Canada’s Mark Carney forms new cabinet to reshape ties with US
The PM says his government will relentlessly protect the nation’s sovereignty amid annexation threats from Trump
Canada’s new government will relentlessly protect the nation’s sovereignty as it works to redefine fraught relations with the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday as his cabinet was sworn in.
Carney’s election win two weeks ago was largely defined by threats from US President Donald Trump, whose trade war and repeated talk of annexing the United States’ northern neighbour upended Canadian politics.
Carney, a former central banker with experience leading through major financial crises, convinced enough voters that he was the right choice to take on Trump, whose tariffs on imported autos and other goods have already cost Canadian jobs.
“Canadians elected this new government with a strong mandate to define a new economic and security relationship with the United States,” Carney said in a statement before his new ministers took their oaths.
Addressing reporters after the ceremony, with a cabinet of Liberal Party loyalists assembled behind him, Carney said his “government will work relentlessly to keep Canada secure as a sovereign nation”.
04:27
Trump meets new Canadian PM, who tells him Canada is not for sale
Trump discussed absorbing Canada into the United States on several occasions in his first Oval Office meeting with Carney last week.