1) (Updated) Carney says his government starts in a moment of crisis in Canada-U.S. relations

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Sarah Ritchie and Catherine Morrison, March 14, 2025

Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister in a ceremony at Rideau Hall on Friday morning, along with a leaner Liberal cabinet that he said is focused on “meeting the moment” and facing down the threat posed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In his first press conference as prime minister, Carney said his government will concentrate on growing the economy, making life more affordable and making the country more secure.

“One of the top issues, of course, is the crisis with respect to the United States, and the opportunity with respect to trade diversification,” he said.

He said keeping together the core team of ministers who have been dealing with Trump’s tariff threats was very important.

François-Philippe Champagne has been named finance minister, while Anita Anand took over his former portfolio as minister of innovation, science and industry.

Dominic LeBlanc was named minister of international trade and intergovernmental affairs and president of the King’s Privy Council.

Mélanie Joly — who was sworn in later in the day after wrapping up the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Charlevoix, Que. — will stay on as minister of foreign affairs and take on international development.

David McGuinty held his job as public safety minister and took on the added role of emergency preparedness.

Carney said French President Emmanuel Macron has invited him to visit Paris “in the coming days” and he will also travel to London to talk about trade and security.

He said he has no immediate plans to visit Washington to meet with Trump but he looks forward to speaking with him.

“We respect the United States. We respect President Trump. President Trump has put some very important issues at the top of his agenda. We understand his agenda,” Carney said.

He also said he and Trump share some experiences, including working in real estate and the private sector.

Asked about Trump’s repeated threats to make Canada the 51st state, Carney was dismissive.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “We will never, ever, in any way, shape or form be part of the United States.”

As he walked into his first cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill Friday afternoon, Carney revealed his government’s first item of business: “We’re going to deal with the carbon tax.”

Carney pledged during the Liberal leadership race to end the consumer carbon price — which has become deeply unpopular — while maintaining the industrial price paid by big polluters.

The consumer price is set through regulations and could be reset to $0 per tonne by an order-in-council without the need to recall Parliament or repeal any laws.

Carney’s new government includes 20 Trudeau-era ministers along with three new faces from the Liberal caucus.

Chrystia Freeland, whose December resignation as finance minister was the catalyst for Trudeau’s decision to step down, is now transport minister. She came in a very distant second to Carney in the Liberal leadership race last Sunday.

Steven Guilbeault was moved from the environment file to become minister of a renamed portfolio: Canadian culture and identity. He’s also heading up Parks Canada and serving as the government’s Quebec lieutenant.

Gary Anandasangaree is still minister of Crown-Indigenous relations and Northern affairs, but also took on the job of justice minister and attorney general.

Bill Blair stayed on as defence minister and Patty Hajdu remains minister of Indigenous services. Kamal Khera moved to health, Steven MacKinnon is minister of jobs and families and Rachel Bendayan now runs immigration, refugees and citizenship.

Among the new faces are Ontario MP Arielle Kayabaga, now government House leader and minister of democratic institutions, and Nova Scotia MP Kody Blois, minister of agriculture and agri-food and rural development.

Ontario MP Ali Ehsassi was named minister of public services and procurement and minister of “government transformation” — a new title.

There are 13 men and 11 women in cabinet. It includes no representatives from Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan or Alberta. 

When asked about that regional representation, Carney said the entire cabinet is smaller but pointed out that Freeland, who lives in Toronto, is originally from Alberta.

“And I’m prime minister of all of Canada, of course,” he said.

The cabinet no longer includes a minister of women, gender equality and youth, a minister of diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities, or a minister of mental health and addictions.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the elimination of those ministries reveals a lot about Carney’s priorities.

“At a time when we do not have a plan for workers if they lose their job — 60 per cent of workers are not covered by EI — he doesn’t have a minister for labour. You might say it’s just a name. Well, the name means something,” he said.

Singh repeated his call for Parliament to return to pass legislation that would support workers affected by Trump’s tariffs. 

Singh said the exclusion of Karina Gould, who ran against Carney in the leadership race, sends “a message to progressive Liberals that there’s no place for you in this new Liberal party.” 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the new government is nearly identical to Trudeau’s.

“(Carney) thinks a little bit of cosmetic surgery will allow the Liberals to disguise who they are and make people forget what they did for 10 years in order to elect them to a fourth Liberal term,” he said.

Eight Trudeau-era ministers who were not planning to run in the next election were not named to Carney’s cabinet, along with nine former ministers who are running.

This cabinet is expected to be in place when a general election is launched — likely before March 24, the date Parliament is set to resume.

Carney would not hint at when a federal election call might come, saying with a smile that Canadians should expect to go to the polls before November. The fixed election date is set for October. 

