Prime Minister Mark Carney tries to turn the page

There were far fewer hugs than in 2015. 

The 23rd prime minister was a hugger — possibly the huggiest in Canadian history. The 24th prefers a firm handshake, with his left hand on the other person's elbow. Each of Mark Carney's 23 ministers received some version of that greeting after they had sworn their oaths.

Carney is very apparently a different sort of person. In the limited space of his first day as prime minister — and with an election maybe just more than a week away — he could at least try to signal change.

"Canada's new government is changing how we work so we can deliver better results faster to all Canadians," Carney said. "We have new ministers with new ideas ready to respond to new threats and to seize new opportunities."

There was no parade down the driveway of Rideau Hall and there were merely two dozen ministers to swear in — seven fewer than Justin Trudeau's first cabinet in 2015 and 15 fewer than Trudeau's last cabinet. Eighteen Liberal MPs who woke up as ministers on Friday morning were not included in the ministry that Carney recommended to the Governor General.

"Canada's new government will be action-oriented, driven by a smaller but highly experienced team, made to meet the moment we are in," Carney boasted.

Chrystia Freeland, the quintessential Trudeau Liberal who was deputy prime minister and finance minister before she quit spectacularly in December, is back in cabinet — but only as transport minister. Steven Guilbeault, the celebrated environmentalist who became the face of Trudeau's climate agenda, is now the minister for heritage, restyled as "Canadian culture and identity" (perhaps to convey that such things are currently in need of protection).

Marc Miller, Trudeau's childhood friend who had become a prominent minister, was dropped from cabinet entirely.

The move to a smaller cabinet — if Carney sticks with it — could have ramifications for the way the government operates. And if this cabinet — or some version of it — actually gets a chance to truly govern after the next election, there will be more to discuss. But on Friday there were mostly surface-level details to debate.

Speaking to reporters, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh noted that the words "women," "youth" and "diversity" do not appear in the job titles of any of Carney's ministers — and the minister of labour is now the minister of "jobs." Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet questioned why "official languages" are not mentioned either. 

Such changes might say something about the Carney government's priorities — but that might only become clear when the Liberals release an election platform.

It will also be noted that Alberta, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island are without representation in cabinet. Such are the challenges of building a cabinet in a representative democracy.

Poilievre's larger argument was that Carney's arrival changes nothing. The Conservative leader has taken to emphasizing that the Liberals are running for a fourth term — sometimes holding up four fingers to accentuate the point. 

"It's the same Liberal gang with the same Liberal agenda, the same Liberal results and the same Liberal promise of the last 10 years," Poilievre said in his response to the new cabinet.