Prime Minister Mark Carney, who does not yet have a mandate from Canadians nor a seat in Canada’s suspended Parliament, has burned approximately 242,250 litres of jet fuel on a European networking tour with his wife at a cost of $296,514, not including the total aircraft operating cost of $476,000.
The trip released around 612 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Carney is a strong proponent of net-zero and climate change ideology. In a March interview on CTV’s Power Play, when asked about oil and gas investments, he responded, “Companies must have business plans that are consistent with the transition to net zero.”
Carney and his wife, Diana Fox Carney, embarked on their first foreign trip from this week, choosing Europe over the traditional first stop of the United States amid tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump over trade and sovereignty issues.
Carney arrived in Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace. Their discussions are said to have focused on shared values, economic cooperation, and deepening security ties, with Carney calling Canada “the most European of non-European countries” and Macron emphasizing fair trade over tariffs.
Carney also visited the restored Notre-Dame Cathedral during his Paris stop.
Later that day, he travelled to London, where he had an audience with King Charles III, Canada’s head of state, at Buckingham Palace.
Despite Carney’s unelected status and no call for a federal election, the meeting is said to have carried symbolic weight, with Charles having recently expressed support for Canada’s identity in the wake of Trump aggression.
Carney then met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street, discussing security, trade, and their nations’ alliance as “two sovereign allies.”
The trip concluded on Tuesday with a stop in Iqaluit, Nunavut, to reaffirm Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.
