The Top Line
This week, the Election 2025 campaign entered its final stretch, with the parties clearly focussed on battleground provinces and swing ridings, and the Leaders intent on making their preferred closing arguments to voters. Today and through the weekend, expect the Parties to make closing pitches that underline their key priorities, as priorly outlined throughout the election campaign, and to hold large supporter rallies in major media markets to demonstrate momentum and capture voter attention.
For example, today, the Conservative Party released a ‘100 days of change’ plan for a legislative agenda to reduce taxes, seek to accelerate housing construction, crack down on crime, and facilitate natural resource development. That follows on the mid-week publication of the Conservative Election 2025 policy platform, which was largely a roll-up of priorly announced policies, with some added detail in the areas of housing and law and order – which the Conservative campaign as emphasized in recent weeks.
Similarly, the Liberal campaign returned to its core messaging today, releasing an announcement about standing up for Ontarians against the Trump Presidency’s tariffs – echoing the most salient issue of the campaign, and the topic on which voters appear to view Prime Minister Carney most favourably. Mr. Carney also made a similar announcements in Québec and British Columbia – the most significant battleground region for the election – earlier in the week, clearly indicating his messaging priorities in the final stretch of the campaign
Leaders’ Week in Review
Liberal Leader Mark Carney began the week in his (newly adopted) home riding of Nepean (Ottawa), before sweeping through the Ontario, Québec and British Columbia (BC) battleground regions of Whitby, Peterborough, Trois Rivières, Victoria, Porty Moody, Winnipeg, and Sault St. Marie. The whirlwind week (which also included stops in Prince Edward Island and Fredericton) was clearly designed to put the Liberals on the offensive and support non-incumbent campaigns in as many regions as possible. A Liberal rally is planned for Mississauga over the weekend.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre campaigned in Scarborough, Woodbridge, the Hamilton area, and Atlantic Canada this week – all battleground regions where the Conservatives must both defend and pick up seats in order to have a successful Election Day. Late this week and headed into the weekend, Mr. Poilievre held rallies in Saskatoon and Nanaimo, and is expected to hold weekend rallies in Vancouver, and in key battleground ridings throughout Ontario. Mr. Poilievre will hold a closing rally in his riding of Carleton (Ottawa area), which may indicate a more pessimistic internal Conservative Party outlook about how the election is trending.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet spent the week in Québec City, in Eastern Quebec, and in Montréal. His campaign continues to focus on Bloc-held ridings, with the hopes of holding them on Monday.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh spent almost the entire week in BC (including several days on Vancouver Island) and in Edmonton, clearly intent on campaigning to save incumbent NDP MPs in those places, given the dire straits of NDP election prospects in other regions.
What This Means to You
On Tuesday morning, TSA will publish a detailed election results note, with analysis of the implications of the election result for lobbying, the next steps immediately facing the new government, and what stakeholders need to do to connect effectively with the new government.
