What Canadian voters had to say about their election and Donald Trump

Donald Trump cast a long shadow over Canada's national election, and many voters felt his looming presence.

In his first 100 days back in the White House, the U.S. president has lobbed barbs at America's northern neighbor, levied tariffs on Canadian goods and even floated the idea of annexing Canada as the 51st state.

It prompted many Canadian voters to consider Trump's impact and how the parties on the ballot would respond to him.

Ultimately, Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals won over Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, a dramatic reversal of fortune credited largely to Trump.

In his victory speech, Carney declared that "President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never — that will never, ever happen."

Here are some voices from voters casting their ballots in Monday's elections:

Poilievre ‘sounds like mini-Trump’

In Toronto, Reid Warren said he voted Liberal because he saw the party as the best amid what he characterized as “real uncertainty” in the economy.

“I don’t think there is a better choice right now,” he said, voting in Toronto.

"I know people believe in Poilievre but it’s the same, like, soundbites that you get from anybody else. It sounds like mini-Trump to me.”

Warren, who works at a wholesale food distribution center, said he did feel somewhat boosted by unity among Canadians created by “all the shade being thrown from the States,” but ‘it's definitely created some turmoil, that’s for sure."

‘Maybe we’ve had too much of a relationship with the United States’

“There’s only so many times that you can hear, you know, ’51st state’ and ‘governor this’ and all that disrespect that’s coming that you have to think, you know, at some point you have to take it seriously," said Duncan Garrow, a resident of Toronto.

"In a very bizarre, upside down, twisted way, this might be a good thing for Canada, because I think maybe we’ve had too much of a relationship with the United States.

“I mean, they’re right there, they’re always going to be our neighbor, our partner, our friend, hopefully. But thinking about other possibilities, thinking about cutting down some of our own barriers within Canada, but also thinking more internationally, just as a country, I think that’s a very healthy, progressive way to be going forward.”

Conservative voter: ‘We would definitely be the 51st state’ with Carney win

Sisters Laiqa and Mahira Shoaib said they both voted for change in Monday’s election, and both said Trump's rhetoric and tariff plans influenced their decision.

The sisters, who immigrated from Pakistan a decade ago and voted in Mississauga, Ontario, said the economy has worsened and job opportunities have dried up under Liberal rule.

“It was different when we arrived,” Laiqa Shoaib said after casting her ballot. “We need to get out of Liberals.”

Laiqa, 27 and a health care worker, voted for the New Democratic Party.

Mahira, 25, who works at a bank, supported the Conservative Party, and Poilievre, whom she described as “business-minded.”

“We would definitely be the 51st state if Mark Carney wins,” she said.