OTTAWA — Liberal leader Mark Carney launched his campaign office in Nepean on Saturday morning, a week after he triggered a federal election and announced he would run for office for the first time in the Ottawa-area riding.
In a room decorated with campaign signs bearing his name and large words on the wall that read, “Go knock doors,” he addressed a crowd of supporters, telling them this is the most important election of their lifetimes.
“It’s critical in redefining our relationship with the United States. It’s critical in redefining our economy on our own terms, standing up for Canada, creating one economy — one strong economy,” he said.
His campaign tour returned to Ottawa late Friday after a week on the road — a tour that was interrupted at various points due to his role as prime minister. U.S. President Donald Trump, signed an executive order for new auto tariffs on Wednesday, and spoke with Carney on a call for the first time on Friday.
Carney rolled up to his new campaign office in his Liberal-branded tour bus and entered the building with his wife Diana Fox Carney and brought cupcakes from a local bakery for volunteers.
Carney does not live in Nepean but has pointed to ties to the area because of his close friendship with people who do, including Peter Chiarelli, the former general manager of the Edmonton Oilers, who grew up in Nepean and went to Harvard University on a hockey scholarship when Carney did the same. The two were roommates there.
Several family friends and former Liberal cabinet minister Scott Brison joined Carney for his local campaign visit Saturday.
Former Ottawa mayor and provincial Liberal cabinet minister Bob Chiarelli said he’s known Carney for a long time and came out Saturday to congratulate him on becoming prime minister and wish him well on the campaign trail.
“Every riding in the Ottawa area is going to be very engaged, and I think he’s going to win them all,” the former mayor said. “I’m well engaged in the community and I hear nothing but positive for him.”
“Mark is exactly what you see,” said Carney’s friend John Premachuk. “What he appears to be from a values and genuine perspective is exactly what he is. He’s the right guy at the right time for a really difficult job.”
Carney is a political rookie, never having run for office before. The Nepean riding he is running in even neighbours Carleton, the district of Carney’s main rival, a seven-time incumbent MP and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Nepean tends to be a battle between the Liberal and Conservative candidates, and this year Carney will face off with candidate Barbara Bal, a career police officer and former reserve member of the Royal Canadian Artillery confirmed for the Conservatives.
Paula Whelan, a local retiree, said she is volunteering for the first time to help Carney get elected because she’s concerned about the divisive political climate in Canada and America.
“It’s Poilievre. It’s Trump. It’s all of the above,” she said. “Don’t even say the Poilievre word! I can’t even go there.”
Whelan said she packed her heavy coat and toque to go knock doors in the March cold for Carney.
The suburban riding has a median household income after tax of $104,000 a year, with many educated professionals working in the public service, health care and social assitance, according to the most recent census data.
Roughly 68 per cent of the population there only speaks English and 31 per cent of the riding’s population immigrated to Canada.
The Liberal party prevented local incumbent MP Chandra Arya from running again this year, telling him just days before the election launch that he was being removed as the candidate.
The party said its green-light committee that screens candidates obtained information that led to the party revoking his candidate status, even though he had been nominated and won the riding under the Liberal banner three times before.
Arya was also barred from running for the party’s leadership race in January.
The party has not publicly disclosed the information that has barred him from running.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2025.
Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press
