Australia’s election result echoes that of Canada. Should its policies as well?

Australians were casting their votes as I began to write this, and even before the thumping Labor victory emerged from left field, the parallels with Canada’s recent election were already clear.

Just days before Australians went to the polls, my fellow Canadians faced a similar choice. In late April, Mark Carney’s Liberals narrowly defeated Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in a high-stakes contest that hinged on climate policy, economic resilience, housing affordability, and international alignment. 

Carney, a former central banker and global climate envoy, won the prime ministership by balancing aggressive climate action with economic pragmatism, providing a clear lesson in political navigation for a nation struggling to reconcile energy transition with cost-of-living concerns. Australians, currently facing similar debates about climate, housing, economic growth, and global alliances, have plenty to learn from Canada’s recent political choices.

Carney’s first and perhaps most critical political maneuver after being elected leader of the Liberals and hence Prime Minister under our governance system, was tackling climate action without provoking voter backlash.

Canada’s carbon tax had become increasingly unpopular among voters burdened by inflation and rising energy prices, in large part because the Conservatives and Canada’s delayers and deniers had amplified anti-carbon tax messaging by Poilievre, whose “Axe the Tax” jingoistic simplicity was repeated ad nauseum. 

Carney quickly neutralised the political threat from Poilievre by scrapping the consumer carbon levy on gasoline and home heating fuels shortly after taking office. Rather than abandoning climate action, he shifted the focus to placing greater responsibility on large industrial polluters.

Canada’s oil and gas sector, previously facing stringent emissions caps under the Trudeau administration, now faces tighter methane regulations and enhanced oversight on emissions intensity, while being offered substantial incentives for carbon capture technologies. 

This tactical pivot prevented climate action from becoming politically toxic, something Australian policymakers have struggled with ever since the repeal of its own carbon price in 2014.

Sadly, instead of Canada’s consumer carbon price becoming a success story to counter Australia’s example, it’s become more evidence that consumer carbon prices are politically vulnerable. Carney’s approach suggests a workable path forward – climate action can still progress as long as voters see costs being fairly distributed, primarily borne by polluting industries rather than everyday households.

Hopefully the balancing act will bear emissions reductions fruit, but execution is critical.

As part of execution, electrification sits squarely at the center of Carney’s ambitious climate agenda. His Liberals will reintroduce consumer incentives for electric vehicles, boosting Canada’s previously flagging EV uptake. They’ll also aggressively expand Canada’s charging infrastructure nationwide, setting firm targets for 100% zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035.

Perhaps more critically, Carney is taking electrification beyond passenger cars by encouraging widespread use of electric heat pumps to replace fossil-fuel heating in homes and introducing mandates for electrification in industrial heat processes. These policies not only lower emissions but also promise lower energy bills and greater energy security for Canadians. 

Australia’s path toward electrification, while improving recently, still lags significantly Canada’s new minority government’s promised national strategies. Luckily, either of Canada’s two other parties in Parliament, the Greens and the Quebec separatist party, the Bloc Quebecois, can support the Liberal agenda, and the Greens will push for more.

With Australia’s immense renewable potential, particularly in solar and wind, Canada’s electrification push offers valuable lessons on combining ambitious targets with consumer-friendly incentives and infrastructure investments.

A central plank of Carney’s energy strategy involves building a robust, interconnected national grid capable of transporting renewable energy efficiently across the country. Canada currently suffers from highly fragmented provincial grids that hinder renewable integration. The centerpiece of this vision is a major east-west power grid linking hydro-rich Quebec and Manitoba with Ontario and Alberta, allowing clean electricity to flow freely, reducing reliance on fossil fuel generation.

This Canadian approach aligns closely with Australia’s current “Rewiring the Nation” initiative, aimed at interconnecting renewable-rich regions with population and industrial centers. 

Carney’s Liberals are moving decisively to implement a streamlined “One Project, One Review” regulatory approach, dramatically reducing approval timelines for critical transmission infrastructure and renewable projects.

Canada’s approach emphasises that cutting red tape, coordinating federal-provincial partnerships, and actively involving Indigenous communities can significantly accelerate renewable infrastructure – lessons highly relevant to Australia’s often contentious and drawn-out transmission debates. 

Housing affordability, a pressing issue shared by both Canada and Australia, emerged as one of Carney’s defining campaign issues. The new Canadian government plans a near-doubling of the housing construction rate to around half a million new homes per year, an ambitious target reminiscent of post-World War II building booms.

