Carney gets down to work as Canada election drumbeat grows

Brian Platt, Bloomberg News on Mar 10, 2025

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OTTAWA, Canada — Mark Carney laid the groundwork to take over as Canada’s prime minister as soon as this week, appointing a chief of staff and promising a speedy transition to a new cabinet that he says will be focused on the economy and fighting back against U.S. tariffs.

One day after he received a resounding victory in a vote among Liberal Party members, Carney met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss the trade war, national security and the handover of power. The transition to a new administration “will be seamless and it will be quick,” Carney said.

He also met with Liberal lawmakers. “We know this is a crucial time for our country. We’re united to serve Canadians and we will build this country,” he said. The prime minister-designate has tapped Marco Mendicino, a former Trudeau cabinet minister, as his chief of staff, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Carney, 59, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, won more than 85% of the vote in the Liberal Party leadership contest. He’ll announce a cabinet within days — and given the trade war with the U.S. and the short timeline to the next election, he’s likely to keep some current ministers in place to ensure stability, according to people familiar with Carney’s thinking.

Carney hasn’t committed to a date for a general election, but has previously said he would seek a new mandate from Canadians quickly in order to deal with the ongoing tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. And he has momentum, with the Liberals narrowing the gap on the Conservative Party in recent polls.

If he triggers an election shortly before Parliament returns on March 24, that would mean a voting date in late April or early May.

An election period would create some difficulty in managing a response to further Trump tariffs. Trump has promised a wider set of tariffs to take effect on April 2. During that time, Parliament would be dissolved and the government would be in what’s known as caretaker mode, where it’s supposed to avoid major decisions.

But the caretaker convention still allows the government to respond to emergencies, said Lori Turnbull, a Dalhousie University professor who’s an expert in parliamentary governance.

“So if Carney decides that he’s going to respond as he has to respond, he can do those things,” Turnbull said. “He can announce counter-tariffs.”

Carney, a former Goldman Sachs banker, announced his entry into the Liberal race shortly before Trump’s inauguration and benefited from Canadians’ rising anxiety about a trade war, Turnbull said. “This turned into a referendum on who was best suited to deal with Donald Trump and the resulting economic crisis, and then Carney became a clear choice.”

Canada currently has retaliatory tariffs in place on C$30 billion ($20.8 billion) worth of U.S. imports to the country, and has threatened to hit another C$125 billion worth of U.S. goods.

In his victory speech Sunday night, Carney said he would not remove Canada’s existing retaliatory measures until Trump removes the threat of tariffs and commits to being a reliable trade partner.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Carney’s approach to trade retaliation is “right in line with what I believe in” and with what Canadians want. On Monday, the leader of Canada’s most populous province put a 25% surcharge on electricity that gets exported to New York, Michigan and Minnesota.

“Across the country, patriotism is running wild like I’ve never seen before,” Ford said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “It’s not against the American people. It’s one person” — Trump.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has tried to tie Carney to the unpopular Trudeau by pointing out that the former central banker has given the prime minister advice since he left the Bank of England in 2020. Canada is vulnerable in a trade war with the U.S. because the Liberals thwarted business investment and natural resources projects, he suggested.

“We need to unleash our free-enterprise system to reverse the helplessness that the Liberals have caused over the last 10 years of tax and keep-it-in-the ground extremism,” Poilievre told reporters Monday.

Danielle Smith, the premier of Canada’s main oil-producing province of Alberta, urged Carney to call an election immediately.

“At a time when we are facing unprecedented economic challenges with our largest trading partner, Canada deserves and needs a leader with a mandate from Canadians,” she said in a post on X.

Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has said he expects the Liberals to go to the polls to seek a strong mandate quickly. Heading into the caucus meeting on Monday, he criticized Poilievre’s tactic of using nicknames such as “Sneaky Carney” and said Canadians want to see unity.

“We don’t want division in our country,” he said. “That would be a good moment now, with a new leader in Canada, to make sure that we push the reset button in Washington in the way they engage with Canada. What we want in Canada is respect.”

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(With assistance from Melissa Shin.)

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