Mark Carney tries to turn the page on Justin Trudeau during parliamentary debut

As a packed press gallery watched, there was a buzz of anticipation in the air.

Yet, as it often does on what everyone expects to be a dramatic day, the buzz soon fizzled.

MPs settled back into a familiar routine, heckling resumed, and Prime Minister Mark Carney turned the page on the Justin Trudeau era in the Commons.

Fresh off steering a Liberal government comeback, Carney ditched a U.K. parliamentary custom Trudeau had adopted of being the only one in government to parry the thrust of all Opposition questions on Wednesdays.

For all his love of all things British (the Oxford graduate quotes Winston Churchill, ran England’s central bank, married a Brit, and seems to revel in the monarchy), Carney tossed the British PMQ — prime minister’s question time — and reverted to the custom of previous governments under Stephen Harper, Paul Martin, Jean Chrétien: he will reply to Opposition party leaders only, leaving his cabinet ministers to take questions lobbed by other MPs.

It seemed both a big and a small thing.

For one, it didn’t put Carney on the hot seat for long.

He answered just nine questions from Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer and a francophone colleague, who stood in for the defeated leader Poilievre, and from Bloc Québécois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet. Carney appeared to enjoy himself, smiling as he took a jab at Blanchet for boycotting the throne speech by King Charles, after the BQ leader dismissed the monarch as a “foreign sovereign,” before leaving cabinet ministers to take the rest of the queries.

It freed up the prime minister to scuttle out early. Carney didn’t stick around for the only NDP question from Don Davies, interim leader of a party that no longer has official party status, exiting the chamber after only 33 minutes, more than 20 minutes before question period ended. 

In distinct other ways, a source told the Star, Carney is moving on from the Trudeau days.

Ministers and MPs have been told they cannot refer to Trudeau-era accomplishments when providing answers during question period, said a source who spoke to the Star on the condition they not be named.

But there are exceptions to that new rule: commitments related to dental care, pharmacare and child care can be mentioned because the Carney government has pledged to maintain those policies. 

In his first question period, Carney didn’t mention any achievements of the past government. In fact, the prime minister took pains to underline that his was “Canada’s new government.”

Scheer had framed question period — the daily accountability test — as if it were a noble exercise, telling Carney, “This is where democracy lives and this is where we provide rigorous scrutiny on every word he says and every dollar he spends on behalf of Canadians.”

However it soon devolved into its usual partisan, and somewhat pedestrian, exercise. Scheer proceeded to lead the Conservative charge that Carney had been “dishonest” during the election, and would need to borrow, tax or “print” new money to cover a shortfall in government revenues to manage Trump’s tariff war.

As Carney uttered his first answer, a Conservative MP across the aisle heckled drolly: “Time!” As in, the 35 seconds the prime minister had to answer was up.

Carney grinned and pressed on, quipping he didn’t expect to be accorded the same grace period the new Commons Speaker refereeing debates would be granted, and went on to defend his counter-tariff plan against the “unjustified” American tariffs.

“He didn’t take long to pick up old Liberal habits of not being able to answer questions,” Scheer said as he launched into familiar Conservative criticisms of the Liberal record.

Others followed suit, accusing the Carney government of failing its duty to present a spring budget, and failing Canadians in myriad other ways.

Carney claimed that “Canada’s new government” will act swiftly on his plan to grow the economy, build “nation-building projects” and eliminate internal trade barriers.

His finance minister remarked the Conservatives “haven’t changed.”

“Neither have you,” they heckled back. “Same old, same old.”

Suddenly it felt as if no time had passed, though more than five months have lapsed since the Commons last sat in December, after a fall in which little legislative business was finished due to a Conservative filibuster.

Watching from the public gallery, Mayor Olivia Chow, a former NDP MP, said she saw “a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of hope, and let’s get going.”

Rookie MPs thanked their constituents for sending them to Ottawa. Conservative MP Andrew Lawton, official biographer of the absent Poilievre, got help to straighten his tie, while Poilievre watched QP from his office upstairs in West Block, after admitting he wished he was on the inside. ”I’ve never really been a spectator of the House,” Poilievre said. “But I’m going to work hard to earn the opportunity to do it again.”

Ironically it was another Liberal MP — not the rookie prime minister — who won the loudest and longest applause after rising to his feet to make maiden remarks in the Commons on this day.

Liberal Bruce Fanjoy, the giant-killer who defeated Poilievre in the suburban riding of Carleton, won a 20-second standing ovation from the Liberal caucus.

Even some Conservatives appeared to inadvertently applaud. Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman was seen clapping before colleague Jasraj Singh Hallan leaned over and said something in her ear, and she stopped.

Carney was the last to his feet to applaud Fanjoy, the MP who had made the prime minister’s political debut in Parliament undoubtedly easier.

With a file from Raisa Patel