Saturday May 31, 2025 | NATIONAL SCOPE reporting from VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 3:47 pm PT]
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Prime Minister Mark Carney started the week with the opening of the 45th parliament on May 26 and hosting the King of England for the Throne Speech on May 27.
Carney’s first Question Period experience was on May 28.
Yesterday he delivered remarks to municipal leaders at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) convention in Ottawa. Tomorrow in Calgary he will host a round table discussion with leaders in Canada’s energy sector.
Also on May 30, Carney convened the Incident Response Group with ministers and senior officials to address the escalating 2025 wildfire situation affecting many parts of the country, particularly Western Canada but also smoky air reaching from there heading east.
On Monday the new prime minister will hold his first meeting of First Ministers (premiers of provinces and territories) in a joint meeting in Saskatoon.
Municipal focus:
“We want to be at the table while these important decisions are being made,” said Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe in introducing Carney for the prime minister’s Friday morning speech.
The federal government will be a “reliable partner on a wide range of issues” including housing, the cost of which has been eroding the standard of living for Canadians, Carney said.
“We intend to govern by working with others,” said Carney, then listing off the points most important to municipal leaders: housing, local economies, safer strong communities.
Housing development in Canada will be “lean and mission-driven” to catalyze a new delivery of housing that involves enhancing the involvement of workers as well as utilizing technology and Canadian lumber.
Carney said that this country’s “longstanding weak productivity is beginning to strain government finances and certainly making life less affordable for Canadian families… and is threatening to undermine vital social programs including child care”. Ideally that is not a foreshadowing of cutting back on social program supports in the upcoming Fall 2025 budget.
Carney says housing will be “at scale” and will take advantage of the industrial benefits through providing funds to private sector developers.
“We’re going to be building this country for the next quarter century,” said Carney on Friday. That will include $25 billion for affordable home builders.
The Housing Accelerator Fund will be reinforced, said Carney. He told the audience of municipal leaders that the federal government will “work with you to slash development charges in half for all multi-unit housing over the next five years while making water, power lines and wastewater… we’re not going to give lectures, we’re gong to give help so we can all move forward.”
Projects of national significance that reinforce and connect Canada will include Indigenous peoples, diversification of trade partners, and aiming for a more sustainable future for all, Carney outlined.
He said that municipalities are building strong communities. He repeated his message about Canada being “at a hinge moment” and continued on about economic transformation and protecting sovereignty. He mentioned again that Canada’s social programs are “threatened” by current economic conditions.
“We will move from delay to delivery. The can government needs to become a catalyst not an impediment,” he said.
There was a promise of upcoming legislation to “strengthen order in communities” and to “fight the traffic of guns coming into our country”.
Still the honeymoon phase:
This still seems to be a grace period for a Liberal prime minister who appears to be trying to restore the necessary tracks of action and communication with key leaders across the country on things that the previous Liberal government fell short on. He was welcomed with a standing ovation at FCM.
For now, that list of shortcomings under repair includes the promise of federal infrastructure dollars to cities (as they are expected to enable more housing) and the promise of Canada now being “an energy superpower” with talk of pipelines and new or upgraded ports and also a more efficient or enabled electricity power grid.
For someone new to politics, Carney appears to be touching all the right points with his multiple audiences… premiers of provinces and territories, mayors and councils of municipalities, and also key economic sectors like housing development and energy.
This comes upon a backdrop of dealing with the most significant challenge, that being a restructuring of the Canadian economy which was needed regardless of the Trump tariff and sovereignty threat. Trump’s impact just made it a whole lot easier to sell a wholesale change to the Canadian voters and government leaders.
Vancouver Island notes:
When Carney was in Victoria during the election campaign in April he remarked about the temperate climate and seemed to feel embraced by the mild weather of this area on south Vancouver Island.
Who knows, maybe his three visits here during the campaign helped boost the success of two Liberal candidates who have now become MPs.
Stephanie McLean, MP (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke) is now the Secretary of State for Seniors which might help highlight the needs of seniors on Vancouver Island and across the country.
Will Greaves, MP (Victoria) currently has no cabinet portfolio but is clearly qualified to be a future Arctic issues resource or minister in an area of concern both economic and security-related.
===== RELATED:
- First question period covers budget, economy, climate change & housing (May 28, 2025)
- Canada’s 45th Parliament Throne Speech delivered by King Charles III (May 27, 2025)
- Carney’s mandate letter to cabinet addresses economy and security (May 21, 2025)
- Location matters for federal cabinet retreats & Liberal conventions (May 21, 2025)
- New federal cabinet announced on May 13, 2025 (May 13, 2025)
- NEWS SECTIONS: CANADA-NATIONAL | 45th CANADIAN PARLIAMENT | CANADA-USA | VANCOUVER ISLAND