This morning at Rideau Hall, Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister. He also formally introduced his team of cabinet ministers. We gathered a host of The Hub’s top commenters and political insiders to provide their reaction to Canada’s first new prime minister in nearly a decade, how they expect he will govern, and what his chances are heading into what appears to be an imminent federal election.
Mark Carney’s unprecedented path to PM
By Scott Reid, principal and co-founder of Feschuk.Reid, former communications director for Prime Minister Paul Martin
A wartime leader heading a wartime cabinet, Mark Carney becomes Canada’s 24th prime minister in sensational defiance of history. “Never before” is, so far, the defining characteristic of our new prime minister.
Never before has anyone been elevated to the post of prime minister without prior political experience. No seat in the House of Commons. No time spent as a candidate.
Never before has anyone taken on the task of running to become Liberal leader facing a greater deficit in popular support—trailing the Conservatives by 20 percent or more on the day his leadership was launched.
Never before has anyone faced an American president hell-bent on breaking our cross-border partnership, raiding our resources, trampling our flag, and annexing our territory.
And if Mark Carney can somehow lead the Liberals back to re-election, he will have completed the most improbable comeback in Canadian political history.
Conservatives have their answer to all of this. They call Carney a sneak. An elite. A globalist. Worst of all, they call him a Liberal. A Trudeau Liberal. But Carney arrives at his new post like never before—like no one in history and at a time that feels unlike any other in history. If the Conservatives are to halt his momentum and reverse his hopes, they will need something more precise and more impressive than recycled partisan attacks.
Or Pierre Poilievre’s once almost-certain path to becoming prime minister could be history.
Canadian Prime-minister designate Mark Carney, centre, speaks to steel workers as he tours the ArcelorMittal Dofasco steel plant in Hamilton, Ont., on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press.
Why it matters that Carney chose to be sworn in as PM
By Sean Speer, The Hub’s editor-at-large
Over the course of the Liberal leadership race, The Hub took seriously the question of whether Mark Carney would choose to be sworn in as prime minister prior to precipitating an election. We now of course know the answer.
There were various arguments made in favour of him indeed becoming prime minister. Andrew Coyne for instance argued that there are “advantages to incumbency and the trappings of office.”
As polls tighten and we head into what’s bound to be a close election, one of the biggest advantages may be that the incumbent prime minister has, at least in theory, the first opportunity following the election to test the confidence of the House.
Although it’s been the historic norm for the party with the most seats to form government, there have been instances—particularly in other Westminister countries—where an incumbent prime minister has failed to win a plurality of seats but opted not to relinquish power and instead made parliamentary arrangements with other parties to continue governing.
Such a scenario would have been virtually impossible for Carney if he hadn’t entered the election campaign as the sitting prime minister. After today’s swearing-in ceremony, he’s given himself this option.
We shouldn’t underestimate the potential for such an eventuality. If current polling persists through the campaign, it’s quite possible that the Conservative Party once again wins the popular vote and even wins a plurality of seats but fails to secure a parliamentary majority.
If so, we shouldn’t underestimate the potential for Prime Minister Carney to make the case to the Governor General that he can produce a more stable government along with the New Democrats (and possibly the Bloc Quebecois) than the Conservatives, and in turn, effectively undo the long-standing political convention in Canada that the political party with the most seats gets first crack at governing.
A lot, of course, will happen between now and then, but it’s quite possible that several weeks from now when we’re working through an indecisive election outcome, we’ll see today’s swearing-in ceremony in a more significant light.
Mark Carney: A new face, but the same old Liberal Party
By Anthony Koch, managing principal of AK Strategies who served as the national campaign spokesperson for Pierre Poilievre’s leadership campaign
Mark Carney was sworn in as prime minister this week, and while some in the Liberal Party hope he can revive their sinking ship, Canadians would be right to question whether anything has really changed. His newly unveiled cabinet is effectively a rebrand of Justin Trudeau’s—the same ministers who’ve overseen skyrocketing living costs, rising crime, and a struggling economy. If Carney represents a “fresh start,” it looks a lot like more of the same.
Rather than rolling up his sleeves to tackle the issues Canadians care about, Carney’s first move is a weeklong trip to Europe. At a time when families are grappling with unaffordable housing, a collapsing health-care system, and rampant public safety issues, heading abroad sends the wrong message. It makes him look out of touch—more interested in rubbing shoulders with elites than addressing the crises at home.
To be fair, Carney is no Trudeau. He’s a serious, competent enough figure with real economic experience, and that makes him a more formidable opponent than his predecessor. But if early signs are any indication, his stiff, awkward public presence and recycled team may not inspire the confidence or change Canadians are looking for. We’ll find out soon enough.
