 Carney in 2025 | |
| Premiership of Mark Carney March 14, 2025 – present | |
| Monarch | Charles III |
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| Cabinet | 30th Canadian Ministry |
| Party | Liberal |
| Election | 2025 |
| Appointed by | Mary Simon |
| Seat | Office of the Prime Minister |
| Constituency | None (March–April 2025) Nepean (April 2025–present) |
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Career
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The premiership of Mark Carney began on March 14, 2025, when the firstCabinet headed byMark Carney was sworn in byGovernor GeneralMary Simon. Carney was invited to form the30th Canadian Ministry and become the24th Prime Minister of Canada after he succeeded Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau as leader of theLiberal Party in the2025 leadership election. Shortly after taking office, Carney advised thegovernor general to dissolve Parliament and trigger the2025 federal election, where he led his Liberals to win aplurality of seats in theHouse of Commons of Canada, forming a minority government.[1][2]
Upon taking the oath of office, Carney became the first Canadian prime minister born in any of its territories (as opposed to provinces) and the third born west of Ontario (afterJoe Clark andKim Campbell). He is the second prime minister to have earned a PhD, afterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King. Additionally, he is the first to have never served in prior elected office, and the first sinceJohn Turner not to be sitting in theHouse of Commons at time of appointment. In his first act as prime minister, Carney signed a prime ministerial directive to end theconsumer carbon tax by April 1, while ensuring that April's carbon rebate continues. The directive was affirmed by anorder in council signed by Governor GeneralMary Simon. Carney's first foreign visits were to France and the United Kingdom on March 17 to strengthen mutual security andsovereignty. The2025 Speech from the Throne was delivered byKing Charles III as part of his2025 royal tour of Canada, outlining the government's first priorities following the election.[3]
Carney's appointment occurred against the backdrop ofDonald Trump's victory in the2024 United States presidential election and his threats to impose sweeping tariffs on Canada and evenannex it. This period coincided with a dramatic turnaround in the Liberal Party's fortunes: the party had been more than 20 points behind in the polls when Trudeau announced his resignation, but soon after Carney was sworn in as prime minister, the polling gap had been eliminated altogether and the Liberals were in the lead, putting them in striking distance of a majority government. The scale of their political turnaround was described by analysts as having "little precedent" in Canadian history.
On January 6, 2025,Trudeau announced his resignation as Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party.[4] On January 16, 2025, Carney formally announced his intent to run in the leadership election and become Liberal Party leader.[5][6] On March 9, 2025, he won the leadership election with 85.9% of the overall vote, becoming the next leader of the party and Prime Minister, succeeding Trudeau.[7][8] Trudeau stayed on as Prime Minister until his formal resignation in the early morning of March 14, 2025 prior to Carney's swearing in later that morning.[9][10]
At the time of his appointment, Carney did not hold a seat in theHouse of Commons, similar to the previous premierships ofCharles Tupper,Arthur Meighen, andJohn Turner; all three individuals lacked seats in the House of Commons at the time of their initial appointment as Prime Minister.[11][12][13] Carney would later win the seat of inNepean in the2025 federal election.[14][15] Upon taking the oath of office, he became the first Canadian prime minister born in any of the territories and the third born west of Ontario (afterJoe Clark andKim Campbell). He is the second prime minister to have earned a PhD, afterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King. Additionally, he is the first to have never served in prior elected office, and the first sinceJohn Turner not to be sitting in theHouse of Commons at time of appointment.
Carney was expected to call afederal parliamentary election for late April or early May 2025, ahead of the required election date in October. On March 22, the Liberal Party announced that Carney would contest the riding ofNepean, located within Ottawa, in the election;[16] ridings inAlberta had been floated given his personal connection to the province, particularlyEdmonton, as were safe Liberal seats inToronto andOttawa.[17] On March 23, Carney visited Governor GeneralMary Simon and asked to dissolve parliament and callan election for April 28.[18] Carney and the Liberal Party subsequently won the election, defeatingPierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party and forming their fourth consecutive government.[19][1][2] The Liberal Party won 169 seats, falling three seats short of amajority government, thereby forming aminority government.[20]
Following the March 14, 2025Rideau Hall swearing in ceremony byGovernor GeneralMary Simon,Mark Carney, was invited to form hisCabinet and to become the24thPrime Minister of Canada.
After the 2025 federal election, Carneyreshuffled his cabinet on May 13, 2025.
Shortly after being sworn in as Prime Minister, Carney's government approved anorder in council to immediately reduce the consumer price of carbon to $0 starting on April 1, 2025, thereby effectively terminating the consumer portion of Canada's carbon pricing policy. The final carbon rebate payment was nonetheless issued as scheduled. Carney stated the policy had become too "divisive" among the Canadian public, resulting in the necessity for it to be removed. The scheme was originally implemented in 2018 through theGreenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, which was passed during Trudeau's first term. The industrial levy on carbon was unaffected.[21][22]
After the recall of Parliament following the election, Carney introduced legislation to lower the bottom marginalincome tax rate from 15% to 14%. The Liberals estimated that this would save two-income household $840 annually.[23] Another tax change proposed by the bill was the temporary elimination of theGoods and Services Tax for first time home buyers.[24] Both changes were part of the Liberal platform in the preceding election. The House of Commons approved aways and means motion allowing the tax changes to effect before the enactment of the bill, and the income tax cut took effect on the followingCanada Day, consistent with Carney's pre-election pledge.[23]
In July 2025, finance ministerFrançois-Philippe Champagne asked fellow cabinet ministers to find savings in their departments, with the goal of a 15% government operational spending cut by 2029.[25]
In September 2025, procurement ministerJoël Lightbound announced that the government would allowCanada Post to phase out door-to-door service in favour of community mailboxes, impacting roughly 4,000 addresses. It will also close many rural post offices.[26]
His government's budget for 2026 was narrowly passed by parliament on November 18 in a 170–168 vote, avoiding a snap election.[27]
In 2025, Carney campaigned to address "unsustainable"immigration to Canada,[28] which had risen to approximately 500,000 a year during thepremiership of Justin Trudeau.[29][30] As per the Immigration Levels Plan 2025-2027, Canada's overall planned permanent resident admission targets are 395,000 in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.[31] The government set levels for temporary residents in the 2025-27 Levels Plan at 673,650 in 2025, 516,600 in 2026 and 543,600 in 2027.[28]
Carney voiced support for a newoil pipeline to the West Coast and a proposed C$16.5 billion ($12 billion) carbon capture system for theAlberta oil sands.[32][33]
In 2025, Carney supported Trudeau government'sEV mandate,[34] requiring hybrids andelectric vehicles to make up 20% of sales by 2026 and 100% by 2035.[35] However, by September 2025, Carney announced a pause and will launch a 60-day review of the EV mandate.[36]
During a Liberal cabinet retreat in September 2025,The Heritage Foundation presidentKevin Roberts, a political strategist who contributed toProject 2025, was invited to speak at a meeting. However, Roberts abruptly declined to speak at the meeting.[37]
In July 2025, Carney announced that Canada would impose highertariffs onsteel from China.[38]
Carney's government was criticized by theCanadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) for abolishing the position ofMinister of Labour.[39] The powers, duties and functions of that position now reside with theMinister of Jobs and Families.
A few hours after the2025 Air Canada flight attendants strike began, the Minister of Jobs and Families,Patty Hajdu, announced that she had exercised her right under Section 107 of theCanada Labour Code to direct theCanada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to force arbitration and end the strike.[40][41] She further explained that it would take 24 to 48 hours for the board to issue a back-to-work order, and that Air Canada had indicated it would need five to ten days to resume normal operations.[41] Striking flight attendants on the picket lines were furious at Hajdu upon learning the news.[41] CUPE's president of the Air Canada division, Wesley Lesosky, said in a statement: "The Liberals are violating ourcharter rights to take job action and giving Air Canada exactly what they want — hours and hours of unpaid labour from underpaid flight attendants".[41] CIRB ordered the flight attendants to return to work at 14:00 EDT on August 17, and Air Canada announced that they would start resuming flights in response.[42] However, the union called the return-to-work order unconstitutional and vowed to continue the strike, which resulted in a further cancellation of the planned flights.[43][44] Air Canada and CUPE reached a tentative agreement on August 19. The tentative agreement provides salary increases and ground pay for flight attendants.[45][46]
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Carney's appointment occurred against the backdrop ofDonald Trump's victory in the2024 United States presidential election and his threats to impose sweeping tariffs on Canada. Disagreements over how to handle this threat were seen as being a contributor to the Trudeau ministry's collapse.[47][48] However, theTrump administration's conduct would soon spark a political revival for the Liberals, with the ensuingtrade war, along with the President's threats toannex Canada, greatly reducing the Liberals' polling gap with theConservatives.[49] By the time Carney was sworn in as prime minister, the polling gap had been eliminated altogether and the Liberals were in the lead, putting them in striking distance of a majority government. The scale of their political turnaround was described by analysts as having "little precedent" in Canadian history.[50]
Carney's first foreign visits were to France and the United Kingdom on March 17 to strengthen mutual security andsovereignty, meeting French PresidentEmmanuel Macron and British Prime MinisterKeir Starmer.[51] Carney pledged to step up Canada's place on the world stage, beginning with meeting the 2% NATO defence spending target in Fiscal Year 2026, and moving to replace the role of the US in lieu of the Trump administration.[52]
In June 2025, Carney compared theIsraeli invasion of the Gaza Strip and occupation of theWest Bank to theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[53] Following theIsraeli strikes on Iran in June 2025, Carney reaffirmed "Israel's right to defend itself" and called for restraint.[54]
In July 2025, Carney announced that at the next meeting of theUN General Assembly, Canada would officially recognize theState of Palestine.[55]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| Canadian federal premierships | ||
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| Preceded by | Mark Carney 2025–present | Incumbent |
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