Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives at the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

By The Canadian Press

The latest

PM Carney won’t enter a formal pact with the NDP; plans to meet with Trump Tuesday

May 2, 2025 | 9:58 AM

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he won’t enter a formal pact with the NDP to maintain his minority government.

Carney says the Liberals received a strong mandate and he won’t make a formal agreement with the NDP to avoid a snap election. His predecessor Justin Trudeau had a confidence-and-supply agreement with the NDP and parties can also form coalition governments.

Elections Canada now reports the Liberal party won 168 seats, down one from the total on Monday, after a validation process showed the winner in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne was the Bloc Quebecois.

The Conservative party won 144 seats, while the Bloc Quebecois holds 23, the NDP has seven and the Green Party has one.

Also today, Carney said King Charles will visit Ottawa to deliver the speech from the throne in Parliament on May 27.

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Carney said he will unveil his cabinet the week of May 12 and have Parliament recalled on May 26, with the King giving the speech the next day outlining the new government’s priorities.

The Prime Minister will travel to Washington on Tuesday to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump for the first time since the April 28 election.

The two are set to discuss Trump’s trade war on Canada, and the talks could set the stage for negotiation of a new trade and security pact with the United States.

Carney took questions from reporters Friday for the first time since securing a minority government in his first federal election.

Asked whether he would insist on the tariffs being lifted as a condition of negotiations with the Trump administration, Carney said he doesn’t want to negotiate in public.

The White House has cited the flow of deadly fentanyl from Canada for imposing tariffs even though only small amounts of the drug have been seized at the northern border.

“There will be difficult discussions,” Carney said in French. “The fentanyl-related tariffs, we don’t understand why they’re still in place.”

Carney campaigned on being the best candidate to deal with Trump’s aggressive push to bolster American manufacturing through massive levies on imports, as well as the president’s threatening statements about making Canada a U.S. state.

Trump toned down his aggressive rhetoric during the election campaign itself and recently referred to Carney as a “very nice gentleman.”

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau spent his last days in office being frequently needled by Trump as the president floated annexation and levied tariffs.

In the days since the election, Carney has spoken to multiple international leaders, including King Charles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European Council President Antonio Costa and Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2025.

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