Canada is set to elect a new government to confront annexation threats from the United States and deal directly with President Donald Trump, whose trade war has defined the campaign.

The Liberal Party, led by new Prime Minister Mark Carney, had appeared likely to lose easily to the Conservatives’ Pierre Poilievre until the U.S. president’s attacks on the country sparked a sudden reversal in poll forecasts.

Carney, 60, has never held an elected office and only replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister last month.

He previously had a lucrative career as an investment banker before serving as central bank governor in both Canada and Britain.

Carney has pledged to revitalize internal trade and expand Canada’s economic opportunities abroad to reduce reliance on the U.S., a country Carney says “we can no longer trust.”

Campaigning was rattled on Saturday by a car-ramming attack at a Filipino holiday celebration in Vancouver, which left 11 people dead, with a 30-year-old man later charged with murder.

AFP