OTTAWA-While President Donald Trump was widely viewed as the major factor in securing a fourth consecutive term in office for the Liberals in last Monday’s Canadian general election, the Conservative leader played a role in his party’s defeat at the polls, according to Canadian political analysts.

“Trump set the stage” for Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney “as a somber leader for the Liberals, who made people feel assured that things could be handled when there was a sense of fear of people at the beginning of the campaign worried about” the president’s threats of annexing Canada as the 51st state, University of Manitoba political studies professor Christopher Adams told Fox News Digital.

“It’s highly unusual for American presidents to wade into Canadian politics, especially during elections,” said Adams.

He explained the last time that happened was during the 1963 Canadian general election campaign, when the press reported on President John F. Kennedy speaking favorably about Canadian Liberal Leader Lester Pearson, whose party toppled Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservatives to win the election and form a minority government.

Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus in the University of Toronto’s Department of Political Science, told Fox News Digital that the race between the Liberals and Conservatives narrowed when Trump pulled back his attacks against Canada in the latter half of the campaign.

The focus shifted to “Conservative issues – cost of living, affordability, housing, time for a change – while Carney was making speeches about Trump – because he knew that was his trump card, no pun intended – and it was wearing off,” said Wiseman.

Elections Canada signage is seen as voters arrive at a polling station on Election Day in Halifax, Canada, on Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP)

May will be a busy month for Carney. Next week, he will unveil his Cabinet and, on May 27, welcome King Charles III to read the Speech from the Throne to open the next session of Parliament as Canada’s head of state – the first time the British monarch has come to Ottawa to perform that ceremonial role since Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, 20 years after she did so during her first visit to Canada.

Wiseman said the royal visit is intended to showcase national unity in response to Trump’s threats against Canadian sovereignty. 

However, the man who represented the crown as governor general in Canada from 1979 to 1984 said that he “can’t believe that as many people are taking seriously this whole business of Trump talking about the annexation of Canada as an existential threat,” Edward Schreyer, a former premier of his home province of Manitoba, told Fox News Digital. “I think the whole thing is a joke – and was at the beginning, is now and ever shall be an absurdity.”