Carney reflects on jump into politics at an 'important time' in year-end interview

With the final days of 2025 rapidly falling to the wayside, Canadians are likely taking stock of the last 12 months.

The past year has seen some rapid changes on the political scene — most notably in the prime minister's chair.

At this time in 2024, Justin Trudeau was still mulling whether to stay on or step aside.

His ultimate decision to resign paved the way for Mark Carney to take the helm of the Liberal Party and country, later securing his role as prime minister in April's election.

In a year-end interview with CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton, Carney touched on a number of topics — including his entry into electoral politics.

Here are seven key subjects the prime minister addressed.

Since becoming prime minister, Carney has walked back a number of key environmental policies introduced by his predecessor.

He suspended the consumer carbon tax on his first day in office and then later paused the electric vehicle sales mandate. He also promised to suspend the proposed federal oil and gas emissions cap and remove Alberta's requirements under the Clean Electricity Regulations as part of the recent agreement struck with Premier Danielle Smith.

Prior to joining electoral politics, Carney had touted the need to take climate action. He previously supported a consumer price on carbon (though said the policy had become too divisive before scrapping it).

Carney also helped create an international green banking alliance as the UN special envoy on climate action and finance. That alliance shut down this year.

As prime minister, Carney insists he is still focused on curbing climate change.

"I'm the same person," he said. "Because I care about the issue fundamentally, I care what gets done — not what is put in regulation, not what is said, not what is prohibited," he said.

Environment and Climate Change Canada released a report last week that shows Canada will fall well short of its 2030 climate goal — just halfway to its target of a 40 to 45 per cent reduction below 2005 levels.

After Carney pulled back on some policies, Canada is on track to reduce its emissions by 21 per cent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade, according to the report.