Champagne teases imminent election call by Carney

Industry Minister Francois Phillipe-Champagne has hinted that a general election may be days away from being called following Mark Carney’s victory as the new Liberal leader.

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Industry Minister Francois Phillipe-Champagne has hinted that a general election may be days away from being called following Mark Carney’s victory as the new Liberal leader.

On Sunday evening, the Liberal Party of Canada selected former central banker Carney as their new leader and successor to Justin Trudeau as prime minister.

Speaking to reporters after the event, Champagne said the Liberals “already have a plan for the first few days.”

When asked if he would support a spring election, Champagne said that Canadians would be going to the polls “fairly quickly.”

“I think we’ve said we’re going to go to the polls to get a strong mandate fairly quickly so that we can have not only the team –the Liberal team–but the whole Canadian team with us,” said Champagne. “I think Canadians are ready for that, they want a strong team.”

However, the Liberals have yet to make any official announcement regarding an election call.

He also said that the party intended to “roll this thing” and that Canadians are going to see things that they’ve “never seen before.”

“We’re going to build. We’re going to invest. This is going to be a transformational moment for our nation,” said Champagne.

After a two-month leadership contest, Carney won the leadership race on the first ballot with 131,674 ballots, amounting to 85.9 per cent of the vote.

Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland finished second with 11,134 and 8 per cent of the vote while former government house leader Karina Gould placed third with 3.2 per cent and former MP Frank Baylis came last with 3 per cent.

In a leadership race precipitated by Trudeau’s resignation announcement, Carney emerged as the early frontrunner in the race.

Despite running as an “outsider,” Carney received numerous endorsements from Trudeau government cabinet ministers, including foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly, transport minister Anita Anand, defence minister Bill Blair, housing minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and others.