Carney says lower internal trade barriers will help Canada more than Trump's tariffs will harm it

TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday eliminating trade barriers within Canada would benefit Canadians far more than U.S. President Donald Trump can ever take away with his trade war as he made his case to retain power at the last debate ahead of the April 28 vote.

Carney has set a goal of free trade within the country's 10 provinces and three territories by July 1. Canada has long had interprovincial trade barriers.

"We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away," Carney said “We can have one economy. This is within our grasp.”

Carney said the relationship Canada has had with the U.S. for the past 40 years has fundamentally changed because of Trump's tariffs. If reelected Carney plans to immediately enter into trade walks with the Trump administration.

“We are facing the biggest crisis of our lifetimes. Donald Trump is trying to fundamentally change the world economy, the trading system, but really is he's trying to break us so the U.S. can own us. They want our land, they want our resources, they our water, they want our country” Carney said in his closing statement. “I am ready and I have managed crisis over the years ... We will fight back with counter tariffs and we will protect our workers.”

Trump’s trade war and threats to make Canada the 51st state have infuriated Canadians and led to a surge in Canadian nationalism that has bolstered Liberal Party poll numbers.

Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is imploring Canadians not to give the Liberals a fourth term. He hoped to make the election a referendum on Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined toward the end of his decade in power as food and housing prices rose and immigration surged.

But Trump attacked, Trudeau resigned and Carney, a two-time central banker, became Liberal party leader and prime minister last month after a party leadership race.

“It maybe difficult, Mr. Poilievre, you spent years running against Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax and they are both gone,” Carney said. “I am a very different person than Justin Trudeau.”

Public opinion has changed. In a mid-January poll by Nanos, Liberals trailed the Conservative Party by 47% to 20%. In the latest Nanos poll released Thursday, the Liberals led by 5 percentage points. The January poll had a margin of error 3.1 points while the latest poll had a 2.7-point margin.

"We can’t afford a fourth Liberal term of rising housing costs," Poilievre said.

Poilievre accused Carney's Liberals of being hostile toward Canada’s energy sector and pipelines. He accused the Liberals of weakening the economy and vowed that a Conservative government would repeal “anti-energy laws, red tape and high taxes.”

“We need a change, and you, sir, are not a change,” Poilievre said in one exchange.

Canada's Prime Minister and Liberal Leader Mark Carney arrives for the English-language federal election debate, in Montreal, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

New Democratic Party (NDP) Leader Jagmeet Singh and his wife Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu arrive for the English-language federal election leaders' debate, in Montreal, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre arrives with his wife Anaida Poilievre, for the English-language federal election debate, in Montreal, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, from left, Liberal Leader Mark Carney, New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh, and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, take part in a group photo prior participating in the English-language federal leaders' debate, in Montreal, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, from left, Liberal Leader Mark Carney and New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh participate in the English-language federal leaders' debate in Montreal, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

State Sen. Dan McKeon tearfully announced his resignation from the Nebraska Legislature on Tuesday ahead of scheduled debate to expel him from the body after accusations that he made a sexually charged comment to a legislative staffer and touched her inappropriately during a session-end party last year.

McKeon, a Republican from rural south-central Nebraska who had served only a year before his resignation, announced his resignation and apologized on the legislative floor just minutes before debate that would certainly have included harsh condemnation of McKeon.

“My words and actions were careless, regardless of the intent,” McKeon said. “I accept my responsibility for the impact of my words and my actions.”

“This past year has humbled me. It requires reflection, listening and learning. Accountability is not only acknowledging my mistake but committing to grow from it. I take that responsibility seriously,” McKeon said, his voice cracking.

His demeanor was a departure from what many of his fellow lawmakers found to be a defiant and flippant attitude toward the accusations leading up to his resignation. McKeon's exit came a day after the 10-member Executive Board, the body's governing board, voted unanimously to forward a motion to expel McKeon to the full Legislature for a vote.

The unprecedented move followed a complaint from the staffer who works for another lawmaker that McKeon approached her and another aide during a May 29 party and engaged in small talk about everyone's vacation plans. The woman said McKeon told her she should “get laid” on her vacation and patted her on her buttocks. McKeon has countered that he “made a bad pun," telling the woman she and her spouse should “go to Hawaii and enjoy a Hawaiian lei,” according to McKeon's attorney.

McKeon also countered that he patted the staffer on the back and may have accidentally brushed her rear end, but insists that if he did, it was unintentional.

McKeon's departure comes as more attention has focused on sexual harassment within state legislatures nationwide — including in Nebraska. The accusations against McKeon came about 15 months after the body was thrown in chaos when another Republican state lawmaker, former Sen. Steve Halloran, read a graphic account of rape from a bestselling memoir on the floor of the Legislature in which he repeatedly invoked the name of a fellow lawmaker, making it appear as if that lawmaker was the subject of the assault.

An outside investigation found that Halloran had violated the body’s workforce sexual harassment policy, and the Legislature's governing Executive Board issued him a letter of reprimand. But that action was met with strong criticism from several lawmakers who said Halloran should have faced a censure vote by the full body. Halloran left office in January 2025 due to term limits.

This time around, the Executive Board took a harder stance after a several lawmakers and another outside investigation found that McKeon had a history of making inappropriate comments and jokes during his time in the Legislature. The investigator also found that McKeon ignored a directive by the Executive Board's chairman not to attend events where staffers would be, showing up that same day at another party attended by the woman who filed the complaint against him.

The investigator also found that a text McKeon sent to another staffer who shares an office with the woman, in which he said she “seems to be difficult to work with,” could constitute retaliation against her.

The report determined that McKeon’s conduct did not rise to a level of sexual harassment or retaliation actionable under state or federal discrimination law, but that it did violate the Nebraska Legislature’s workplace harassment policy.

McKeon becomes at least the 57th state lawmaker in the nation to leave office via expulsion or resignation since 2017 following sexual misconduct allegations.

He also faces a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace after a Nebraska State Patrol investigation into his interaction with the staffer last May. McKeon has pleaded not guilty to that charge and is set to appear in court on Jan. 26.

State sen. Daniel McKeon sits during the first day of Nebraska's 2026 legislative session, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. (Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

State Sen. Daniel McKeon takes notes during the first day of Nebraska's 2026 legislative session, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. (Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP)