Mark Carney delivers his speech after being announced as the winner of the Liberal Party leadership race in Ottawa on March 9.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Mark Carney is set to be sworn as prime minister alongside his new cabinet on Friday, less than a week after his overwhelming victory in the Liberal leadership race.
Governor-General Mary Simon’s office on Wednesday evening announced the swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall, which she will preside over.
The House of Commons is prorogued until March 24, but Mr. Carney is widely expected to call a federal election before then.
The former central banker and businessman is not a member of Parliament and has never run for office, meaning his political skills will quickly be put to the test on the campaign trail.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Jan. 6 that he was proroguing Parliament to allow the Liberals to select a new leader after months of internal party turmoil, driven by polling numbers that consistently showed they were far behind the Conservatives.
Since then, federal politics have been dominated by trade tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has imposed, threatened and sometimes paused significant tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods.
That continued Wednesday, as the U.S. imposed new 25-per-cent tariffs on aluminum and steel imports. Canada quickly retaliated with counterlevies on $29.8-billion worth of U.S. goods.
The tensions with Mr. Trump and the leadership race have coincided with a rise in the Liberal Party’s support – to the point that several polling companies are now showing a close race with the Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre.
Naming the cabinet will be one of Mr. Carney’s first challenges as leader. Some ministers, including Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, are expected to remain in their positions because of the role they are playing in trade talks with their U.S. counterparts.
Mr. Carney may also choose to offer roles to Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould, two former Liberal ministers who finished second and third in the leadership race.
Mr. Carney won 85.9 per cent of the vote, followed by 8 per cent for Ms. Freeland, 3.2 per cent for Ms. Gould and 3 per cent for former Liberal MP Frank Baylis.
Mr. LeBlanc strongly hinted on Wednesday that an election will be called before the House of Commons’ scheduled return on March 24.
“We’ve also taken note that all the opposition leaders have said they need an election right away and they’ll defeat the government at the first opportunity,” he told CBC News.
While NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has recently said the vote should be delayed slightly to allow Parliament to approve an emergency package of supports for workers affected by tariffs, Mr. LeBlanc said the opposition leaders “can’t be the fire chief and the pyromaniac. You don’t get any credit for showing up with the hose if you start the fire.”
Mr. LeBlanc, who will be in Washington on Thursday with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to meet with White House officials about the trade issues, acknowledged that it could be challenging to manage the shifting U.S. positions during an election campaign. But he also said an election could provide clarity.
“It might also be important for the country to speak and to give a firm mandate to a government to deal with this massive disruption in our economic relationship,” he said.
“It’s not an ideal time. It certainly isn’t the ideal time to strike a more significant negotiation with a government like the United States.”
- With files from Robert Fife