2) Mark Carney to be sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister Friday

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Catherine Morrison, March 12, 2025

Mark Carney will be sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister at a ceremony at Rideau Hall Friday after the formal resignation of Justin Trudeau.

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, who will preside over the event, announced late Wednesday the swearing-in ceremony for Carney and his new cabinet will take place at 11 a.m. ET in the Rideau Hall ballroom. 

Carney, who was selected as Liberal leader Sunday in a landslide vote, has promised a “seamless” and “quick” transition.

Carney captured nearly 86 per cent of the Liberal vote, far ahead of opponents Chrystia Freeland (who got eight per cent), Karina Gould (3.2 per cent) and Frank Baylis, who came in last with three per cent.

Carney has already been meeting with seniors officials, including Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff Jennie Carignan, PMO staff and Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman.

When Trudeau announced his plans to resign in January, Parliament was prorogued until March 24.

A federal election call is widely expected soon after Carney is installed as prime minister before the House of Commons returns.

Carney, who has never been elected, has not said which riding he intends to seek election for a seat.

The Liberals have recently rebounded in the polls after lagging behind the Conservatives for nearly two years.

A new Leger poll suggests the federal Liberals and the Conservatives are running neck-and-neck in voter support.

The poll of Canadians’ voting intentions, released this week, has both parties sitting at 37 per cent. The survey was conducted online and cannot be assigned a margin of error.

It shows a drop of six points for the Conservatives and a seven per cent jump for Liberals since Feb. 24, while the NDP is down two per cent to 11 per cent.

Leger surveyed 1,548 Canadians between March 7 and March 10 — which means the poll wrapped up just after Liberals picked Mark Carney as the new party leader and prime minister-designate.

— With files from Anja Karadeglija

3) (Update) Carney promises ‘quick’ transition after meeting with Trudeau

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan, March 10, 2025

Liberal leader Mark Carney is promising a “seamless” and “quick” transition as he takes the reins from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Carney made the comments Monday following his resounding victory in Sunday’s leadership vote but did not offer any specifics about the timing.

In the coming days, Carney will need to be sworn in as prime minister, name a new cabinet and sort out his plans for the coming federal election.

Carney told reporters on Parliament Hill that he had a long private meeting with Trudeau on Monday that touched on the transition, national security and Canada-U.S. relations.

“I just spoke with the prime minister at length on issues around the transition. It will be quick. We’ll be coming back to you soon,” he said. “The good news is that you’ll be seeing probably more of me than you want. You’ll have other opportunities and we’ll be making announcements on that.”

Carney, who is not an elected parliamentarian and has not said where he’ll run for a Commons seat, also separately addressed the Liberal caucus on Parliament Hill behind closed doors Monday — a meeting Trudeau did not attend.

The Liberals’ campaign director Andrew Bevan and party president Sachit Mehra were seen coming in and out of the caucus room.

An early election call is widely expected within days or weeks of Carney being installed as prime minister, but the timeline is foggy.

Even Liberal MPs have said they have no idea when the next election will happen.

“That’s up to the new boss,” said Liberal House leader Steven MacKinnon.

Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the party has a short window until March 24, when Parliament is set to return from prorogation.

“The opposition parties have been very clear for weeks and months now,” he said. “They have decided that they would bring this government down regardless of what we could do, so this is the latest day we can be in government and we’ll see whether we should call an election before (then).”

Carney has chosen former cabinet minister Marco Mendicino as his chief of staff.

Trudeau dumped Mendicino — an influential Toronto-area MP — from his cabinet in the wake of a scandal involving the transfer of serial killer Paul Bernardo from a maximum-security prison to a medium-security facility.

At a press event on Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused the Liberals of trying to “trick Canadians” into giving them another term by choosing Carney as leader.

He said the same MPs and advisers are running the Liberal party and, in a social media post, he slammed the choice of Mendicino as Carney’s chief of staff.

Poilievre also accused Liberals of stealing his ideas.

“If you want any proof that my economic ideas are the best, the Liberals are all trying to pretend that they’re copying them right before the election,” he told reporters. “All the big economic questions over the last five years, Mark Carney has been wrong, and exactly wrong, and I have been right.”

Speaking from Port Moody, B.C., NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he wants to see Parliament pass legislation to support workers affected by tariffs before the election campaign begins. He said that even if that doesn’t happen, the NDP is ready for an election.

Carney’s leadership rivals all lined up behind him a day after they were defeated.

Ex-finance minister Chrystia Freeland said on her way into caucus Monday that she was “feeling great,” despite finishing a distant second.

Former Liberal house leader Karina Gould said she would have liked to receive more votes but the final result was good for the party. 

“It was a unified position and I’m excited about that,” she said.

Former New York Mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg congratulated Carney on his win on Monday, posting on social media that the “U.S.-Canada relationship is vital to both nations, and there’s no one more prepared to strengthen it.”

