Liberal Leader Mark Carney took his promise of making Canada an "energy superpower" to the heart of Canada's oil industry Wednesday, becoming the second party leader in three days to promise to speed up the review process to greenlight major national energy projects.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made a one-project, one-review promise at a campaign stop in northwest British Columbia on Monday, as both parties try to find a way to convince Canadians they can ditch Canada's reputation as a place where big projects take far too long to get built.
With punishing U.S. tariffs under President Donald Trump still dominating much of the conversation around the election, both the Liberals and Conservatives are wooing Canadians with pitches to reduce Canada's reliance on the U.S. for exports, including by building new pipelines, and other energy infrastructure.
Those tariffs again took centre stage Wednesday afternoon as Trump paused his global reciprocal tariffs on most nations for 90 days, though the impact on Canada wasn't immediately clear.
Speaking prior to that announcement, Carney said the tariffs are hurting Canadian businesses and workers, and Canada will respond not just with retaliatory tariffs, but by "thinking and acting" bigger.
He said he would look to displace energy imported from the United States.
Two days before the campaign began, Carney, in his role as prime minister, met with the country's premiers in Ottawa, where they began to hammer out a plan to have only one project review, including for environmental impacts, instead of two from each level of government.
On Wednesday Carney expanded that with a promise to sign agreements within six months of taking office with willing provinces and Indigenous governments that would recognize energy project assessments from their jurisdictions.
"Under my leadership, it's time to build, and we will build big time," he said.
He said while Canada has "enormous opportunities" in clean energy, "at the same time, we want to dominate the market for conventional energy."
That means "in the long term, it needs to be lower carbon," he said, adding that "we're looking to work with industry in order to do it."
On Monday, Poilievre promised to create a one-stop shop that would see one application and one environmental review for each project.
Carney cancelled the consumer carbon levy on April 1, but is keeping the carbon price for big industrial emitters in place. Poilievre has said he'll scrap it too.
Poilievre campaigned Wednesday in the northern Ontario city of Sault Ste. Marie, under the bridge that connects it to the same named city on the U.S. side of the border in Michigan. Algoma Steel, which makes steel sheet and plate products, is the largest employer in the city of about 72,000 people.
Poilievre was there to showcase his crime platform, including a "three-strikes" law that would make people convicted three times of "serious" offences ineligible for bail, probation, parole or house arrest. Those offenders also would be sentenced to a minimum prison term of 10 years and could get a life sentence.
They could not "be released until they have proven that they are no longer a danger to society," Poilievre said.
"Under my watch, the only way for repeat offenders to obtain their freedom will be through spotless behaviour and clean drug tests during a lengthy minimum prison sentence with earned release, dependent on making real progress in improving their lives, such as learning a trade or upgrading their education."
He insisted the law wouldn't run afoul of the Constitution, even though several justice experts have said some of his crime policies are likely to get struck down by the courts.
Earlier in the campaign, Poilievre promised a law that would ensure life sentences for people convicted of five or more counts of human trafficking, importing or exporting 10 or more illegal firearms, or trafficking fentanyl. He also said repeat offenders would be ineligible for bail.
Some experts have said those measures are unconstitutional and would very likely be struck down by the courts — which is what happened with crime measures passed by the former Conservative government under then-prime minister Stephen Harper.
Asked Wednesday whether he would invoke the notwithstanding clause to pass his proposed laws, Poilievre argued his proposals are constitutional.
Responding to Poilievre's proposal, Carney said while the "full force of the law" should be applied to habitual offenders, "I don't jump to a baseball rule of three strikes and you're out."
In 2022, a Liberal government bill ended mandatory minimum sentences for all drug convictions and for some firearms and tobacco-related offences. The changes reversed “tough on crime” measures passed under Harper.
That bill came after Canadian courts pushed back against mandatory minimum sentences. In a 2016 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a number of mandatory minimum penalties in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was campaigning in Vancouver Wednesday morning, where he promised to expand the pharmacare program his party pushed the Liberals to enact under their supply and confidence deal in the last Parliament.
Singh said an NDP government would establish a complete public pharmacare system within four years of being elected.
Both Carney and Singh were planning to travel to Saskatoon later Wednesday for rallies. It is the first time in this campaign any party leader has held an event in Saskatchewan.
There are 14 federal ridings in Saskatchewan, which has been a sea of blue in recent federal elections.
The full list of federal election candidates in ridings across the country was made available by Elections Canada on Wednesday.
The Conservatives will not have a full slate of 343 candidates after Elections Canada rejected nomination papers for Chanie Thériault, who was to run against Liberal incumbent and former cabinet minister Jean-Yves Duclos.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2025.
Comments
Alrighty then... This should put to rest any thought that the Carney Liberals could be our Climate Change heroes. Yaaaa, that's a hard NO! Lets see – 'Carbon Capture Carney' has stated: He believes CCUS (likely taxpayer funded) will enable Alberta to increase oil production while lowering emissions – Impossible (especially when considering exported scope 3 emissions); We need to grow the economy, including oil exports to pay for the green transition – About 50 years to late there CCC, now it’s simply using gasoline to douse a fire!; He wants to develop global carbon markets – To-date, simply a scam that allows forests to double/triple count it’s carbon sinking value while enabling industry to pay (little) to pollute; He wants Canada to be an Energy Superpower, including a domination of the world’s conventional energy (O&G) – This one needs no further explanation. With Carbon Capture Carney’s Liberals, hope for a Canadian contribution towards a livable world is… lost!
Alrighty then.....Prime Minister Poilievre it is after vote splitting has run its course.
Meanwhile, you forgot to mention Carney's response to just that question. Clean energy projects in partnership with First Nations. Electricity that incrementally displaces fossil fuels. Listing all the non-fossil energy sources he intends to promote. Making the point that 90% of all new energy investments worldwide are now in renewables. Oil demand is about to peak globally as the result.
Yes, there is a sop to CCS and an openness to Energy East, and unfortunately you can't run an election campaign in AB and SK without giving them someting. But Carney continues to push way beyond just O&G and lists wind, solar, geothermal, electricity interties, critical minerals, green hydrogen, batteries and more. One-stop approvals apply to all energy projects, not just pipes.
Then you've got Carney's huge housing project. There's nothing else as comprehensive in any other party's campaign.
You will never hear that from Poilievre whose conversation stops at O&G, cutting taxes and building more jails. And Trump? Polievre will capitulate early, just like his sister in arms, Danielle Smith.
This election is about far, far more than CCS.
I hear you man, I do... However, we need a federal government to take climate change mitigation seriously. We don't really know what 'balance' a Carney Liberal government will implement. Will 80-90% funding and incentives go towards O&G with some scraps for green initiatives like Liberal policies today, or are they going to significantly shift the balance towards renewables? We don't know... Why give anything to Albertawan? For 2 seats like the last election? They need to join the rest of Canada. IMO - The Liberals need to definitively pick a side - No more trying to please everyone. Sorry, I'm just embarrassed... no, ashamed to be Canadian when it comes to taking meaningful climate action.
If I could edit my comment above, I would remove the sentence “They need to join the rest of Canada” - it is out of place and distracting. To be clear, my frustration is with a Liberal Party that continues to support the opposing forces of expanding O&G as well as Mitigating Climate Change. As long as they support both, we (progressives) are left to ponder the politics… Are the Liberals truly climate advocates who are trying to buy votes in Albertawan, or are they really devoted O&G proponents who are attempting to buy votes with environmentalists. Personally, I used to wishfully think the former, but now I believe the latter.