{"id":638744,"date":"2026-04-30T14:49:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638744\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:49:18","slug":"carney-to-appoint-jonathan-wilkinson-as-eu-ambassador-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638744\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney to appoint Jonathan Wilkinson as EU ambassador, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The appointment of Jonathan Wilkinson as the ambassador to the European Union will not affect the recent Liberal majority.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney will appoint member of Parliament and former Trudeau cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson as ambassador to the European Union Thursday. <\/p>\n

The Prime Minister\u2019s Office said in a statement that Mr. Wilkinson \u201cbrings three decades of experience at the intersection of public policy, technology, and international economic engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appointment will not affect the recent Liberal majority, which was achieved after five opposition MP\u2019s crossed the floor and the government won three by-elections.<\/p>\n

The Liberals will have 173 seats when Mr. Wilkinson leaves compared with 140 Conservatives, 22 Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, 5 NDP and one Green MP. There is one vacancy after Quebec New Democrat Alexandre Boulerice announced this week that he was leaving to enter provincial politics. <\/p>\n

The governing Liberals stand a good chance of holding on to Mr. Wilkinson\u2019s North Vancouver-Capilano riding. He has held the riding since 2015.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wilkinson was regarded as a competent minister as Justin Trudeau\u2019s natural resources minister. But he was dropped along with former defence minister Bill Blair, now serving as high commissioner in London.<\/p>\n

In a statement Thursday, Mr. Wilkinson said he is looking forward to the challenge of serving in Brussels and expanding trade ties in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world has changed in fundamental ways, and Canada faces new economic, geopolitical and environmental tests. Our closest trading relationship has become less predictable, and we are being called to build greater resilience in our economy and alliances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The EU envoy\u2019s role takes on greater weight as Mr. Carney seeks closer diplomatic, economic and military ties to Europe. <\/p>\n

The Prime Minister accepted a rare invitation to attend this weekend\u2019s summit of the European Political Community in Armenia. <\/p>\n

He will be in the country\u2019s capital of Yerevan from Saturday to Monday. It is the first time a non-European leader has taken part in this summit. <\/p>\n

Europe created the twice annual summits after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

In a press release, Mr. Carney\u2019s office said the European talks will focus on Ukraine and collective defence but also \u201cCanada as a premier destination for global capital and investments \u2013 including critical minerals, energy, defence and advanced technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the NDP will have four seats upon the departure of Alexandre Boulerice. The party will have five seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The appointment of Jonathan Wilkinson as the ambassador to the European Union will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-638744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}