By John Delacourt

March 14, 2025

In one of his last press conferences, outgoing Prime Minister Trudeau was asked, by the Toronto Star’s Tonda MacCharles, how he would describe the trade dialogue with President Trump, given that, just the day before, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly characterized the bilateral conversation as a “psychodrama.” Trudeau played the pause and simply deadpanned “Thursday.”

To go from the optimism and idealism of one of Trudeau’s first conferences in office, where he responded “because it’s 2015” when taking a question on the gender parity of his Cabinet, to this one-word response almost a decade later, spoke volumes about how multiple crises had both plagued and shaped his time in office over the last five years. Every day of the week, a new five- alarm fire to put out.

As the Liberal leadership crown has now passed from Trudeau to Prime Minister Mark Carney (with a similar coronation by the vast majority of registered Liberals), the fundamental question for Carney’s transition team, likely just days away from a general election campaign, is: how do you get past ‘Thursday’ – and the almost four years of ‘Thursday’ crises that are sure to follow? How do you put together a team and government, purpose-built for a trade war with the U.S. and the rapid disintegration of American leadership of the rules-based international order, all accompanied by the drumbeat of economic threats that make another recession all-but a certainty? Oh, and how do you craft something of a hope narrative from this scroll of doom for a campaign that will be the most consequential of this century?

No pressure, Prime Minister Carney. Thank God, it’s Friday already. And if this new, right-sized war cabinet is any indication, a serviceable campaign slogan might be “safe hands on the economic tiller,” as the Carney value proposition for voters will seek passage through uncharted waters, both for Canada’s place in the world and a radical revisioning of economic strategy necessary to ensure Canada’s place at the table of any G7 meeting in the future.

Job one will of course be the campaign, and in conversations with virtually every Liberal poised for this battle, the same salient observations emerge:

• It will be a referendum on which leader is going to be most effective defending and advancing Canada’s interests against Trump;
• Carney may be a known entity within government circles but he is less so on the hustings. His campaign, like his transition to public life, must be flawless. There is, as one campaign veteran put it to me, “no margin for error.”
• The main opponent, Pierre Poilievre, will not be observing Queensberry Rules in this campaign. It will be a knife fight. Safe hands as a slogan might be one thing, but brass knuckles when necessary should be in parentheses.

But there are promising signs emerging. Observing the first days of the Carney government, as it works its way through the necessary steps of transition brought to mind the best piece of advice I received when I first worked in a minister’s office more than two decades ago: no matter the org chart or the conversation between the Prime Minister’s Office and your minister’s, the most important dialogue to master is the one that occurs across the conference-room table between the minister’s political staff and the department staff. The more you can come to know and understand this dynamic, and all of the considerations and priorities set on both sides of the table, the more productive and effective your office will be.

Carney has brought in a zen master of this dynamic to lead his transition: former Clerk of the Privy Council and High Commissioner in the UK Janice Charette. Charette has serious political bona fides, having once served as Jean Charest’s chief of staff in Ottawa, but she has garnered a reputation for providing unimpeachable, non-partisan counsel as both a deputy minister and PCO clerk. What makes her so effective is her deep knowledge of the mechanics of government (she was in place as clerk during the pandemic, rolling out massive programs like CERB and CEBA), her prowess in intergovernmental relations and her keen understanding of how the two sides of the table can work most effectively through a crisis. It is testament to Carney’s own institutional memory that he selected her for this crucial role.

The new prime minister also clearly understands he may have a short time frame from which he can make an impact, once transition is completed. The cabinet he has put together has been road-tested for the trade war ahead. The front line of Dominic Leblanc at International Trade, Anita Anand at Industry, Mélanie Joly at Foreign Affairs and François-Philippe Champagne at Finance ensures that there is the closest thing to seamless continuity for bilateral relations with the U.S., during a general election where Carney still has to represent change. Despite the surge in interest in the new prime minister from the electorate and their initial confidence in his potential to lead the government through this period of crisis, this enthusiasm could sputter out quickly; the rage against incumbency, which impacted so many outcomes during the massive electoral churn of 2024, may seem dormant right now, but the support for Poilievre’s candidacy was built on it, and if the firebrand can tap into it once again, the momentum could shift dramatically back to the Conservatives.

We’re probably just days away from another visit to Rideau Hall by Prime Minister Carney and the choice between potential negatives is all but set for the campaign: the Conservatives’ MAGA adjacency versus Team Carney’s Trudeau-era “more of the same”. Both are phantom notions in the minds of voters who haven’t made up their minds yet. But Carney’s team has to know the opportunities and threats that such a contrast presents. And navigating well through these polarities, in the midst of a trade war, could only heighten the risk that Canadians could lose confidence in the safe hands, serious tone Carney’s already set.

Campaign in poetry, govern in prose is the maxim frequently cited before any issuance of the writs. The Carney campaign has astutely read – so far – the mood shift in the electorate in response to Trump’s menacing threats to Canadian sovereignty, but those eligible voters they’ve attracted will be looking for some of the poetry, some indication of a strong, beating heart of patriotism pounding through the metre of Carney’s stump speeches.

The challenge is, at the same time, they’ll only find reassurance in a serious down-to-business focus through the grind of bilateral trade negotiations in the weeks ahead. It is a fine balance to strike through these inevitable “Thursdays” we’re facing – with no casual Fridays ahead for Carney’s team.

Policy Contributing Writer John Delacourt is Senior Vice President of Counsel Public Affairs in Ottawa.