Canada election: Leaders fan out across country as last day of advance voting underway

Carney used his campaign stop to underscore the health commitments in his platform, which was released Saturday.

The Liberal leader is promising to spend $4 billion to build and renovate critical health infrastructure like hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities, working with provinces and territories.

Speaking from the University of Prince Edward Island, Carney also promised to add thousands of new doctors to the health-care system by creating more medical school and residency spaces.

The Liberal plan includes working with provinces to make sure health-care professionals can work anywhere in Canada, streamline credential recognition and recruit doctors abroad.

I’m Cat Tunney, a senior reporter with CBC’s Parliamentary bureau. Liberal Leader Mark Carney is on P.E.I. for a health-care related announcement, but first addressed the death of Pope Francis, calling him “the world’s conscience.”

“Pope Francis was a voice of moral clarity, spiritual courage and boundless compassion,” said Carney, a Catholic himself.

The former central banker recounted a parable Francis shared in 2014, which is also cited in Carney’s book Values.

“He compared humanity to wine — rich, diverse, full of spirit — and the market to grappa — distilled, intense and at times disconnected — and he called on all of us to reintegrate human values into our economic lives,” said Carney.

“He reminded us that markets don’t have values, people do, and it’s our responsibility to close the gap, to turn that grappa into wine.”

The prime minister called Francis’s visit to Canada in 2022 and his decision to issue an apology on residential schools “a crucial step in moving the church forward in its journey toward meaningful reconciliation.”

Good morning, Canadians! I’m a producer based in Toronto and I’ll be curating our live page updates today.

It is the last week of the 45th federal election campaign, and also the final day of advance voting.

With little time left on the clock, the major party leaders will be pushing hard to sway voters still making up their minds.

Join us as we bring you all the developments and analysis from the campaign trail today.