Canada Elections: Donald Trump's 51st state gets counter from Carney, Poillievre

Canada Elections 2025 LIVE: The first polls closed in Newfoundland. The next polls will close in Atlantic Canada and Labrador at around 7:30 PM Eastern Time. Exit polls and results will likely start coming in from around 8:00 PM, approximately 6:30 AM IST on April 29 in India.

Jagmeet Singh, the head of the New Democratic Party, has also responded to Trump’s latest call to make Canada the “cherished 51st state”.

“I hear Trump has something to say about our election,” Singh wrote on X. “Here’s what I have to say. He doesn’t choose our future. We do.”

Canada Elections 2025 LIVE: To vote in the federal elections in Canada, an individual must:

-Be a Canadian citizen

-Be at least 18 years old on election day

-Have proof of identity and address

US President Donald Trump trolled Canadians on election day by suggesting on social media that he was in fact on the ballot and repeating that Canada should become the 51st state. “It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!” Trump wrote.

Canada Elections 2025 LIVE: Polling stations across Canada will be open from 9:30 am to 9:30 pm local time. To find your designated polling station, you can use the Elections Canada polling station locator. It's advisable to verify your polling location ahead of time to avoid any confusion on Election Day.​

Canada Elections 2025 LIVE: Nearly 29 million of Canada's 41 million people are eligible to vote in the massive G7 country. A record 7.3 million people cast advanced ballots, according to AFP.

Canadians will elect 343 members of parliament, meaning 172 seats are needed for a majority. The Liberals won a majority in 2015 but have governed with a minority since 2019.

Canada Elections 2025 LIVE: "We must not let ourselves be intimidated or influenced" by the US president, Alice Charasse, 37, tells AFP before casting a ballot on her way to work in Montreal. “With what is happening with our neighbors, we must send a message.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals held a 2.7-point lead over Poilievre's Conservatives in national support, according to a CTV News-Globe and Mail-Nanos poll released on Sunday.

Nanos pegged the Liberals at 42.6% support and the Conservatives at 39.9%, in the poll.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Donald Trump’s calls for Canada to become the 51st US state are rooted in frustrations over trade. In an interview with NBC, Rubio said Trump floated the idea after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told him Canada could not survive “without unfair trade” with the United States.

“They’ll have their elections this week. They’re going to have a new leader and we’ll deal with the new leadership of Canada. The president has repeatedly stated he thinks Canada would be better off as a state," NBC quoted Rubio as saying.

Elections Canada is encouraging voters to head to polling stations between noon and 4pm to avoid long waits. According to a graphic shared by the agency on X, early morning and late afternoon, especially after 4pm, tend to be the busiest times.

Canada has been dealing with a cost-of-living crisis for some time. And more than 75% of its exports go to the U.S., so Trump's threat to impose sweeping tariffs and his desire to get North American automakers to move Canada's production south could severely damage the Canadian economy.

Both Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre said that if elected, they would accelerate renegotiations of a free trade deal between Canada and the U.S. in a bid to end the uncertainty hurting both of their economies.

Crime is a big problem for the voters in the Greater Toronto Area. Other places have issues like immigration and Trump on their mind, BBC reported.

Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has cast his vote in today's election. He heads the Quebec-sovereigntist party that only runs candidates in the French-speaking province.

Many voters have said that it felt like Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was really in Trump’s corner until it became a political liability.

“It definitely felt very wishy washy and didn’t ring true for me,” a voter told BBC.

Another woman said that it took the conservative leader “so long to say something against the country downstairs” that she felt it showed weakness.

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre just voted in Ottawa where he is MP for Carleton. A total of 91 candidates are on the ballot in his constituency.

The election is expected to cost around C$570 million ($411 million).

Canada Elections 2025 LIVE: Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre criticised Donald Trump's remarks about Monday’s election, after the US president once again called for Canada to join the United States.

"President Trump, stay out of our election," Poilievre, who is running for prime minister, wrote on X.

He further stated, "Canada will always be proud, sovereign and independent and we will NEVER be the 51st state."

Liberal leader Mark Carney has told Canadians that Canada decides "what happens here", in what appears to be a reference to President Trump's repeated calls for Canada to become the 51st US state

Trump had again said the same thing in a post on Truth Social earlier today.

In a video posted on X, Carney told the public to choose to be "united and strong" against the "crisis in the United States," which he says doesn’t stop at Canadian borders.

US President Donald Trump has posted on social media, reiterating claims that he wants to make Canada the 51st state of America. In response, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has told Trump to “stay out of our election”.

Posting on X, Poilievre said that the only people "who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box.

"Canada will always be proud, sovereign, and independent, and we will NEVER be the 51st state."

He added that Canadians can vote for change so they can “stand up to America”.

While the Conservatives initially had an advantage when Justin Trudeau resigned as Prime Minister and Liberal leader, recent opinion polls show the Liberal Party has gained an upper hand coming into polling day.

Liberal Party's Mark Carney and the Conservatives' Pierre Poillievre are the two main candidates in the elections. Several small parties are also in the fray.