A breakdown of the leadership vote results released by the party shows that Carney beat his rivals in their own ridings — by wide margins.

Freeland won 188 votes in her riding of University—Rosedale — Carney netted 1,322 votes there — while Gould won 190 votes to Carney’s 818 in her Burlington riding.

Carney swept every single riding across the country through the points-based system, taking in a total of 29,456 points. Each riding was worth 100 points and Carney scored higher than 60 points in each one.

— With files from David Baxter, Sarah Ritchie and Craig Lord in Ottawa.

4) (Updated) Carney’s win kills Liberals’ much-delayed plan to change capital gains tax

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Craig Lord, March 11, 2025

Mark Carney’s victory in the Liberal leadership race put the final nail in the coffin for Ottawa’s controversial plan to hike the inclusion rate on capital gains.

But experts say the damage from the now-abandoned policy shift has been done, as taxpayers continue to face confusion and as tech leaders warn that Canada’s reputation as a good place to do business has been damaged.

“It sounds to me like the capital gain tax (change) is dead and I think people will be very happy about that,” said Jamie Golombek, managing director of tax and estate planning with CIBC Private Wealth.

When the federal Liberals tabled their budget last spring, they presented the plan to change capital gains as a way to get wealthy Canadians and corporations to pay more.

Capital gains are incurred when an individual or business sells an asset, like a stock or piece of property. The Liberal plan would have seen the inclusion rate — the portion of the proceeds subject to tax — increased to two-thirds from the current level of 50 per cent.

Individual Canadians would have continued to pay the lower rate on any capital gains realized in a year below a threshold of $250,000.

In his victory speech on Sunday, Carney confirmed he will stop the capital gains changes proposed by the current Liberal government last April, making good on a campaign pledge.

The Liberals originally said the capital gains change would come into effect on June 25, 2024, but legislation was never passed to enact the change. Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced earlier this year that the date would be pushed back to 2026.

But Golombek said the policy is still causing “confusion” for taxpayers, even though the higher inclusion rate isn’t in play.

He said he has heard of people who sold off assets like stocks or expensive cottages to realize a gain before June 25 last year in order to get ahead of the proposed changes.

The Canada Revenue Agency also issued forms with separate sections for capital gains realized before and after June 25 of last year — even though the inclusion rate will be the same for both periods.

“The fact that you have to report the two different periods separately is certainly very confusing and useless,” Golombek said.

The CRA has noted its systems will not be ready to accept tax returns from individuals that report capital gains or losses until late March because of the changes and will grant interest and penalties relief until June 2 to allow more time to file.

Council of Canadian Innovators CEO Benjamin Bergen said that the rollback of the capital gains change is a good move but “bittersweet” because Canada’s reputation in the tech sector has already suffered.

Bergen said the capital gains change suggested to investors and entrepreneurs that Canada was becoming a “much harder climate” to succeed in — an argument Carney echoed in his victory speech.

“We will stop the hike in the capital gains tax because we think builders should be incentivized for taking risks and rewarded when they succeed,” he said on Sunday.

To restore the reputational hit, Bergen said Canada ought to focus its policies on supporting domestic companies, particularly in the face of a burgeoning trade war with the United States.

“Uncertainty always creates concern and challenges for people trying to build firms. I think that damage has been done, and the pathway forward is to create certainty,” he said.

The Liberals had predicted the capital gains tax changes would bring $19.4 billion in extra revenue over five years to fund spending plans in the 2024 budget. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux later estimated that figure at closer to $17.4 billion.

Sahir Khan, executive vice-president of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, said that the “clumsiness” of the capital gains change came from the likelihood that it was a stopgap measure to keep the deficit from ballooning as spending grew.

“I still think it was used to plug a fiscal hole, not because there was some grand strategy on tax policy,” he said.

Khan said it’s not clear how big a hole the reversal on capital gains policy leaves in Ottawa’s budget because the change in Liberal leadership, the coming election and the trade war with the U.S. will introduce a series of new government spending priorities in the months ahead.

— With files from Michelle Zadikian and Ritika Dubey

5) (Updated) Incoming prime minister Mark Carney says he has put his assets in a blind trust

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Sarah Ritchie, March 11, 2025

Mark Carney’s team says he has placed his assets into a blind trust and is working with the conflict of interest commissioner ahead of being sworn in as prime minister.

“We have been actively working with the ethics commissioner and we have delivered a full and robust conflict of interest management plan,” said Audrey Champoux, a spokesperson for Carney.

“Prime minister-designate Carney has now divested all assets, other than his personal real estate, into a blind trust.”

Champoux said paperwork was submitted to the ethics commissioner on Sunday after Carney learned he had won the Liberal leadership race.

Carney will become subject to Canada’s Conflict of Interest Act once he’s sworn in as prime minister, which is expected to happen this week.

