What Has Changed Between Trudeau Liberals and Carney Liberals?

Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney speaks to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after Carney was announced as the winner of the party leadership at the announcement event in Ottawa, on March 9, 2025. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

This is part of a two-part series examining changes in the leading federal parties. You can read the article on the Conservatives here.

There is an abundance of laws and policies that the Liberal government, in power for over nine years, has brought into force.

As former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s popularity was plunging in the polls, he resigned and the Liberals chose Mark Carney to replace him. Carney has endeavoured to distinguish himself from Trudeau.

Besides reducing the consumer carbon tax to zero, he has made other promises on the campaign trail to set his brand apart from the Trudeau Liberals, though he hasn’t announced changes on many other key areas.

Here’s a look at some of the items Carney has been focusing on as the election campaign continues.

Energy and Climate Change Policies

A decision note to make the consumer carbon tax rate zero signed by Mark Carney after he was sworn in as prime minister on March 14, 2025. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

Carney’s first act as prime minister was to end the consumer carbon tax, but he plans to have the energy industry pay more for carbon emissions. He has also said he aspires to make Canada an “energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy” and will build transportation networks to connect energy extraction sites to real lines and roads.

His stance on building new pipelines, however, has not been clear cut. In his latest comments on the matter on a Radio-Canada program on April 13, Carney said new pipelines would “not necessarily” be prioritized by his government.

On some key Trudeau-era policies, Carney has been clear that he intends to keep them, or has not explicitly said he would remove them. These include the Impact Assessment Act, which assesses the impacts of major infrastructure projects; bans on oil tankers off the B.C. coast, which impacts the ability of Alberta to export oil and gas to the Asian markets; emissions caps on the oil and gas sector; sales mandates for electric vehicles; and the single-use plastics ban.

The Trudeau government has aimed for a cap on the oil and gas sector to bring emissions to 35 percent below 2019 levels.

Some of Carney’s proposed policies would go further than Trudeau’s, including implementing a “carbon border adjustment mechanism.” This would serve as a tariff on imported goods high in carbon to help local industries impacted by the government’s own price on carbon.

Carney has been a strong advocate of climate change policies and is expected to continue pursuing the objective to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. He will also continue to abide by Canada’s international commitments and said he wants the country to take a leadership role.

“Canada intends to take a leadership role at the upcoming climate change conference in the Brazilian Amazon, where I know that nature-based solutions will be front and centre,” Carney said on April 7 when unveiling his plan for the environment.

As agreed during the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023, governments are expected to enact policies and initiatives to advance fossil fuel transitioning, as they did for the 2015 Paris Agreement, such as Canada’s target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

Support Programs and Budget

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks on as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland speaks at a press conference at a local child-care centre in Ottawa, on March 29, 2023. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

On key support programs, Carney has said he is proud of the Liberal government for having implemented them. They include the $10-a-day national child care program, as well as dental care and pharmacare programs.

On March 22, the day before the election was called, the Carney government announced the expansion of the federal dental care program to eligible Canadians aged 18 to 64. It was previously available only to those under 18 and over 65.

And amid the U.S. tariffs, Carney announced a number of measures to help support workers and businesses, including waiving the one-week waiting period to collect employment insurance (EI) and suspending the rules so that severance pay doesn’t have to be exhausted before EI kicks in. Businesses have also been allowed to defer income tax payments and GST/HST remittances to the end of June. He has said the proceeds from Canada’s retaliatory tariffs would be used to support Canadians impacted by the tariffs.

Carney has said he would reduce the federal personal income tax on the lowest tax bracket. He has also reversed a key Trudeau policy, saying he’ll scrap the planned hike in the capital gains inclusion rate, the portion of a capital gain that is considered taxable income.

At the same time, Carney has indirectly criticized the Trudeau government for exceeding spending targets, and said he would focus on reducing spending, with the aim to “spend less, and invest more.”

He has said a key difference between him and Trudeau, is that he (Carney) is focused on the economy. He has said he would enable more private investment in the economy to create more jobs and make Canada more competitive.

He also said he would cap the size of the public service, and intends to bring about savings by bringing efficiencies in government operations while adopting a “fiscal rule to ensure that government debt-to-GDP declines over the budget horizon.”

Housing

Construction cranes are seen in Toronto on July 5, 2017. The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn

The Trudeau government’s housing plan announced last year sought to spur the construction of 3.87 million new homes by 2031. It built on previous initiatives such as the Housing Accelerator Fund to incentivize municipalities to reduce zoning barriers, and increased from $40 billion to $55 billion the funds in the Apartment Construction Loan Program to build rental units.

The Trudeau government also intended to build more homes on public lands and increased the amortization period of mortgages to 30 years for first-time homebuyers.

Before tariffs became a hot political issue, the high cost of living and expensive housing were top concerns for Canadians.

Carney is proposing to take the federal government’s involvement in housing a major step further by getting into the business of home building. He wants the government to act as a developer to build affordable housing on public lands.

He also wants to provide $25 billion in debt financing and $1 billion in equity financing to manufacturers of prefabricated homes.

