Liberal Leader Mark Carney is hoping to be sworn in as Canada's 24th prime minister by the end of the week but there are some logistical hurdles like security clearances for senior members of his transition team that must happen first.
Carney won a landslide victory to take the helm of the Liberals from Justin Trudeau on Sunday night but he isn't yet the prime minister.
He is already taking some meetings to prepare for that eventuality — meeting the Liberal caucus Monday and sitting down with Canada's U.S. ambassador Kirsten Hillman and Chief of Defence Staff Jennie Carignan today.
But his swearing in ceremony at Rideau Hall has not yet been scheduled and Carney says he won't take part in any formal discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump over tariffs until after that ceremony takes place.
Carney's spokespeople will only say that they hope that happens before the end of the week.
A senior aide in Trudeau's office says there are some operational requirements of the transition that are still just getting started.
The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the internal government operations, told The Canadian Press Tuesday that Marco Mendicino, the Toronto MP and former cabinet minister tapped by Carney to be his transition team chief of staff, met for an hour Tuesday afternoon with existing staff in Trudeau's office.
It was the first discussion between Carney's team and Trudeau's office staff since Sunday's leadership convention.
There are more than 100 people employed at the PMO, from senior political advisers to people in charge of appointments, travel and issues management.
Tuesday's meeting included Cyndi Jenkins, who was a chief of staff to Health Minister Mark Holland and is now assisting Mendicino in the transition.
The source said while Trudeau and Carney are from the same party, the two teams are treating the changeover as a whole new administration. That means for at least a month Trudeau's staff have been packing their offices, removing personal effects like photographs and archiving emails and documents as required.
Now they are in a wait-and-see mode, as it is expected that Carney's incoming leadership will keep many of the existing staff in place at least through the caretaker mode of an election campaign since it would be difficult to replace them that quickly.
Obtaining proper security clearances for the new people Carney is bringing in will take some time, as those clearances can often take up to two weeks or longer.
Carney is widely expected to call an election before Parliament resumes on March 24 and cannot do that until he has been sworn in.
Carney is not officially joining tariff discussions but did weigh in on social media Tuesday, blasting Trump after the U.S. president moved to double the tariffs on steel and aluminum set to take effect Wednesday. Carney called the move to increase them to 50 per cent — which Trump later reversed back to 25 per cent — "an attack on Canadian workers, families and businesses."
"My government will ensure our response has maximum impact in the US and minimal impact here in Canada, while supporting the workers impacted," he said. "My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade."
During the daily White House press briefing Tuesday, Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavittt said that Trump has not spoken to Carney yet, but "his phone is always open" to world leaders who wish to speak with the president.
Carney also met with Kevin Brosseau, the former Mountie tapped by Trudeau to be Canada's "fentanyl czar" overseeing efforts to end the smuggling of fentanyl across into the United States. Trump has repeatedly cited fentanyl and migrants as the reasons for tariffs against Canada, despite overwhelming evidence of the very low numbers of each crossing the northern border into the U.S. illegally.
Following his meeting with Carignan, Carney said his government will meet the two per cent NATO spending target by 2030, modernize Norad and strengthen Canada's presence in the Arctic.
