Watching Canadians during the recently concluded election campaign insist that Mark Carney would be a serious and different Liberal than Justin Trudeau always sounded lame. CBC’s At Issue panel or the hacks on the various network news shows earnestly pointed out that Carney had gravitas. He had been the Governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. Carney had a Ph.D., and his IQ made him an intellect of rare pedigree. Carney had the right stuff to take on President Donald Trump, compared to his predecessor. As an Albertan, he understood the need to develop our resources and would attack all the Trudeau-era problems with the wisdom lacking in the previous government. His cabinet would reveal his ability to form a winning team; His approach to governing would serve Canadians effectively; And, with elbows up, he would earn Canada a place at the table. He would show Trump we didn’t need America’s markets. Canada could capably build an economic powerhouse without the greedy presence of America’s president threatening to make us its 51st state.
Less than a month since winning a renewed mandate, Canadians are learning Carney’s Liberals are much like the Trudeau Liberals. The announcement of his cabinet reminded Canadians that several former Trudeau ministers would be reinstated, reassigned, or promoted after failing the nation miserably in former portfolios under a different prime minister. As Andrew Coyne wrote in the Globe and Mail, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have been had.” (Carney’s cabinet a familiar mix of quotas duplication and pork barrel politics). Coyne, a man of high intelligence, writes and sounds like a moderate conservative. He should have known better than to believe a Liberal prime minister would govern in the interests of anyone but the Liberal Party or himself. Later in the same article, Coyne remorsefully reflects on the size of the cabinet, the overlapping ministries, and the tendency to allow, once again, regional development agencies to steer funding to areas of the country that reward people for voting the right way. He also regrets Carney’s efforts to name parliamentary secretaries as equal to cabinet positions. Somehow, this Carney Express went off the rails, and Coyne seems surprised, annoyed, and confused. Why he should be probably perplexes his readers more. The Liberal Party received no time-out. They did not have to sit in the penalty box, make any adjustments, or correct policy errors. Canadians, especially boomer Canadians, rewarded the ten worst years of governance in this nation’s history (the last five historically egregious, thanks to the partnership with the already-forgotten Jagmeet Singh) with a new mandate. What would make anyone think much would change?
Looking at these early days of the new government provides us with a lot of clues about what lays before us. First, the power base of this government remains in Central and Eastern Canada. Quebec gave the Liberals 45 seats out of 78. This makes Stephen Guilbeault, Carney’s Quebec Lieutenant and ranking cabinet member, a powerful voice. Guilbeault, a radical environmentalist, has already contradicted his boss about building pipelines, muddying up the government’s message and aggravating disgruntled Western leaders and voters.
Second, the finance minister announced that there would be no budget in 2025. What?! How does parliamentary government work if the government refuses to present a financial outline of its expenses and incomes? As Executive Director at a modestly sized non-profit, this author knows that budgets feed transparency, ensure legal compliance, and create accountability. That is too much to ask of this new government, one we were told would be for all Canadians and distinctly different from the one Trudeau led. If Carney believes he doesn’t need to present a budget to Parliament, debate its value, and pass it legally, he has more in common with his rival in the United States than he may care to admit. Fortunately, before concluding this article, Carney announced, after much dithering and substantial pressure, that his government would indeed bring down a budget this fall.
He also thinks that the performative art of signing executive orders exists in Canada as it does in America. On two occasions, our new prime minister has signed orders (one canceled the carbon tax, and the latest promises tax cuts) with the press looking on dutifully. Someone should have informed him (I am sure he knows) that he needs the signatures of four cabinet officers to pass laws outside the legislature. Knowing does not mean he cares. But it reveals the disdain he has for Parliament or his concern about facing detractors during question period.
Appointing Anita Anand, Sean Fraser, Julie Dabrusin, and Gregor Robertson to their new posts further degrades Carney’s ability to talk about fresh starts, doing things differently, or being a Liberal leader of a different stripe. Not long into her ministry, Anand was confused or spewing antisemitic nonsense when asked about food shortages in Gaza. Her back-and-forth with a journalist on May 15, 2025, left the impression that Israel was to blame for the October 7, 2023, attack and that Hamas’ fabricated role in the food scarcity crisis in Gaza resulted from some type of misunderstanding. By whom? A Jewish-controlled press? Honestly, the tripe that has come from that ministry, between the execrable Mélanie Jolie and the oblivious Anand, should embarrass a man of Carney’s grand intellect.
Fraser, a man who completely failed in the immigration ministry under Trudeau, will now take his expertise to justice. Does he possess the skill required? Beyond being a lawyer, does Fraser know anything about the aspects of the law that, say, Peter MacKay did when he took over the Justice Department in the Stephen Harper government? If Fraser delivers the same impact at justice as he did at immigration, the country may need a national therapist.
Dabrusin at environment and climate change means that Stephen Guilbeualt’s ideas retain leverage. Dabrusin, like Guilbeault, will advance policies in opposition to fossil fuels and pipelines. She will argue for green energy and may dismiss the need for Alberta’s dirty oil because advances in alternative energy sources have exceeded expectations. This will feed Western alienation and create more headaches for Carney.
Robertson’s selection did not initially feed contempt. But his answer to a question about housing led to a firestorm because he suggested that high housing prices were here to stay. Boomers were relying on that investment, and younger people would just have to adjust. Following that Marie Antoinette moment, many moderate supporters of Carney felt queasy, like after eating something they knew would disagree with them. It did not take long for right-leaning Canadians who voted for Carney instead of Pierre Poilievre (out of fear of Trump) to realize they may have made a mistake. Robertson tried to walk his statement back, but the damage was done.
Carney’s cabinet may recover and eventually do a decent job, with the prime minister setting the tone, but the early results leave something to be desired. The players seem like the same cast of characters who bumbled away for a decade, following one blunder with more inexplicable decisions. The scandals, the woke moralism of equal gender representation (something wrong with merit?), the fashion shows on foreign trips, the fumbling away of Canada’s riches for the sake of international approval, should have cashiered the Liberal government. Instead, Canadians accepted the theory that Carney was the right person for the time. A serious man, able to handle the threat of Trump. Sadly, we may soon find out he couldn’t even manage his own caucus. The jury’s out, but the deliberations have begun. For the sake of Canadians, let’s hope Carney can juggle more than one ball. Otherwise, we are in for a continuation of what we hoped had ended when Trudeau grabbed his gender-neutral rainbow ball and went home in a huff.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who now works part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, where he earned a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
