Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has not had any conversations with anyone from the other federal parties about crossing the floor in order to help the Liberals form a majority government, a metric the party is now just two seats shy of.
In an exclusive interview with CTV News’ Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos, his first broadcast interview since winning the 2025 federal election, Carney gave an unequivocal “no” when asked about chasing floor-crossers.
It was the most explicit the prime minster has been about the prospect, after fielding a series of questions during his post-cabinet press conference on Tuesday.
When asked at Rideau Hall about trying to woo Conservative, Bloc Quebecois, NDP or Green members of Parliament — given the Liberals have a 170-seat minority that could be shifted to a majority if the party held 172 seats — Carney would only say he’s committed to working with opposition parliamentarians to move his agenda forward.
Carney on talking to Poilievre, Scheer
In the interview, Carney also confirmed that he spoke with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre immediately after the election.
“He congratulated me, and I signalled to him that if he was, as he is, seeking a byelection, I would call it as soon as I’m allowed to do that. So that’s the conversation that we’ve had,” he said.
But, given Poilievre is not currently the Official Opposition leader as he’s seatless, the prime minister indicated that he anticipates any conversations “in the near-term” would be with Andrew Scheer, as his government needs to solicit support in parliament or navigate cross-partisan issues.
In recent media interviews, interim NDP leader Don Davies has suggested Liberals were making overtures to the newly shrunken caucus of seven. If that is the case, according to Carney, he is not involved.
‘We have more votes than anyone else’
In the interview with Kapelos, Carney emphasized how he feels he’s heading into this new Parliament with “a clear mandate,” after being asked directly by CTV News at his earlier media availability if Canadians should expect him to govern as if he has a majority.
“We just had an election… 19 million Canadians voted. More Canadians voted for a political party, the Liberal Party, than ever before. We have more votes than anyone else. We have majorities in seven of the 10 provinces. We have the most seats in Parliament,” Carney told Kapelos.
“We ran on a very clear platform of change. Canadians, the majority of — more Canadians chose that platform of change than anybody else’s,” Carney said he now feels he has the responsibility to “deliver that change.”
“And Canadians will judge the change that they receive… I’ll do what’s necessary with the people I have around the table in order to deliver that.”
