Canada was poised to elect its own 'Maple MAGA' movement. Then Trump happened.

Canadian Conservatives say they voted for the Mark Carney's Liberal party, with many describing it as a rejection of "Canada's Trump," Pierre Poilievre.

Before this week's federal election in Canada, Derek Ouellette and his wife, Yecenia Ouellette, could never have imagined voting for anyone but a Conservative.

“We were both raised Conservative and we both kind of thought, Conservative is just what you do,” Derek Ouellette, a 46-year-old insurance broker from Belle River, near Windsor, Ontario, said in a phone interview late Tuesday.

But Ouellette said he was proud to have done the once unthinkable, voting for Liberal leader and Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is projected to have secured a minority victory in this week's poll.

Across social media, a number of once-dedicated Conservatives said that they would be casting their ballots for the Liberal Party this week for the first time in their lives. Many described their vote as a rejection of "Canada's Trump" — Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — and his aggressive campaign, which experts say appeared to pull from the playbook of President Donald Trump.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney applauds Tuesday following his party's election victory.Jennifer Gauthier / Reuters“There were some elements of his campaign that echoed Trump,” Roland Paris, director of the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, said Wednesday.