The ballot box question has completely changed
By David Coletto, founder, chair, and CEO of Abacus Data
Mark Carney’s swearing-in as prime minister marks the start of a dramatically different political era—one defined by global instability, economic precarity, and an entirely new electoral landscape. A few months ago, Pierre Poilievre’s best-selling narrative was about the failures of Justin Trudeau’s government. Now, that story has a new villain. With Donald Trump back in the White House, threatening Canadian annexation and imposing crushing tariffs, Canadians are no longer just worried about affordability; they are worried about survival.
Liberal Party of Canada leadership candidates Karina Gould, Frank Baylis, Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney greet one another prior to the English-language Liberal Leadership debate in Montreal on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press.
Public opinion has shifted from scarcity—where people felt they were fighting over a shrinking pie—to precarity, where they are questioning whether the pie even exists tomorrow. This is where Carney’s leadership will be tested. His cabinet appointments send an early signal that he understands the moment, but he needs to prove that he is not Trudeau 2.0. If he fails to differentiate himself, Poilievre’s “change” message will remain powerful.
The biggest shift? Experience and character will matter more than policy. In this environment, incumbency may be an asset, not a liability. Security, not disruption, will be the prevailing force. The next election won’t be about relief—it will be about who can protect Canada from existential threats.
Carney’s inconsequential cabinet
By Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Global Public Affairs
Canada’s new prime minister Mark Carney, and his cabinet were sworn in today with the likely lifespan of a spring mayfly. Unless I and many others are wrong, an election will be called within days, likely for late April or early May. By then, this mayfly cabinet will be gone, fluttering briefly in the spring air before vanishing without a trace.
But does it even matter who sits at the cabinet table these days? Pierre Trudeau’s famous remark to journalist Peter C. Newman in 1969 about MPs, “When they are 50 yards from Parliament Hill, they are no longer honourable members, they are just nobodies,” applies just as much to today’s cabinet ministers. Modern governments are run not by elected officials but by the prime minister and his closest advisors.
If that was true under Justin Trudeau, who by most accounts was an inattentive and disengaged prime minister, what does it mean under Carney, a self-described Churchill made for these times? Especially if he is about to go toe to toe with both Poilievre and Trump. Whatever happens, the return of cabinet government is not in the cards.
This cabinet announcement does not tell us much, then. A little old, a little new, and a little less. Safe, stable, unsurprising. A cabinet chosen not to govern but to project an image, one of competence and control, as Carney heads into an election that will determine whether he himself is a mayfly or something more.
Get ready for a dramatic election, Canada
By Kirk LaPointe, The Hub’s B.C. correspondent
Mark Carney, one of the few Canadians whose plight stands to be assisted by Donald Trump, offers optically, verbally, and probably intellectually what many of us concluded was problematic with Justin Trudeau and what an increasing number of us find uncomfortable about Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. He appears to be confident in his own skin to the point of believing he need not be performative to be persuasive.
He’s terribly Canadian that way, which is why it may not work with the guy getting arthritis signing executive orders at the Oval Office desk. Then again, what does anyone credibly believe could?
If the ballot box issue is about Trump’s threat and not Trudeau’s legacy, though, Carney has proven to be in the right place at the right time, as he was here in 2008 and 2009 and in England in 2012 as a bank governor. But even if he can win an election and be in the middle of the largest political party turnaround in forever, it is a minor means to what has to become a major end. His work barely begins on resuscitating the economy to make Canada an attractive place to invest, an affordable place to live, and an amenable place for an enlarging electorate of dissatisfied voters who don’t see our federal politics as a fair proposition for their values.
In short, he would have to course correct as the new captain of the ship. On those scores, he still has to reveal his biggest plans and make them relevant to our lives, although he does appear aspirational but practical in his approach at the moment.
Campaigns matter a lot, and there are hurdles he faces in the short term. Even in calmness, people have to project, and in watching his acceptance speech, he almost sounded like a runner-up, not an elbows-up guy. Voters have a really nice choice ahead of them, the Canada First guy versus the Canada Strong guy, and I think the election race will be every bit as engaging as the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault rises during Question Period, Monday, November 4, 2024 in Ottawa. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press.
Keeping Guilbeault around is Carney’s first mistake
By Peter Menzies, a former newspaper executive and past vice chair of the CRTC
Canada’s newest PM came out of the gate with a new cabinet that contains at least one big mistake.
That is the appointment of Steven Guilbeault as minister of Canadian Culture and Identity, formerly known as Heritage.
In his previous term in this position, Guilbeault displayed a very poor understanding of the digital world, which resulted in the Online Streaming Act, which initially came in the form of the deeply flawed Bill C-10, which posed a genuine threat to Canadians’ freedom of expression. Some of those concerns were ameliorated in the revamped but still problematic Bill C-11, which was eventually passed by his successor, Pablo Rodriguez, who also managed the Online News Act, which resulted in far more harm than good to the news industry.
By returning Guilbeault to a portfolio in which he succumbed far too easily to cultural and creative lobbies and never seemed to grasp the consequences of the legislation he was proposing, Carney signaled that he too may have neither the knowledge nor the interest in digital policy that the nation sorely needs after a decade of mismanagement that failed Canadians and provoked anger and alarm south of the border. All this, long before the arrival of the U.S.’s current, increasingly problematic president.
