Albanese and Dutton draw opposing lessons from Canada’s election
Labor sees a boost in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s anti-Trump win, while the Coalition finds hope in Canada’s polls underestimating Conservative strength.
Australia’s political leaders are drawing different takeaways from Canada’s election result — with Anthony Albanese leaning into Mark Carney’s anti-Trump victory, and Peter Dutton taking heart from the Conservative vote beating the polls.
Carney, the former central bank governor in both Canada and Britain, claimed victory in Monday’s election after his centre-left Liberal Party fell just short of a majority. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre lost his own seat in a major blow for a man who, just months ago, was widely expected to become the country’s next prime minister.
The Canadian election contest was upended by Donald Trump’s debilitating tariffs against the country and his threats to absorb the nation as the “51st state” of the US, which triggered a massive turnaround in the polls following Carney’s replacement of Justin Trudeau as prime minister.
Albanese has been pursuing a similar strategy in Australia ahead of Saturday’s poll — painting Dutton’s policies, such as his cuts to the public service and the scrapped work-from-home crackdown, as Trump-lite. While Albanese’s turnaround does not mirror Carney’s in the public polls, the Australian election has shifted from what looked like a tight contest earlier in the year to widespread expectations that Labor will be returned in either minority or majority government.