The Liberal leader has proposed to boost the Housing Accelerator Fund by further reducing obstacles to the construction of homes and to cut municipal development charges in half for multi-unit residential housing.

A ground controller works as a plane sits on the tarmac at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on April 27, 2021. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

For most of his time as prime minister, Trudeau had an immigration policy focused on growing Canada’s population and portraying the country as very welcoming for asylum-seekers.

In the United States, on Jan. 27, 2017, shortly after taking office in his first term, President Donald Trump implemented a temporary travel ban on foreign nationals from countries like Iraq, Yemen, and Syria. The following day, Trudeau tweeted: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.”

The number of asylum claimants processed by the border agency skyrocketed from slightly over 10,000 in 2016 to nearly 28,000 in the 2018 calendar year. Canada’s population also broke records in 2023 by growing at the fastest rate since 1957.

With housing becoming unaffordable for many Canadians and services being impacted in some provinces, the Trudeau government began making changes to its immigration policies in 2024. This included reducing the number of foreign students, tightening foreign workers’ programs, and revising target levels for new permanent residents. For example, Ottawa had initially planned to admit 500,000 new permanent residents in 2025, but subsequently revised it to 395,000.

Carney has not emphasized the immigration issue during the leadership race or in the election campaign. He said at the start of the campaign that the caps put in place by his predecessor need to remain in place until housing has expanded.

“There’s not a predetermined point where one would remove or adjust those caps,” he said on March 23.

During the French-language leaders’ debate on April 16, Carney said he would cap immigration “for a couple of years” to allow the country to build more capacity before welcoming more newcomers to Canada.

Carney has often said that Canada is a “mosaic” and that it values diversity in comparison to the United States. He is also being advised on U.S. relations by Mark Wiseman, the co-founder of the Century Initiative which advocates increasing Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100. Amid criticism by the Conservatives, he has said Wisemand won’t be involved in immigration issues.

Public Safety

A restricted gun licence holder holds a AR-15 at his home in Langley, B.C., on May 1, 2020. The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward

One of the key criminal justice policies of the Trudeau era was to remove mandatory minimum sentencing for a number of drug- and firearm-related offences such as robbery and extortion with a firearm. The measure was presented as a means to reduce the proportion of black and indigenous people in prisons.

This objective is also present in the new bail rules enacted by Bill C-75, which instructs judges to release the accused as early as possible under the least onerous conditions and to give particular attention to individuals from overrepresented populations in the criminal justice system, such as indigenous.

Calls for bail reform grew increasingly stronger after Ontario Provincial Police officer Greg Pierzchala was killed on duty in late 2022 by Randall McKenzie, a violent offender out on bail. The judge who granted McKenzie’s release six months previously had noted his indigenous status in his decision to set him free.

The Liberal government responded by tabling Bill C-48, which created a reverse onus provision for persons charged with a serious offence involving violence who have been convicted in the previous five years of a similar offence. The bill received royal assent in December 2023.

Bill C-48 also amended the Criminal Code to require the court to record how it determines whether the accused belongs to a “vulnerable population” and how these circumstances were considered.

The Trudeau government had worked to further inject racial factors into how the justice system operates by developing a Black Justice Strategy to “address anti-Black racism and systemic discrimination that has led to the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system.” The strategy is currently in its implementation phase.

The Trudeau government also had a strong gun control agenda, beginning with the banning through regulation of hundreds of non-restricted rifles in 2020. This regime was reinforced throughout the years by adding more models to the prohibited list, and with Bill C-21 now banning essentially all new semi-automatic rifles. A buyback program is now underway for retailers, and is set to impact individuals this spring. However, Ottawa hasn’t yet determined who will collect the guns from individual owners. Liberals also froze the transfer of handguns through C-21.

On narcotics, the Trudeau Liberals have supported “safer supply” by providing prescribed medications to those at risk of overdose from substances like synthetic opioids. This has resulted in some of the drugs being diverted to organized criminals. Trudeau also supported the pilot project in British Columbia to decriminalize hard drugs beginning Jan. 31, 2023. The province subsequently asked for recriminalization in public spaces last year as it dealt with open drug use and public safety concerns.

Carney unveiled his public safety platform on April 10 that continues to build on Trudeau’s gun control policies. It promises to “implement an efficient gun-buyback program for assault-style firearms,” toughen firearms licensing, and strengthen the enforcement of “yellow flag” and “red flag” requirements by bolstering the capacity of the authorities to remove firearms from dangerous situations. Yellow flag refers to licence revocation and red flag refers to weapons prohibition.

The Liberals have also pledged to make bail laws stricter for violent and organized crime, human trafficking, home invasion, and car theft. They say they will also issue tougher sentencing guidelines for courts to handle repeat offenders of car theft, violent offences, and offences linked to organized crime.

Foreign Policy

Prime Minister Mark Carney (L) speaks with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on March 17, 2025. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Some of the noteworthy foreign policy stances under Trudeau included providing strong support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and dropping Canada’s traditional support for Israel at the United Nations over concerns related to Ottawa’s long-standing support for the creation of a Palestinian state that would peacefully exist alongside Israel.

