Ex-central banker Mark Carney was sworn in as prime minister of Canada on Friday and immediately said he could work with U.S. President Donald Trump, who is promising tariffs that could devastate the Canadian economy.
Carney succeeds Justin Trudeau, who had a combative and often cold relationship with Trump. Carney, 59, made clear his approach would be different.
“We respect President Trump – President Trump has put some very important issues at the top of his agenda. We understand his agenda,” he told reporters after being sworn in, noting he had worked with Trump at international meetings.
“In many respects, part of my experience overlaps with that of the President – we’re both looking out for our countries. But he knows, and I know from long experience, that we can find mutual solutions that win for both,” he said.
Carney, who said he had no immediate plans to talk to the president, also said Trump administration talk of annexing Canada was “crazy”.
He reshaped his 24-person cabinet with a view to dealing with Washington, cutting almost half the ministerial positions he inherited from Trudeau.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc moved to the international trade portfolio and was replaced by current Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly stays in her post.
The next election must be held by October 20 and the Liberals will face the opposition Conservatives, who had long campaigned against a Trudeau-era consumer carbon tax. Carney, who promised to scrap the measure, signed an order eliminating it during his first cabinet meeting.
“This will make a difference to hard-pressed Canadians,” he told cabinet.
Carney’s appointment caps a momentous rise for a man who becomes the first Canadian prime minister without any serious political experience.
Carney said he would visit London and Paris next week. Canada has sought to shore up alliances in Europe as relations with the United States founder.
Carney crushed his rivals on Sunday in a race to become leader of the ruling Liberal Party. He replaces Trudeau, who spent more than nine years in office.
Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, whose shock resignation last December triggered a crisis that helped push out Trudeau, becomes transport minister.
Carney, a former head of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, successfully argued his position as an outsider with a history of tackling crises meant he was the best person to take on Trump, who has repeatedly talked about annexing Canada.
“We will never, ever in any way, shape or form, be part of the United States,” he said on Friday.
The cabinet is unlikely in office for long, since Liberal insiders say Carney is set to call a snap election within the next two weeks. If he changes his mind, opposition parties say they will unite to bring down the minority government in a confidence vote at the end of March.
Once the election is called, Carney will be limited in what he can do politically because convention dictates he cannot make major decisions during a campaign.
Opinion polls currently suggest it will be a close race with the Conservatives, with neither party gaining enough seats for a majority government.
Until recently the Conservatives had enjoyed a double-digit lead in opinion polls, in large part due to unhappiness over a spike in living costs and a housing crisis.
“100% of Carney’s ministers were in Trudeau’s caucus — helping hike carbon taxes and double the debt, housing costs and food bank lineups,” said Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, in a post on X. “A Liberal is a Liberal is a Liberal.”
(Reuters)
