Canada has a new prime minister. Mark Carney has been sworn in as Canada’s 30th prime minister along with the country’s smallest cabinet in decades at 24 members. That’s a big change, dropping from 39 ministers in Justin Trudeau’s last cabinet.
Of the new 24-member cabinet, 20 were already ministers and 4 are new, including Carney. Eight ministers retained their previous portfolios while two kept half of their previous portfolios while gaining additional responsibilities. Ten ministers were shuffled into new portfolios.
In building his Cabinet, Prime Minister Carney has dispensed with some well-worn political conventions, some by choice, some by necessity. He has chosen a smaller, more focused Cabinet – “to meet the moment”, he said. That meant dispensing with the tradition of every province having at least one member in the cabinet. Since the Liberal government has no representatives from Saskatchewan and only two in Alberta, that is by necessity. As a result, three provinces and the three territories have zero cabinet seats. This is despite PEI currently having 4 Liberal MPs.
Here is the provincial breakdown:
| Province or Territory | Cabinet Positions |
| Ontario | 11 |
| Quebec | 6 |
| New Brunswick | 2 |
| Nova Scotia | 1 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 1 |
| Manitoba | 1 |
| British Columbia | 1 |
| Alberta | 0 |
| Saskatchewan | 0 |
| PEI | 0 |
| Yukon | 0 |
| Nunavut | 0 |
| NWT | 0 |
Several portfolios have been restructured with new names, a prime ministerial prerogative to convey new priorities. Here are the significant name changes:
- “Heritage” becomes “Canadian Culture and Identity”
- “Employment, Workforce Development, and Labour” and “Families, Children, and Social Development” have been combined into “Jobs and Families”
- “Citizens Services” has been dropped to create a new department of “Government Transformation, Public Services, and Procurement”
Carney cut the size of Cabinet by combining portfolios and eliminating some stand-alone ministers. Portfolios eliminated include:
- International Development
- Diversity, Inclusion, and Persons with Disabilities
- Citizens’ Services
- Official Languages
- Tourism
- Small Business
- Sport
- Seniors
- Women, Gender Equality, and Youth
- Rural Economic Development
See the full cabinet list here.
All the regional economic development agencies, which had individual designated ministers (usually in combined portfolios) have been reassigned, most likely to the Innovation, Science, and Industry department (still to be confirmed).
On the political side, Carney found room for former finance minister and leadership rival Chrystia Freeland (as Transport and Internal Trade minister) but not Karina Gould. While the new PM kept the Environment and Climate Change department, he moved its high-profile minister, Steven Guilbeault, to a new portfolio. This paves the way for eliminating the consumer carbon tax most associated with him.
An interesting structural hint is creating a minister responsible for “Government Transformation” as part of Public Services and Procurement. Undefined at present, this likely encompasses digital services including AI and broader service delivery. The Trudeau government had created a department of Citizens Services for the same purpose. Prime Minister Carney has turned the lens around from outward-facing to citizens to a more inward-facing lens (perhaps) on internal government efficiency and effectiveness. This may reflect the Privy Council Office’s advice as to where the need truly lies and, perhaps, a recognition that the previous portfolio was not well-placed.
So, a significant departure from current cabinet practice under a new prime minister – smaller, more focused, and more traditional. As for gender parity – a key commitment of Prime Minister Trudeau – Prime Minister Carney almost kept it. Just under half of the new cabinet are women.
A reminder that every prime minister is constrained in his or her cabinet making by the members of parliament voters choose. Our first PM, Sir John A Macdonald, said it best.
