Four months ago, the outcome of the Canadian federal elections – set for Monday, April 28 – seemed predetermined. The Conservatives were topping the polls with more than a 20-point lead in voting intentions over the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), led by the very unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Then Donald Trump arrived, claiming he wanted to make Canada the 51st state of the United States. Instantly, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), Pierre Poilievre, sometimes dubbed "the Trump of the North," appeared less appealing to Canadians.
Facing him, Mark Carney, a former banker capitalizing on his experience in the ongoing trade war with the United States, managed to unsettle his opponent. Even Poilievre's hometown, Calgary, which almost never elects Liberals, has been tempted – at least in part – to turn red, the color associated with the LPC.
In 2024, the Liberals approached Lindsay Luhnau to become their candidate in Calgary-Center, a constituency in the third-largest city in the country (1.57 million inhabitants), close to the Rockies, which can be glimpsed when the sun peeks between the snowflakes. But this young director of a local investment cooperative refused each time. Running under the Liberal banner was then a guaranteed defeat at the polls, due to Trudeau's very tarnished image. "There had to be a change, that's for sure. When he announced his resignation, things started to change, and at the time of Mark Carney's victory as party leader, I called the organizer back and asked, "Is the seat still open?"
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