TORONTO, April 29, (AP): Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won Canada’s federal election on Monday, capping a stunning turnaround in fortunes fueled by US President Donald Trump’s annexation threats and trade war. After polls closed, the Liberals were projected to win more of Parliament’s 343 seats than the Conservatives.

It wasn’t immediately clear, though, if they would win an outright majority - at least 172 - or would need to rely on one of the smaller parties to pass legislation. The Liberals looked headed for a crushing defeat until the American president started attacking Canada’s economy and threatening its sovereignty, suggesting it should become the 51st state.

Trump’s actions infuriated Canadians and stoked a surge in nationalism that helped the Liberals flip the election narrative and win a fourth-straight term in power. In a victory speech before supporters in Ottawa, Carney stressed the importance of Canadian unity in the face of the threats coming from Washington.

He also reiterated a belief he shared while campaigning: that the mutually beneficial system Canada and the US had shared since World War II had ended. "We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” he said. "As I've been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country," Carney said. "These are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us.

That will never ... ever happen. But we also must recognize the reality that our world has fundamentally changed.” The Conservative Party's leader, Pierre Poilievre, hoped to make the election a referendum on former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined toward the end of his decade in power as food and housing prices rose.

But Trump attacked, Trudeau resigned and Carney, a two-time central banker, became the Liberal Party’s leader and prime minister. In a speech conceding defeat and with his own seat in the House of Commons still in doubt, Poilievre vowed to keep fighting for Canadians and their right to an affordable home on a safe street.