Throne speech to lay out Liberal priorities in new Parliament

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be spelling out his government’s key priorities and commitments for his third mandate in a speech from the throne today. Expected to focus on the Liberals' election platform commitments, the speech will be delivered by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon in the Senate chamber.

Expected to focus on the Liberals’ election platform commitments, the speech will be delivered by Gov. Gen. Mary May Simon in the Senate chamber. It’s the first time Canada’s first Indigenous governor general will be reading a throne speech.

“It’s going to be a good speech,” Trudeau told reporters briefly on his way into a cabinet meeting on the Hill Tuesday morning.

Many of the key issues facing parliamentarians in 2021 are the same as those that the previous Parliament was occupied with, and are expected to be noted in today’s address: the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and proper health and economic responses to it, affordability, Indigenous reconciliation, and climate change.

After thrusting the country into a pandemic election campaign in hopes of a third term under majority rule, and receiving instead a second minority, Trudeau said the message voters sent was to get “back to work.”