Liberal Leader Mark Carney indicated he won’t be firing campaign staff responsible for a covert operation to plant campaign buttons meant to portray the Conservatives as election deniers at a recent conference in Ottawa.
Instead, Carney has apologized for the incident and said he has shuffled the responsible individuals into different roles.
Carney was asked by a reporter how much such a trick might “undermine the trust in the way that the Liberals operate” and what he’s done since to reprimand his staff. The incident took place at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa last week.
“This is totally unacceptable,” said Carney Monday. “On behalf of my campaign, I was unaware of this behaviour, but on behalf of my campaign, I apologize for it unreservedly.”
Carney went on to say that he’s made it “clear” to his campaign that such behaviour was unacceptable and “cannot happen again.” Carney then indicated that staffers involved had been “reassigned.”
The plot was first reported by CBC News. Two Liberal party staffers planted campaign buttons designed to echo controversial slogans by U.S. President Donald Trump at a Conservative rally to tarnish the party’s image by linking it to MAGA-style politics. Several attendees noticed buttons appearing during the event, which said things like “stop the steal,” a reference to Trump’s claims that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen from him by Democrats.
Another button read, “Lock Justin Up” referencing a popular Trump campaign chant, “Lock her up” from the 2016 election about former Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Another button displayed the name “Jenni Byrne” crossed out, with the name “Kory Teneycke” written beneath. Byrne is the Conservatives’ national campaign director, while Teneycke is a Conservative strategist, who worked on Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s re-election campaign.
Teneycke has been an outspoken critic of the federal Conservatives’ campaign.
Others read, “Free Alberta,” with the image of handcuffs’ “There is No Climate Crisis,” “A Vote for Carney is a Vote for WEXIT,” and “Danielle Smith for CPC Leader 2026.”
In comments given to the CBC, conference spokesperson Alex Spence called the scandal “unfortunate” but said it wasn’t “surprising that the Liberals would seek to misrepresent the views of attendees of our conference.”
“These divisive, gimmicky tactics say more about the Liberals than they do of the united and growing Conservative movement,” said Spence.
The idea to distribute these buttons around and give people the impression that these were Conservative viewpoints was born out of the Liberal’s war room, as the two staffers responsible boasted about the party’s covert plan in several Ottawa bars where journalists were present.
A slew of Liberal war room staffers were drinking at D’Arcy McGee’s Pub near Parliament Hill when they were joined by a CBC News journalist, who then overheard the conversation.
Someone who had previously identified themselves as being involved in opposition research described how he and a colleague executed their plan.
Once informed that the journalist would report on the matter, the staffer then denied saying anything.
A Conservative source also overheard this exchange.
The apology from Carney came only after days of mounting pressure from both media and political opponents. The Liberal party initially responded to the scandal by saying that two campaigners “regrettably got carried away” with the use of buttons “poking fun” at reports of Conservative party infighting.
“This is the sort of divisive crap the Liberals have pulled on Canadians for a decade,” said Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner in a post to X. “They were so cocky about it that they bragged about doing it at a bar in earshot of a CBC journo.”