Liberal Leader Mark Carney is promising temporary supports to help retirees cope with U.S. tariffs that are punishing markets around the globe.
Carney announced in Victoria on Monday that he will lower the minimum amount that must be withdrawn from a Registered Retirement Income Fund by 25 per cent.
The federal government made that same temporary move in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to help seniors protect their retirement funds from market volatility.
Carney also pledged to boost the Guaranteed Income Supplement by five per cent to help low-income seniors.
The Liberal party says that measure would provide those seniors with up to $652. Both the GIS and investment measures would last for only a year.
Carney kicked off his first British Columbia campaign stops by needling Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
He arrived late Sunday in Victoria, where he is expected to spend a significant amount of the third week of the federal campaign.
Carney told a rally in Victoria Sunday night that the national effort to convince the Americans to abandon tariffs has seen Ontario Premier Doug Ford make multiple appearances on the conservative Fox News network.
“We’re sending Doug Ford on to Fox News to show them we’re not messing around up here. And we’re going to send Danielle next, we’re — well maybe we won’t send Danielle,” Carney said with a grimace. “That was a bad idea.”
When his microphone cut out just as he was discussing clean energy, Carney joked that “that was Danielle.”
Premier Smith has come under fire in recent days for telling the right-wing Breitbart News that the White House should pause the tariffs until after the election and suggesting that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is “very much in sync” with the Trump administration.
Except for one day in Winnipeg, Carney’s campaign tour stayed in Eastern Canada for the first two weeks.
He told supporters at a community hall in Victoria Sunday night that Canada is rethinking its relationship with the U.S. and needs more growth in fields like green energy.
Carney is set to meet with B.C. Premier David Eby before heading to an evening rally in Richmond, B.C., Monday night.
The Liberals and Carney have surged in most polls in recent weeks as Canadians say U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic threats are their top concern.
Smith declared victory last week when Trump stopped short of imposing tariffs on all Canadian imports, including energy, and instead proceeded with his planned tariffs affecting Canadian sectors such as automotive and steel industries.
At Sunday’s rally in Victoria, Sylvia Samborski said she’s supporting Carney because he seems able to handle Trump’s threats against Canada’s economy and sovereignty.
“A lot of Canadians are really fearful right now, and I think that we feel hope right now, because we have somebody who’s articulate, intelligent and experienced,” she said, adding that concerns about the U.S. are particularly acute in a region right on the border.
“We’re well below the 49th parallel down here,” Samborski said, adding that her American friends are “scared” of Trump’s policies.
Rally participant John Ellis said he prefers Carney over the NDP, which took all but one of the seven Vancouver Island ridings in the 2021 election.
He said locals want better roads and infrastructure for booming communities, something he said the NDP didn’t focus on enough during the last Parliament.
“It would be nice to have somebody in Ottawa with a voice in Parliament, and we haven’t had that for a very, very long time,” he said.
Former federal environment minister Catherine McKenna was also at Sunday’s rally. She said she had been campaigning for local candidates at her own behest.
“I’m not running for office but I will help anyone who runs,” she said. She said Carney is the best choice to combat climate change, despite his decision to scrap the carbon levy she spent years putting into place.
“Look, it was really hard. I’m not going to deny it,” she said. “It was very divisive by the end, because there was so much disinformation and misinformation by Conservatives.”
McKenna said that while “there are lessons to be learned about how to defend policy,” the oil and gas sector must do more to tackle emissions.
Article by Dylan Robertson.
— With files from Kyle Duggan in Ottawa
