Liberal Leader Mark Carney speaks briefly with media before making his way to a caucus meeting in Ottawa on March 10. Mr. Carney will be sworn in as Prime Minister on Friday.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Mark Carney will be sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister with a slimmer Liberal cabinet ahead of an election shaping up to be a contest with Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives over who is best to take on the threats posed by the Trump administration.
According to Liberal insiders, the smaller cabinet of about 20 ministers will see the departures of long-time cabinet ministers from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s front bench, such as Health Minister Mark Holland, Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Quebec lieutenant and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. Treasury Board President Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier are also not expected in cabinet any longer.
Expected to remain in high-profile positions are Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty, all point people in the continuing trade war with the United States.
It is not anticipated that Mr. Carney will name a deputy prime minister, but Chrystia Freeland, who quit that position as well as her role as finance minister on Dec. 16 and then ran for the Liberal leadership, is expected to get a spot back in cabinet. She finished a distant second to Mr. Carney in the race.
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The Globe and Mail spoke to 12 Liberals, who are not being identified as they were not authorized to publicly disclose cabinet deliberations.
Mr. Carney, whose swearing-in is scheduled to take place at Rideau Hall at 11 a.m. on Friday morning, will take the reins of government at a difficult time for Canada, as trade tensions escalate with the United States and President Donald Trump. Among his first acts as Prime Minister, according to four other sources, will be a trip next week to Britain and France, which have also borne the brunt of Mr. Trump’s tariffs.
The Globe is not naming the sources because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
One of the four sources, a British government official, said Mr. Carney is expected to meet with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, though specifics of the engagements have not yet been confirmed.
On the eve of his swearing-in, Mr. Carney posted a statement to social media saying he was building a government “that will deliver what our country needs most. We’re going to protect Canadians during this crisis and build a stronger economy for the future.”
In his own statement on social media, Mr. Duclos said he intends to run again for re-election in his Quebec riding and that Mr. Carney has his full support.
“I know of no other economists on the planet who are better prepared than he is to help us get through the crisis of the coming months and years and emerge even stronger from it in an economic, social and environmental point of view.”
Several cabinet ministers had announced in recent months that they are not seeking re-election. Mr. Holland added his name to that list Thursday. He backed Ms. Freeland in the Liberal Party leadership race.
Mr. Carney’s candidacy has given the Liberals a significant bump in the polls. The party said Thursday that it has raised $1-million since Mr. Carney’s decisive victory on Sunday night. He has not taken questions from reporters since he was elected but is expected to address the media on Friday.
The change in Liberal fortunes has prompted some MPs to reverse their decisions not to run again, including Transport and Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand who has since become close to Mr. Carney, appearing with him at a Hamilton steel factory earlier this week.
Mr. Poilievre’s Conservatives, who have seen a double-digit polling lead over the Liberals evaporate in recent weeks, will try to make the case that Mr. Carney, and his front bench, cannot be easily divorced from the record of the Trudeau Liberals.
But in shunting aside a number of Trudeau loyalists and shrinking the size of cabinet, Mr. Carney will attempt to send a message of renewal, change and a focus on tackling the threats posed by the U.S. President.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Ms. Freeland said Mr. Carney retains her full confidence and is well-placed to take on Mr. Trump.
“Mark is going to be a fantastic prime minister,” she said, according to a transcript shared by the network.
“He’s the leader of my party. He has my full support. He is going to be terrific. And he has started off on a very, very good, clear note. He has said, ‘you need to respect us.’ And I would say that is the view of all Canadians.”
In addition to his cabinet, Mr. Carney is putting in place the staff who will surround him in the Prime Minister’s Office. His chief of staff is former Liberal MP and cabinet minister Marco Mendicino; assisting him is Cyndi Jenkins, who has served as a chief of staff to several Liberal cabinet ministers. Marjorie Michel, Mr. Trudeau’s former deputy chief of staff who left to join the party’s election campaign team, will return to the PMO for a short period to assist and will then run for election as an MP in Mr. Trudeau’s riding of Papineau.
Other key players are Jane Deeks as the director of communications, Kevin Lemkay as director of parliamentary affairs and issues, Angad Dhillon as director of operations and Tim Krupa handling policy.
When the Trudeau government was first elected in 2015, the cabinet had 31 members, down from a peak of 40 in the last year of then-Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper’s government.
Mr. Harper started off with a cabinet of 26 members in 2006.
Like the Harper government, the size of Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet expanded over time, reaching 40 members by December, 2024.
With reports from Bill Curry and Emily Haws