Get ready for Mark Carney unencumbered

Prime Minister Mark Carney has secured the first Liberal government since 2019. That’s right — in case you hadn’t noticed, Canada has been operating under minority governments for seven years. Two were won by Justin Trudeau in 2019 and 2021, one by Carney in 2025. Trudeau’s minorities necessitated significant compromise with the NDP; from 2021 until the fall of 2024, he was bound by a supply and confidence agreement with then NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who extracted a series of concessions on childcare, dental care, and pharmacare.

Under Carney’s minority, that kind of horse trading didn’t happen. From the start, Carney governed as though he had a majority, helped in part by the fact that no one on the Opposition benches wanted a snap election. But he also helped himself by coopting opposition policy, specifically Conservative policy. He suspended the increase of the consumer carbon tax, reversed planned increases to the capital gains tax and axed the Digital Services Tax. Carney did make some compromises, such as to Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Bill, where he agreed to the Bloc Québécois’ demand to remove the exception for religious speech. But overall, his tone was that of a majority, even though he was several seats shy of the mark. Read more here