Mark Carney set to become prime minister, name cabinet this morning

OTTAWA — Mark Carney will be sworn in as prime minister this morning at Rideau Hall, where he will also reveal his new cabinet.

Carney won the Liberal leadership race last weekend with an overwhelming 86 per cent of the votes from Liberal members.

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He officially takes over from Justin Trudeau as prime minister in today’s ceremony.

His first cabinet is expected to be smaller than Trudeau’s 37-member team, and some ministers are set to lose their positions.

They include Jean-Yves Duclos, who was public services and procurement minister and Trudeau’s Quebec lieutenant.

A government source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the move, said Duclos was told Thursday that he won’t be in the next cabinet.

The ministers now playing key roles in Canada’s response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war are expected to be part of Carney’s cabinet.

They include Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty.

Champagne appeared to confirm some of that accidentally in a news conference from Washington with LeBlanc Thursday, when asked about whether the shuffle or expected election will impact the negotiations with the U.S.

“We will still be ministers during that period, or at least we’ll see tomorrow.,” he said, prompting LeBlanc’s eyes to widen in surprise.

“Oh, oh, oof, that was a mistake,” LeBlanc quipped.

Champagne shrugged off any sense he had broken protocol about announcing cabinet decisions ahead of time.

“No, no, no, there’s a good chance,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 14, 2025.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press