‘We will protect our workers’: Liberal Leader Mark Carney campaigns in Kitchener

Bingemans Centre was filled with a sea of red on Wednesday evening as hundreds flocked to see and hear from Liberal Leader Mark Carney as he made his first election campaign stop in Waterloo Region.

“This is Canada. Thank God I’m here,” said Carney in the opening to his nearly 30-minute speech on Wednesday.

Carney was joined by nine Liberal candidates from Waterloo Region and Parry Sound as they shared their platforms with would-be voters in Kitchener for the first time this election cycle.

“There’s so many things I can say about KW,” said Carney. “The heart of advanced manufacturing, the centre of Canada’s high-tech industry, educational centre, home of the Kitchener Rangers.”

Carney shared his views on a variety of hot-button issues, including the economy, healthcare, childcare, and of course, the strained international relationship between Canada and the U.S.

“President Trump, just a few hours ago, announced further tariffs on our auto sector, going against decades and decades of cooperation in that sector since before I was born,” said Carney. “He escalated those attacks, and that’s what these tariffs are, they are attacks on Canada, but they are attacks on our workers.”

“We will protect our workers, we will protect our auto industry.”

As for the federal election, the battle for power between the Liberals and Conservatives appears to be heating up, with the NDP trailing in distant third.

The latest Leger polls suggest that 44 per cent of decided voters would vote Liberal in the upcoming election, ahead of the Conservatives at 38 per cent and the NDP at just six per cent.

In his speech on Wednesday, Carney jabbed at Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on multiple occasions.

The Liberal leader claimed that he’s done more in the nine days between being sworn in as prime minister and the call for the federal election than Poilievre has done in his entire political career.

“We have a leader of the opposition who is choosing to be blind to the many and growing threats to our country,” said Carney. “It’s shameful, it’s irresponsible, it’s disqualifying.”

Poilievre was in Quebec City on Wednesday hosting a similar rally ahead of the federal election.

Carney will return to Ottawa on Thursday to respond to new auto tariffs announced by U.S. President Trump.