Murray Wood: Who's hot and who's not
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OTTAWA — King Charles will visit Ottawa to deliver the speech from the throne at the end of this month in a show of support for Canadian sovereignty, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.
The news came in his first press conference since leading the Liberals to a fourth straight mandate in Monday’s election, where he laid out the priorities for his first few months, promising to “embark on the biggest transformation of our economy since the end of the Second World War.”
“This will be an incredibly exciting time as we take control of our economic destiny to create a new Canadian economy that works for everyone,” Carney said in a news conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa.
The first step toward enacting that promise comes next week when Carney meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, fulfilling the promise the two made in the first week of the election campaign to embark on talks toward a new security and economic deal between the countries as soon as the Canadian election was over.
The week of May 12 Carney said he will name his new cabinet, which he said hasn’t yet been finalized. Carney appointed 23 members to his first cabinet on March 14, down from 39 in the final cabinet under prime minister Justin Trudeau. Carney would not say how big the new cabinet will be but said he would continue the tradition Trudeau began of maintaining gender parity for his front bench.
Carney said Parliament will then be recalled on May 26, and the King will read the speech outlining the new government’s priorities on May 27. It will be the first Canadian tour for King Charles since his coronation.
Carney said he invited King Charles and Queen Camilla to launch this session of Parliament as it “underscores” Canadian sovereignty in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s talk of annexation.
“This is an historic honour which matches the weight of our times,” Carney said.
The royals last visited Canada in May 2022, and have been silent regarding Trump’s talk of annexing Canada. The British government has sought to use the royals to improve Trump’s relations with the U.K., giving Trump an invitation in March to meet King Charles.
Carney said that in a Tuesday call with Trump, the president did not bring up the prospect of Canada becoming a U.S. state.
The prime minister said he wants to work constructively with other parties and praised Canadians for sticking with the democratic process as democracies face strains elsewhere. But he said the Liberals will not enter into a formal pact with the NDP to maintain the minority government.
Carney said his legislative priorities include a middle-class tax cut that would take effect by July, an expansion of the dental-care program to eight million people and a number of measures to tackle the housing shortage.
Carney and Trump have spoken by phone twice in recent weeks, including on Tuesday, but the May 6 meeting at the White House will be their first face-to-face meeting.
“Are we going to collaborate in these (strategic) sectors including for example critical minerals, the automotive sector, aluminum — there are examples, in energy for example — or are we going to divide the North American market? It’s not clear,” Carney said in French.
“It’s not a good choice, the second. That is clear. But if he wants, Canada has other options.”
Carney said he intends to use the G7 leaders’ summit next month in Alberta to advance Canadian interests on the world stage.
“We will strengthen our relationships with reliable trading partners and allies,” he said. “Canada has what the world needs, and we uphold the values the world respects.”
The Liberals won 168 seats in the election, four shy of what was needed to secure a majority mandate.
When asked whether he wants to poach MPs from other parties to build a majority government, Carney said his party already has a strong mandate, with seats in each province and a large share of the total vote.
He also said he would not seek a formal agreement with the NDP to avoid a snap election. Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau had a confidence-and-supply agreement with the NDP, and parties can also form coalition governments.
“In order to do what we need to do as a country … we will need to work in partnership with all the provinces, with Indigenous Peoples,” he said.
Carney said he had very constructive conversations recently with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet.
Poilievre lost his own seat in the election, and the Conservatives announced Friday Alberta MP Damien Kurek would step aside to open a seat for Poilievre to run in when a byelection is called.
Carney said he’d call that byelection when the Conservatives ask for it, putting to rest suggestions he could keep Poilievre out of the House of Commons for more than six months by delaying the byelection call as long as he could.
“No games, nothing. Straight,” Carney said.
The Conservative party won 144 seats, while the Bloc Québécois holds 23, the NDP has seven and the Green Party has one.
In the days since the election, Carney has spoken to multiple international leaders, including King Charles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European Council President Antonio Costa, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
In a social-media post Friday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she had a “positive first meeting” with Carney. Smith says they had a lengthy conversation about policies and legislation that are holding back Alberta’s energy economy, about proposals for projects and legislative reforms that will “significantly increase” market access for Alberta goods and about the ongoing trade dispute with the U.S.
“The Prime Minister made it clear he intended to rapidly advance these kinds of nation building projects in the coming weeks and months,” Smith said. “Repairing the damage to Alberta’s economy caused by Ottawa’s last 10-years of anti-resource legislation and policies will take tremendous effort and co-operation, however, today’s conversation was a positive first step.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2025.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