Just as disappointing is the enhanced emphasis on culture that the name change reveals. Canadian telecommunications is a nearly $81 billion industry overseen by the CRTC, which is now preoccupied with broadcasting, a $14.7 billion business. Laying telecommunications, vital as they are to the nation’s infrastructure, at the door of a minister who has displayed no interest and limited understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by technological change, displays poor judgement on the part of the prime minister.
What Carney can offer Canadians is still a mystery
By John Ibbitson, a writer and journalist
Even though Canada faces its greatest peacetime emergency in decades, Mark Carney’s new caretaker cabinet will be largely silent.
For months now, the federal government has been a lame duck, and that duck will continue to limp along with this new prime minister.
Carney has no mandate to govern. He lacks even a seat in Parliament. His cabinet largely consists of Justin Trudeau retreads.
Along with François-Philippe Champagne, the new finance minister, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, and International Trade Minister Dominic Leblanc, Carney will be expected to respond to Donald Trump’s next wave of tariff assaults, expected April 2.
But the most important decision the new prime minister has to make is when to call an election. From the broadly dropped hints at his press conference on Friday afternoon, we can expect that election very soon, probably in late April or early May.
It’s anybody’s guess who will win. Tory leader Pierre Poilievre appears to have been thrown for a loop by Chrystia Freeland’s stunning resignation as finance minister, Justin Trudeau’s decision to step down as prime minister, the leadership race, and the Carney coronation.
But the two parties are essentially tied in the polls. Poilievre has a long-declared agenda of cutting regulations and taxes while encouraging resource development.
What will Carney offer Canadians? Which leader will Canadians prefer? We will soon find out.
This cabinet, or one like it, could govern Canada after the next election. Or it could end up being one of the most ephemeral in this country’s history.
A Canada flag is steamed as the final preparations are made for the Liberal leadership announcement in Ottawa on Sunday, March 9, 2025. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press.
The shapeshifting Liberal Party clings to power
By Wodek Szemberg, a social and political commentator who spent many years working for TVO
The Liberal Party of Canada’s fans love it because it keeps proving itself to be a magical political entity. It’s a party that can change on a dime—because, in the end, what matters is staying in power.
Ideology? Only when necessary—and even then, not necessarily a coherent one.
Carney is not charismatic. He is not an orator. He doesn’t love the crowds. But he wears normal socks, and he is a centrist Liberal.
Tired of the radical progressivism that devoured a party of cowards—cowards who couldn’t stand up to Justin Trudeau? A leader who, in a totalitarian manner, forbade his caucus from holding any opinion on abortion other than his own? Well, wait ten years, and presto: a Liberal Party deeply committed to a “radical centre” with a slight utopian edge.
Unlike Trudeau, who took us on an anti-modernist path to teach Canadians to feel the pain of a past that had no way of being other than what it was, Carney is focused on the future. Citing Pope Francis in his opus Value(s), he hopes to transform “the toxic grappa of self-interest” into “the wine of humanity.”
A banker with utopian hopes? Isn’t this a Canadian dream come true?
We need an election—now
By Eric Lombardi, Hub contributor and founder and president of More Neighbours Toronto
Mark Carney’s inauguration may close the Trudeau era, but it doesn’t usher in a new dawn on its own. Canadians need a fresh election to restore legitimacy—and fast. With Donald Trump back in the White House and tariffs threatening our economy, we require leadership that’s not just visionary but ready to act.
The political landscape has shifted. Pierre Poilievre’s populist moment has faded, and anxious Canadians now want leadership that lowers the national blood pressure and restores optimism. Fortunately, there’s broad agreement on the basics: modernizing infrastructure, responsibly developing resources, diversifying trade, strengthening our military, and cutting through bureaucratic gridlock. The question is who can actually deliver.
One fix is obvious: break down interprovincial trade barriers. Carney’s decision to hand Chrystia Freeland this file is both an olive branch and a career-defining challenge. For a seasoned veteran, unshackling Canada’s internal market could be her lasting legacy.
But the housing crisis looms largest. Carney’s pledge to unlock private investment can’t happen soon enough. Keeping Nate Erskine-Smith on the file provides continuity, but he needs a mandate to be bolder—and the resolve to hold Ontario and B.C. accountable. Canada’s economic resilience depends on it.
Carney’s push for private investment is welcome, but it must be paired with procurement reform. Canadians don’t need more fine words—they need results. The next election will be a battle of execution. Poilievre is formidable—well-organized, disciplined, and relentlessly focused on voter concerns. His message of affordability and government accountability has resonated, but winning means overcoming his penchant for appealing to anger. Carney, meanwhile, must prove he is no status quo figure and turn promises into action fast.
If he falters, Poilievre will be ready to capitalize—and Canadians, eager for results, won’t hesitate to hand him the mandate to do it.
