who says he will put “Canada first.” He attacks the mainstream media and vows to defund Canada’s public broadcaster. His party announced that it won't allow media onboard his campaign buses and planes.

“President Trump’s tariffs and his rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state have clearly helped the Liberals in the polls while putting the Conservatives in an odd position, as their rhetoric exhibits some similarities with Trump’s and a significant minority of their supporters like the President’s populist style and ideas," said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Poilievre has said he will stand up to Trump.

Detained Istanbul mayor faces second day of questioning as protests over his arrest intensify

2025-03-23 02:56 Last Updated At：03:02

ISTANBUL (AP) — Hundreds of supporters gathered in front of an Istanbul courthouse on Saturday, where detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu faced further questioning over allegations of corruption and terror links. His arrest this week intensified political tensions and sparked widespread protests across Turkey, with demonstrators rallying in multiple cities to voice their opposition.

Police questioned Imamoglu for around five hours on Saturday as part of an investigation into allegations of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the Cumhuriyet newspaper reported. A day earlier he was questioned for four hours over the corruption accusations. The mayor rejected all charges during both interrogations.

He was later transferred to a courthouse for questioning by prosecutors along with some 90 other people who were also detained with him.

The authorities barred access to the courthouse using barricades on local roads and closing nearby metro stations. Hundreds of police officers and over a dozen water cannon trucks were deployed. Still, hundreds gathered in front of the building shouting: “Rights, law, justice!”

Crowds also began to rally outside the city hall for a fourth night in a show of support to the mayor.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya posted on social media that 343 suspects had been detained in protests in major cities on Friday night, adding “There will be no tolerance for those who seek to violate societal order, threaten the people’s peace and security, and pursue chaos and provocation.” The cities listed included Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Canakkale, Eskisehir, Konya and Edirne.

Imamoglu, who is a popular opposition figure and seen as a top challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained on Wednesday following a dawn raid on his residence over allegations of financial crimes and links to Kurdish militants. Dozens of other prominent figures, including two district mayors, were also detained.

Many view the arrest as a politically driven attempt to remove a popular opposition figure and key challenger to Erdogan in the next presidential race, currently scheduled for 2028. Government officials reject accusations that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that Turkey’s courts operate independently.

His arrest has ignited protests that have steadily increased in intensity.

On Friday, police in Istanbul used pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets to push back hundreds of protesters who tried to break through a barricade in front of the city’s historic aqueduct while hurling flares, stones and other objects at officers. Police also dispersed groups that had rallied outside of the city hall for a third night running, after the opposition Republican People’s Party leader, Ozgur Ozel, delivered a speech in support of the mayor.

Simultaneously, police broke up demonstrations in Ankara, the capital, as well as in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, resorting to forceful measures at times, according to television images. Thousands marched in several other cities calling on the government to resign.

Earlier, Erdogan said the government would not tolerate street protests and accused the opposition party of links to corruption and terror organizations.

The Istanbul governor's office announced it was expanding a ban on demonstrations until March 26 and imposed restrictions on the entry and exit of vehicles deemed to be transporting people “likely to participate in unlawful activities.”

Erdogan on Saturday accused the CHP’s leadership of turning the party “into an apparatus to absolve a handful of municipal robbers who have become blinded by money.”

He also accused it of “doing everything to disturb the public peace, to polarize the nation.”

Imamoglu’s arrest came just days before he was expected to be nominated as the opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in a primary on Sunday. Ozel has said that the primary, where around 1.5 million delegates can vote, will go ahead as planned.

The opposition party has also urged citizens to participate in a symbolic election on Sunday — through improvised ballot boxes to be set up across Turkey — to show solidarity with Imamoglu.

In a tweet posted shortly before his arrival at the courthouse, Imamoglu urged the public to safeguard the ballot boxes for Sunday’s primary, “Don’t forget: they are very afraid of you and your democratic right to vote.”

In an earlier message, Imamoglu described his arrest as a “coup" and accused the government of exploiting the judiciary and worsening the country’s troubled economy.