News Analysis
King Charles III delivered the speech from the throne on May 27 to outline the new government’s agenda. With a strong focus on the economy, the speech marked a break from that of the previous government under Justin Trudeau in some key areas.
The last throne speech was delivered in 2021, during the uncertainty caused by COVID-19, while in 2025, the speech was influenced by rapidly changing international trade dynamics. In both cases, minority Liberal governments promised big spending, but the tone and content have changed significantly.
Timing and Context
The King read the speech with Queen Camilla by his side in the Senate building on May 27, during a rare visit to Canada. The last royal visit, by late monarch Queen Elizabeth II, was in 2010. It was also the first time a monarch read the throne speech since 1977.
King Charles’s visit came after a federal election campaign marked by the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump, with his tariffs and comments about absorbing Canada stoking nationalism.
Prime Minister Mark Carney ran on a platform heavily focused on Trump, positioning himself as the best person to navigate the challenges posed by the U.S. president. Carney managed to win another minority government, after the Liberals were facing obliteration in the polls in late 2024.
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The speech read by the King made references to the issue of national pride.
“I join you here today as we witness Canadians coming together in a renewed sense of national pride, unity, and hope,” King Charles said at the beginning of his address.
Echoing Carney’s election campaign, the speech said Canada is facing challenges that are “unprecedented in our lifetimes.”
While saying that Canadians are feeling “anxious” about the change happening around them, the speech said the situation presents an “incredible” opportunity for “renewal.”
The speech said it’s an “opportunity for Canada to embark on the largest transformation of its economy since the Second World War.”
Building the Economy
The call to build Canada’s economy was the centrepiece of the speech outlining the government’s agenda.
“The government’s overarching goal, its core mission, is to build the strongest economy in the G7,” read the King.
Carney had repeatedly said this was his intention during the election campaign, and the speech from the throne outlined some of his pledges.
Those included taking down the federal portions of internal trade barriers by introducing related legislation by Canada Day. Carney had also promised to launch “nation-building” projects to diversify markets and boost growth.
“Given the pace of change and the scale of opportunities, speed is of the essence,” read the King. The Liberals will create a new office of major federal projects to speed up approvals, “while upholding Canada’s world-leading environmental standards and its constitutional obligations to indigenous peoples.”
The speech also reiterated Carney’s desire to make Canada an “energy superpower” in both “clean and conventional energy.”
Messaging so far by the prime minister and his energy minister, Tim Hodgson, have signalled am different approach from that of the previous government toward oil and gas, Canada’s highest-value export. The Conservatives, however, say concrete proposals and plans on the matter have yet to be announced by the government, while both the federal Tories and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have demanded Ottawa end key legislation impacting the oil and gas sector such as the Impact Assessment Act.
“We did see a lot of the right slogans and political talking points but no clear plans to get it done,” said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in reaction to the throne speech.
“We saw promises about getting things built, but no mention of oil and gas or pipelines.”
Differences on Climate Policies, Progressive Issues Compared to Last Throne Speech
The mention of “conventional” energy in the Carney government’s speech, an apparent reference to the oil and gas sector, is a key difference from Trudeau’s last throne speech.
Carney has also had a strong focus on climate issues, previously serving as the U.N. Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, but the issue did not feature prominently in the government’s throne speech read by the King. Climate change was mentioned twice in the speech. The mentions weren’t accompanied by any policy proposals.
In general, and similar to his single mandate letter to his ministers, the Carney government didn’t put emphasis on using as much progressive themes and language in the speech from the throne as did the Trudeau government.
The Trudeau government’s speech in 2021 had said that “fighting systemic racism, sexism, discrimination, misconduct, and abuse, including in our core institutions, will remain a key priority.”
By comparison, overall, the Carney government’s speech was more focused around the issue of economy.
Some Overlap on Indigenous Issues Compared to Last Throne Speech
A similarity between the throne speeches from the Carney government and the Trudeau government was the presence of a land acknowledgement. It carried more symbolic weight this time, coming from the monarch himself, and not his representative in the governor general.
“This land acknowledgement is a recognition of shared history as a nation,” the King said, noting his presence on the “unceded territory of the Algonquin and the Anishinabe people.”
The speech contained multiple references to indigenous peoples, about partnering with them and upholding Canada’s constitutional obligations, but the tone was markedly different from that in 2021.
At the time, some First Nations had made announcements about discovering unmarked graves of children near former residential schools. Some of the sites have since been excavated, but no human remains have been confirmed so far.
The federal government at the time had responded by placing flags at half-mast for several months.
“We cannot hide from these discoveries; they open deep wounds,” said the 2021 speech from the throne.
Addressing Fiscal Discipline
Housing was also an area that was discussed in this year’s speech from the throne. Carney previously said he entered politics to help with housing affordability and the cost-of-living crisis. He has pledged, like his predecessor, to increase the housing stock, with some new ideas including the involvement of the federal government in home building.
“The government will drive supply up to bring housing costs down,” read the King.
Nonetheless, the Carney government’s speech from the throne has promised more fiscal discipline compared to before. This was the last theme mentioned in the speech.
The King read that the government’s operating budget would be balanced within three years by “cutting waste, capping the public service, ending duplication, and deploying technology to improve public sector productivity.”
“The scale of the government’s initiative will match the challenges of our times and the ambitions of Canadians,” concluded the King.
The Liberal government had earlier said that it won’t be tabling a spring budget, as is normally done, and will instead table one in the fall, and that the speech from the throne will make its agenda clear.
The Conservatives have been critical of the Liberals for not tabling the budget at this time, saying the government needs to present Canadians with a clear plan.
Poilievre said that there were no specifics offered in the throne speech on how the government was going to “roll back the morbidly obese Liberal government’s costs.”
“No specific plans to get anything done, even though, as the prime minister has said, we are in a crisis to break our dependence on the American economy,” Poilievre said.