The law gives him 60 days to disclose financial information to the ethics commissioner.

Within 120 days of taking office, the prime minister, cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries must divest controlled assets by selling them at arm’s length or putting them in a blind trust, according to the commissioner’s website.

The ethics commissioner’s office confirmed it was in touch with Carney’s team but said strict confidentiality rules prevented it from disclosing what was discussed.

The commissioner’s office said the 120-day period for initial disclosure begins when Carney is sworn in, regardless of when he made the disclosures, and that a summary of Carney’s personal and financial information will be made public by the end of the 120 days. If it’s completed sooner, the public report may be made available sooner.

The Conservatives have taken aim at Carney throughout the leadership race, calling him “sneaky” and claiming he was exploiting a loophole in the laws by not disclosing his assets as soon as he became a candidate for the Liberal leadership.

Because he has never been an elected MP or cabinet minister, Carney has not had to make disclosures to the ethics commissioner before now.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Friday that if his party forms the next government, he will change the disclosure law to include federal party leadership candidates. The Conservatives said the change would direct all leadership candidates to disclose their financial holdings to the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner within 30 days of becoming an official candidate, and to make them available to Canadians within 60 days.

It also would require all future prime ministers and cabinet ministers to “sell assets that create conflicts of interest to stop politicians from ever using political office for their own benefit,” the Conservatives said in a press release.

On Tuesday, the Conservatives’ ethics critic said Carney hasn’t gone far enough.

“Mark Carney needs to immediately make his assets and conflicts of interest public so Canadians can judge for themselves. It is Canadians who are ‘blind’ to Carney’s assets and conflicts of interests, as Mark Carney has refused to provide answers,” Michael Barrett said in a media statement.

Duff Conacher said his group Democracy Watch “has been advocating for stronger rules that actually prevent conflicts of interest for 27 years,” and he thinks the country’s laws need to be strengthened.

“A blind trust is a sham facade that hides and does not prevent financial conflicts of interest because the politician knows what investments and assets they put in the trust, chooses their own trustee, and is allowed to give the trustee instructions, including to not sell anything,” Conacher said in an email.

6) Trudeau calls for plan to build a new official prime minister’s residence

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Catherine Morrison, March 13, 2025

With one foot out the door, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is asking one of his ministers to help develop a plan for a new official residence to replace the vacant 24 Sussex.

In a letter addressed to Minister of Public Services and Procurement Jean-Yves Duclos and obtained by The Canadian Press, Trudeau asks that a proposal exploring new options for the prime minister’s official residence be drafted by January 2026.

The official residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa was closed by the National Capital Commission in 2022 for “health and safety reasons” and has been uninhabited since 2015.

In his letter, dated March 7, 2025, Trudeau asks Duclos to put together a consultation group that would share recommendations on the location, functionality, cost and security requirements of the new official residence.

He also says the composition of the group would be determined by the Clerk of the Privy Council.

Trudeau says in the letter he has asked Minister of Public Safety David McGuinty to help Duclos oversee the consultation group, if needed.

Trudeau says the proposal should include a plan to transfer all responsibility for the official residence beyond general maintenance from the National Capital Commission to Public Services and Procurement Canada.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney will be sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister in a ceremony at Rideau Hall Friday after Trudeau’s formal resignation.

7) (Updated) Trudeau says he’s ‘proud of Canadians’ in video posted on his last day in office

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Catherine Morrison, March 13, 2025. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a farewell message to Canadians Thursday as he marked his last full day in office.

In a video posted to several social media platforms, including X and Facebook, Trudeau said he’s proud to have served a country full of people who stand up for what’s right, rise to every occasion and “always have each others’ backs when it matters most.”

Liberal Leader Mark Carney will be sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister at a ceremony at Rideau Hall Friday after Trudeau’s formal resignation. Carney became Liberal leader on Sunday at the party’s leadership convention.

Trudeau said that while he’s leaving office, he will always be “boldly and unapologetically Canadian.”

He said his only wish is that, no matter what the world throws at Canadians, they will “always be the same.”

Trudeau is leaving office after more than nine years as prime minister and does not plan to run again in his Montreal riding when the next election is called.

The prime minister has been using social media to say goodbye to Canadians in recent days.

On March 9, Trudeau posted that he was leaving as leader of the Liberal party with “the same belief in hope and hard work” he had when he started.

“Hope for this party and for this country, because of the millions of Canadians who prove every day that better is always possible,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau has been an MP since 2008, and became Liberal leader in 2013 and prime minister in 2015.

On March 12, the prime minister gave a shout-out to constituents in his Montreal riding of Papineau.

“They gave me a chance to do good by our community — and a few years later, do good by our country,” he said. “That’s a privilege I’ll be forever grateful for.”