To achieve this, Carney intends to introduce substantial federal intervention, including a new public corporation tasked with rapidly developing affordable housing, heavy investment in modern modular and mass-timber construction methods, and elimination of the federal sales tax on new homes for first-time buyers. 

Australians have long grappled with inadequate housing supply, soaring home prices, and insufficient rental availability. Canada’s aggressive approach offers a template worth examining, particularly its embrace of federal leadership, innovation in construction methods, and proactive financial incentives aimed squarely at affordability. While Australia isn’t rich in forests, many Asian nations are, and developing mass-timber APAC supply chains is something that should be considered seriously.

Carney’s economic vision extends beyond climate and housing, emphasizing productivity growth, labor market flexibility, and infrastructure investment as the foundations of sustained economic resilience. His immediate priority is to break down Canada’s notoriously inefficient interprovincial trade barriers, aiming to unlock up to five percent additional GDP simply through internal market liberalization.

The stated goal is to introduce legislation by July to eliminate most federal barriers. The current attitude in Canada suggests that provinces are finally aligned on this. It’s long been a truism that most provinces have freer trade with neighboring U.S. states than with neighboring Canadian provinces.

Additionally, Carney’s government is committing significant resources toward modernizing critical trade infrastructure, building new rail corridors, enhancing port capacities, and investing in strategic industries like critical minerals and advanced manufacturing. Skills training and apprenticeships will expand significantly to fill the labor shortages created by accelerated infrastructure and construction demands.

Australia’s productivity challenges parallel those in Canada – both countries are resource-rich economies seeking diversification and resilience in a rapidly changing global market. Carney’s emphasis on structural economic reforms, infrastructure-led growth, and targeted skills development provides a credible blueprint for Australia to consider as it navigates similar transitions.

On the global stage, Carney faces an unusually fraught geopolitical environment, notably complicated by the return of a hostile U.S. administration under Donald Trump.

As with the Australian political landscape, Carney’s leadership of the re-elected Liberals is due to Canadian sentiment being focused on dealing with the newly isolationist and antagonistic administration to the south. Trump’s renewed protectionism has already hit Canadian exports with punitive tariffs and created unprecedented tensions, forcing Canada into defensive economic strategies. 

Carney has responded by aggressively pursuing trade diversification prior to the election and promising more of the same, promising heavy investment in infrastructure to facilitate expanded trade routes to Europe and Asia, and to reduce reliance on American markets. Canadians have already cut 70% of planned trips to the United States, and buying Canadian is a major trend. 

On China, Carney maintains cautious but firm positions, continuing to align with allies on security concerns while pursuing pragmatic engagement on trade and climate. Notably, Carney’s Canada is aligning closely with Europe, especially on climate-related trade policies such as carbon border adjustments. I would hope, personally, that Carney’s Liberals would step back from the US Sinophobia and paranoia to view the country with clearer eyes, separate from those inside the declining empire to our south.

Australia faces similar geopolitical dynamics, balancing close security ties with the United States against economic vulnerabilities due to its China-reliant export profile. Canada’s example of strategically diversifying trading partnerships, asserting national sovereignty, and building alliances with like-minded democratic nations – particularly through climate diplomacy and trade – is instructive for Australia’s own complicated geopolitical balancing act. 

Albanese’s commitment to hosting a major UN Climate Summit with Pacific nations in 2026 and Dutton’s attacks on it echo clearly Canada’s actions and rhetoric on the subject. Rudd’s focus on economic and diplomatic ties to China is to be emulated in the face of an increasingly isolated America and a unifying Asian block, evidenced by among other things the relative ongoing strength of sales of Japanese and South Korean cars in China compared to western vehicles. Australia must ensure it isn’t left out of that emerging geographic economy.

As Australians digest the final election results, Canada’s recent political experience under Mark Carney provides valuable lessons. Carney’s successful navigation of climate policy, his pragmatic embrace of electrification and infrastructure renewal, bold housing strategies, and strategic international alignment offer proven strategies Australia can consider and adapt.

Both nations, facing similar internal and external pressures, have much to gain by observing each other’s approaches closely. 

While it’s impossible to predict precisely how Australia’s election outcome will translate into specific policies, the Canadian election serves as a useful bellwether.

Voters in both countries have shown willingness to support ambitious yet practical climate and economic policies that address immediate cost-of-living issues while building a foundation for sustainable future growth.

Canada’s choices offer a roadmap, demonstrating clearly that well-executed, balanced policies can effectively overcome polarized politics, securing both voter support and real progress on the challenges that matter most.