By Promit Mukherjee and David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) -Ex-central banker Mark Carney was sworn in as prime minister of Canada on Friday and immediately said he could work with U.S. President Donald Trump, who is promising tariffs that could devastate the Canadian economy.
Carney succeeds Justin Trudeau, who had a combative and often cold relationship with Trump. Carney, 59, made clear his approach would be different.
“We respect President Trump – President Trump has put some very important issues at the top of his agenda. We understand his agenda,” he told reporters after being sworn in, noting he had worked with Trump at international meetings.
“In many respects, part of my experience overlaps with that of the President – we’re both looking out for our countries. But he knows, and I know from long experience, that we can find mutual solutions that win for both,” he said.
Carney, who said he had no immediate plans to talk to the president, also made clear that Trump administration talk of annexing Canada was “crazy”.
He reshaped his 24-person cabinet with a view to dealing with Washington, cutting almost half the ministerial positions that he inherited from Trudeau.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc is moving to the international trade portfolio and will be replaced by current Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly stays in her post.
The moment capped a momentous rise for Carney, who becomes the first Canadian prime minister without any serious political experience.
Carney said he would visit London and Paris next week. Canada has sought to shore up alliances in Europe as its relations with the United States sink to unprecedented lows.
Carney crushed his rivals on Sunday in a race to become leader of the ruling Liberal Party. He replaces Trudeau, who spent more than nine years in office.
Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, whose shock resignation last December triggered a crisis that helped push out Trudeau, becomes transport minister.
Carney, a former head of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, successfully argued his position as an outsider with a history of tackling crises meant he was the best person to take on Trump, who has repeatedly talked about annexing Canada.
“We will never, ever in any way, shape or form, be part of the United States,” said Carney.
The cabinet will likely not be in office for long, since Liberal insiders say Carney will call a snap election within the next two weeks. If he changes his mind, opposition parties say they will unite to bring down the minority Liberal government in a confidence vote at the end of March.
Once the election is called, Carney will be very limited in what he can do politically because convention dictates he cannot make major decisions when running for office.
Opinion polls currently suggest it will be a close race with the official opposition Conservatives, with neither party gaining enough seats for a majority government.
Until recently the Conservatives had enjoyed a double-digit lead over the Liberals in opinion polls, in large part due to unhappiness over a spike in living costs and a housing crisis.
“100% of Carney’s ministers were in Trudeau’s caucus — helping hike carbon taxes and double the debt, housing costs and food bank lineups,” said Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, in a post on X. “A Liberal is a Liberal is a Liberal.”
(Additional reporting by John Irish in La Malbaie; Editing by Nia Williams and Chizu Nomiyama)
