Canada updates: New PM Mark Carney rejects Trump’s push to annex country

For a recap of Carney’s swearing-in ceremony, check out our story here.

To learn more about what is driving Trump’s push against Canada, read our analysis here.

And you can also read more here about how the crisis with the US played to Trudeau’s political strengths as the Canadian prime minister formally left office.

We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a quick look at today’s events:

• Mark Carney, a former central banker, was sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister after Justin Trudeau formally resigned.
• The members of Carney’s cabinet also took their oaths of office; many of his ministers had previously served under Trudeau.
• Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, who kept her post under Carney, said on the sidelines of a G7 meeting that Ottawa “will put maximum pressure on the Americans” in its trade war with Washington.
• Carney forcefully pushed back against Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada, calling suggestions that the country would become the 51st US state “crazy”.
• The new prime minister confirmed that his first foreign trip will be to France and the UK as Canada pushes to deepen trade relations with Europe.
• Carney kept the door open for cooperation with Trump, saying the two leaders can find “mutual solutions”.

It has been several hours since Carney officially became the prime minister of Canada, but there has been no public reaction or congratulatory statement from the White House.

Trump, a prolific social media user, also has not addressed the change in leadership in Ottawa.

Congratulations are pouring in from across the world for the new prime minister.

• Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum congratulates Carney, saying the two countries have a “relationship of friendship, trade and cooperation based on respect”.
• Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has sent a congratulatory cable to Carney, according to the country’s official news agency, QNA.
• Irish leader Micheal Martin says he looks forward to working with Carney, calling Canada “one of Ireland’s closest partners”.
• “Europe and Canada are trusted friends and partners. Today this relationship is more crucial than ever,” says EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
• World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he is looking forward to working with the new Canadian government.

Alvin Fiddler, grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents dozens of First Nations in northern Ontario, says community leaders expect the new government to respect Indigenous rights and advance their priorities.

“The Liberal leadership campaign lacked substantive conversation about federal responsibilities to First Nations. Our communities need to know that the challenges they are facing will be met with action, and that legislation to advance their interests will be prioritized,” Fiddler said in a statement.

He added that “considerable progress” has been made over the past decade and that cooperation must continue “to overcome the unique challenges” faced by First Nations communities.

“We look forward to hearing that this new government accepts its responsibility and commits to our shared future as a willing and supportive Treaty partner,” Fiddler said.

The Conservative Party leader continues to hit out at Carney and the Liberals:

• “Mark Carney thinks that Canadians are stupid. He thinks that a little bit of cosmetic surgery will allow the Liberals to disguise who they are and make people forget what they did for 10 years in order to elect them to a fourth Liberal term,” Poilievre says.
• He says the Liberals have allowed Canada to be “weak” in the face of the Trump administration.
• Poilievre promises to “bring in a massive, beautiful, patriotic ‘bring it home’ tax cut on work, investment, energy and homebuilding”.
• He says he will build more pipelines, mines and other resource projects.
• Poilievre pledges to carry out the “biggest crackdown on crime and drugs in Canadian history”.

Even before he was officially sworn in as Canada’s prime minister, Carney had made a stunning statement about his country’s southern neighbour.

“I know that these are dark days, dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust,” he said on Sunday, referring to the US.

Experts say the idea that the US can no longer be trusted reflects a sentiment that has been spreading rapidly across Canada in recent months amid Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.

Yet, as the US president’s attacks against his country’s northern neighbour continue unabated, many observers are now asking: Why?

Why is the president targeting a country that had widely been viewed as one of the US’s most reliable partners? Why does Trump seem so fixated on Canada?

Find out in our story here.

Watch the moment he took the oath of office.

Niki Ashton of the NDP says the new prime minister’s cabinet indicates that he plans to “govern by making it easier for billionaire oligarchs … [and] cut services that we as Canadians rely on”.

“Let’s be clear: Mark Carney and his government are not progressive,” Ashton said during a virtual news conference reacting to Carney’s swearing-in.

“Looking at Mark Carney, his agenda and today’s announcements, Mark Carney could just as well have been a conservative. This cabinet is about as conservative as a vision as you can get for this country.”

As we’ve been reporting, Carney’s Liberal Party has closed a massive gap with the opposition Conservatives, who had been expected only a few weeks ago to coast to victory in the upcoming federal election.

According to a Leger poll this week, the Liberals and the Tories each had 37 percent support.

“With Mark Carney as the leader of the Liberal Party, the Conservatives and the Liberals are in a tie,” the firm said.

The Conservatives saw their support decrease by six percentage points compared to a week earlier, Leger said, while the Liberals jumped seven percentage points.

CBC’s Poll Tracker, which aggregates national polling data, had the Conservatives at 39.8 percent support compared with 31.9 percent for the Liberals. But it said that gap would likely narrow in the coming days.

Let’s bring you up to speed:

• Mark Carney has been sworn is as Canada’s prime minister, replacing Justin Trudeau after nearly a decade in power.
• In his first speech as prime minister, Carney vows to defend Canadian workers amid “unjustified” trade action and rejects US President Trump’s push to annex Canada.
• Carney’s cabinet ministers also have been sworn in, as the new prime minister promises an “action-oriented” government.
• Carney confirms he will be travelling to Europe as he tries to diversify Canada’s trading partners in the face of Trump’s tariffs.

Carney has addressed several questions about Trump and the trade war with Canada’s southern neighbour in his first news conference after being sworn in.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

• Canada will never be part of the US and suggestions otherwise are “crazy”.
• Canada will invest in its own economy and diversify its trade partners.
• There is no meeting with Trump set, but he looks forward to talks with the US president.
• He says he kept many ministers from Trudeau’s cabinet because they have been on the “front line in a commercial battle”.
• Trump “knows, and I know from long experience, that we can find mutual solutions”.

Some foreign officials have expressed thanks to the former Canadian prime minister as he left office:

• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calls Trudeau a “good colleague” who “championed many important issues of the progressive agenda”.
• California Governor Gavin Newsom lauds what he described as Trudeau’s “bold action on climate” and bolstering economic ties with the US.
• The Israeli embassy in Ottawa has expressed gratitude to Trudeau for his “vocal” defence of the country, which is accused of major human rights abuses, as well as his “self-identification as a Zionist”.

Here’s a look at some key moments of Trudeau’s tenure.