Trudeau had also built close ties to the European Union and its member states.

Carney has not signalled so far that he would change his approach in those regards. Building stronger ties to Europe is also a focus for Carney due to the Trump administration’s tariffs imposed on Canada.

Canada also had a self-described “feminist” international aid foreign policy under the Trudeau government, with a focus on promoting gender equality and access to abortion.

Carney said he will soon make an announcement on foreign policy and that it won’t involve making cuts to foreign aid. He said Canada should lead in this field and ensure the country plays the role it “always has, which is to be generous and to be effective in our support of those who are most vulnerable around the world.”

During the French-language leaders’ debate on April 16, Carney said the Liberal government recently provided $100 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza, and that he would maintain funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), the U.N. agency mandated to oversee help distribution to Gaza and other parts of the region. The agency recently terminated nine employees who were investigated for taking part in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.

Carney has said that Hamas should return the Israeli hostages and has stressed the need for a ceasefire in the conflict. He has also noted that the Liberal government has prohibited Canadian-made weapons from reaching the Gaza strip.

“We are in a situation where we need to have an immediate ceasefire. We need to have all the hostages returned, and we need to resume humanitarian aid to Gaza,” Carney said.

Defence

A Canadian soldier at Garrison Petawawa in Petawawa, Ont., on Oct. 19, 2023. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Back in April last year, the Trudeau government did not release a plan to meet the NATO guideline on defence spending of 2 percent of GDP. Ottawa’s defence policy update at that time said it would spend 1.76 percent of GDP by fiscal 2029–2030. Facing increasing pressure, Trudeau said during the NATO summit in the U.S. capital in July 2024 that Canada would meet the 2 percent by 2032.

Since then, in January this year, Defence Minister Bill Blair has said the target could be hit as soon as 2027. Carney has not been as optimistic on the campaign trail. In March, he said he aims to reach the NATO benchmark by 2030 at the latest. Part of that would likely be achieved by putting the Coast Guard budget under defence expenditures, as Carney pledged.

Carney has made two defence-related announcements so far, with broad-stroke promises about increasing the number of troops in the military as it faces a personnel crisis, and about better equipping the troops. Plans from the previous government to build or purchase new ships and submarines remain.

Carney this month proposed overhauling defence procurement by creating a Defence Procurement Agency, in a bid to centralize and streamline the acquisition process, which has been known to be plagued by delays.

Cultural Issues and Public Positions

The CBC building in Toronto in a file photo. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Trudeau, in his last speech on March 9 before handing the Liberal Party to Carney, said that the party is a “progressive” one. The former prime minister had acted that way during his mandates, using public remarks and policies to advance a variety of causes from climate change to gun control, from gender equality to access to sex-change surgeries for minors.

Trudeau appointed a minister of diversity, and the federal government not only celebrated a Pride day, week or month but named the entire summer as “Pride season.” This advocacy was supported by million-dollar spending to support organizations in that field.

Climate change also became an area of concern for organizations like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which has a core mandate to counter terrorism, espionage, and foreign interference. The Public Health Agency of Canada also declared climate change as the “largest health threat” facing humanity.

Carney has not put emphasis on campaigning on social or climate issues, and his first cabinet does not include a minister of diversity. The portfolio was transferred from Heritage Canada to Women and Gender Equality in 2021, and is now overseen by Canadian Culture and Identity Minister Steven Guilbeault, which has branches such as a 2SLGBTQI+ Secretariat.

Carney remains a strong advocate of net-zero policies and also intends to take Trudeau’s gun control agenda steps further by implementing stricter licensing and Criminal Code provisions around yellow and red flag laws.

In light of Trudeau’s comment about the Liberal Party being the party of progressives, Carney was asked by reporters whether he identifies as such.

“I believe in progress,” he said on April 7. “I recognize injustice that still exists in our society, of all forms, and we need to strive every day to make progress on that.”

Asked by reporters to comment on Alberta’s new laws preventing minors under 16 from undergoing sex change or denying biological males the ability to compete in female sports, Carney said that Canada is a “mosaic.”

“We are all Canadians, but we all have different identities and distinctions,” he said on April 9, adding that his government will defend the rights of everyone.

During a press conference following the French-language leaders’ debate on April 16, when asked “how many genders are there,” Carney responded, “in terms of sex, there are two.” He was also asked whether he believes that “biological women have the right to their own spaces.”

Carney said, “This is Canada, and that, as a general objective, yes. But we work in where we value all Canadians for who they are, and we'll continue to do so.”

On the issue of the public broadcaster, Carney has pledged to increase the funding of CBC by an initial $150 million. The organization’s mandate would also be reviewed so that it takes part in countering disinformation.

This issue of countering misinformation and disinformation was often raised by Trudeau. His government also twice attempted to pass legislation to censor the internet. The latest attempt, Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, perished when Parliament was prorogued in early January.

Carney has pledged he would bring back the aspects of Bill C-63 related to countering child exploitation online, and he has also hinted he would go after online speech deemed harmful. During a rally in Hamilton on April 10, he accused large American websites of harbouring “seas of racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and hate in all its forms.” He said a Liberal government would take action.